Deadmau5 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre

The real name of Deadmau5 is Joel Thomas Zimmerman. This Canadian electronic music producer and DJ has made his claim to fame and has been nominated six times for Grammy Awards.

He has collaborated with a number of DJs and producers, including Rob Swire, Chris Lake, Wolfgang Gartner, and Kaskade. He was a member of the ensemble WTF with Steve Duda, Tommy Lee, and DJ Aero and worked with Steve Duda under BSOD (Better Sounding On Drugs). He established Mau5trap, his own record label, in 2007. Deadmau5, a masked musician like Marshmello and Daft Punk, is presently among the highest-paid electronic music producers in the world.

Zimmerman has been nominated for six Grammy Awards and one World Music Award in addition to winning five Beatport Music Awards, four DJ Awards, three International Dance Music Awards (IDMA), and three Juno Awards. He has gotten 42 nominations and won 15 competitive awards overall in his career to date.

Story behind the name

Zimmerman's father says that while his son was in his early teens, he was using his computer to talk to a friend when it suddenly shut off. Zimmerman’s father claimed it smelled like burned wire and was otherwise peculiar. As Zimmerman began to disassemble his computer, he discovered a dead mouse. Friends started calling Zimmerman the "dead mouse guy" at that point. He attempted to use the moniker "Deadmouse" in an internet chat room, but it was too long, so he abbreviated it to "Deadmau5". The German word for "mouse," "maus," is pronounced similarly to the English word. He then switched the ‘s’ to a ‘5.’

The original "mau5head" logo was designed by Zimmerman during his training in 3D modeling software. It can be found on the cover art of the majority of his albums and comes in a variety of colors and patterns. One of his friends, Jay Gordon from the industrial metal band Orgy, gave him the idea to wear a helmet based his emblem. Zimmerman stated in a CBC Television interview that he wants his logo to become a "icon". When Deadmau5 performs, fans frequently show up wearing their own versions of the mau5head.

In 2002, he built his own website, started creating under the moniker "Deadmau5", and uploaded songs to SectionZ.