Finding globe-sweeping success in the late ’00s, deadmau5 played a pivotal role in pushing electronic sounds into the US mainstream, becoming one of the world’s highest-played and highest-paid electronic artists in the process. Grammy nominations, platinum records and world tours eventually followed, as the producer courted planet-wide adoration and controversy in equal measure over the next decade.
Fast forward to 2022, and deadmau5 remains as influential as ever, and no less exploratory: continuing to produce electrifying singles that reimagine progressive house with each release, he’s nurtured the careers of like-minded artists through his label, mau5trap, and entered into the software world with the development of OSC/PILOT, an innovative performance tool for electronic artists.
For a man who’s notoriously averse to interviews, we find mouse-headed super-producer deadmau5 in a relatively good mood. Speaking to us, sans headgear and cigarette in hand, from his home in Ontario, Joel Zimmerman seemed content to spend an expletive-sprinkled time talking shop, painting a picture of an artist equally excited by the technology used to create and perform music as the music itself.
Could you tell us about some of your favorite software tools?
I don’t know, man. I guess everyone was like ‘fuck it’ during the pandemic. Nothing really crazy has really advanced that far. To be honest, I feel like we’ve kind of ceiling-ed on music software. There’s a lot more of the same that’s come out, like… ‘oh hey, it’s a new reverb!’ Nothing’s really stood out. But then again, I haven’t really been looking.
So you think we’ve hit a wall in terms of advancements in music software?
Well, you can always do better, faster, more efficient. But in the realm of DSP, I almost feel like we’ve hit it all. It’s just a lot of the same. And I’m just like, waiting for a lot of things to get overhauled and done a different way. I’m seeing some new DAWs come out, and stuff like that. The ones that I’m liking the most are the ones that have a lot of really cool protocol control inside of them.
Ableton’s been cool, just because it’s 18 years in development, it’s nice and stable and all that stuff. And it’s
