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Born in Ontario, Canada a young Joel, who already showed a knack for electronics, began work in Animation and Web Design before eventually shifting to working on music, first experimenting with Chiptune sounds. He took on the moniker Deadmau5 after he found the body of a frozen rodent in a computer he had built.
He began building up a name through the independent dance site Beatport, eventually going on to release his debut album ‘Get Scraped’ in 2005. This helped to further his popularity until in 2007 he was able to found his own label ‘Mau5trap which, with the support of established dance superpowers ‘Ministry of Sound’ and ‘Ultra Records’ released 2008’s ‘Random Album Title’. Singles like ‘Move for Me’, a collaboration with American producer Kaskade gave Joel his first taste of chart success.
The follow up album, 2009’s ‘For Lack of a Better Name’ birthed some of Joel’s most popular material to date including ‘Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff’. He followed up the album with a tour on which he gave fans the unique opportunity of picking up a recording of the show on a USB flash drive as soon as the gig was over.
Unique touches like this have helped Deadmau5 to become one of the biggest names in dance music today and is a staple at EDM festivals. After signing with famed label ‘Astralwerks’ Deadmau5 might actually be in a position to challenge Mickey and become the most famous mouse in the world.
I had the pleasure of seeing a free Deadmau5 show in Miami at the Ice Palace. He was one of the first EDM artists I started listening to, but during my four years of going to concerts and festivals, I never had the chance to see him. He played at the Ice Palace in Miami as part of a deal for the Miami nightlife culture to prove that Miami was not full of a bunch of spoiled trustfund babies. He was scheduled to play a four hour non-stop set from 1AM to 5AM. It was mindblowing. Despite his obnoxious internet persona and loud-mouthed antics, he's still an incredible producer and knows how to put on a great show. With four hours to play, he was able to pull out all of the cards with music spanning the whole spectrum. In his normal fashion, he would craft long intros for songs, so that you'd be begging him to drop the first verse by the time it came, demonstrating his incredible control over the crowd. But it wasn't all EDM. Towards the end of the night, he dropped "Killing In the Name Of" by Rage Against the Machine, which made the crowd go wild. Songs like that are that extra piece of energy that set artists apart from mainstream EDM artists, especially considering how seamlessly he wove the song into a set full of dance music. As the night came to a close, I wasn't ready to leave, despite having 4 hours of non-stop deadmau5, the longest single-artist show I've ever seen before.