'I don't really enjoy dance music': deadmau5 on becoming an accidental EDM superstar

Joel Zimmerman, better known as deadmau5, never had dreams of becoming one of the world's most influential EDM artists — all he ever really wanted was to be a studio engineer. For him, the technical aspects of EDM were far more interesting than the music itself.

"I don't really enjoy dance music," the Canadian producer and DJ tells Q's Tom Power. "I don't partake. I don't pump it in my car…. I love the process of making it. I like the technical challenges. I like sonic development."

Last week, Zimmerman was inducted into Canadian Music Week's Music Industry Hall of Fame, which recognizes his 25-year career in music. He's now on a new tour called retro5pective: 25yrs of deadmau5. And though he's not typically one to look back, he explains that his EDM career sort of happened by accident.

Tears for Fears makes an impression

When Zimmerman was eight or nine, his father came home with a hulking new CD player. His dad wasn't much of a music guy, but he picked out some CDs to play, including Steely Dan, Tears for Fears and Bryan Adams. 

"The one that really appealed to me was the Tears for Fears one," Zimmerman says. "There was so much accompaniment to it that just wasn't somebody beating on a drum or playing a guitar or a keyboard or something like that. There's always just some underlying machine behind it."

Zimmerman soon learned that what he was hearing were things like synthesizers and drum machines. Due to growing up in the pre-internet age, he couldn't find these machines at his local electronics store, but he was able to play around with making music by using his Atari ST. Still, it was more of a tech experiment than an artistic venture.

"This was at a time when computers were not capable of recording music," Zimmerman says. "So much has changed for electronic music."

Becoming deadmau5

In the '90s and early 2000s, dance music became more popular and started playing on the radio, with studios in Canada taking notice.

I wasn't having these dreams of being a DJ or a producer or a creative. I wanted to be just in the rear with the gear.- deadmau5

Around this time, Zimmerman had been working at a recording studio in Niagara Falls, Ont. He told his boss he could build a computer for the studio to record and produce dance music. After that, word got around that he was the "kid" to call for this kind of work, whether it be building or updating computers.

"I thought, 'Wow, what a really great thing to pursue a career in, working in a studio,'" Zimmerman says. "I wasn't having these dreams of being a DJ or a producer or a creative. I wanted to be just in the rear with the gear."

But Zimmerman also created his own proto-electronic music and would perform it around Niagara Falls at city events or at his high school talent show, where he performed a cover of a Nine Inch Nails song. 

"It was just confusion and kind of like, 'What's he doing? But it's cool. But I just don't get it,'" he remembers about people's reaction to his sets.

Eventually, deadmau5 became his musical persona. Pete Tong on BBC's Radio 1 would play his music. In 2004, Zimmerman performed his first deadmau5 show in Halifax, wearing his iconic mouse helmet (that he now says he "hates" because it's hot and heavy). 

'What else is there?'

Since the early 2000s, deadmau5 has become a bonafide EDM superstar. He was on the June 2012 issue of Rolling Stone, has been nominated for seven Grammys and tours all over the world (he's about to go to South Korea). 

But the fame, the money and the music are "normal" to Zimmerman. 

"It's all very slow," he says. "I hate to say it, but it was earned over time."

He says he plans to keep going with his music career because he still wants to keep exploring new technologies. Plus, he knows how to do it. 

"What else is there?" he says. "I've totally missed the boat on developing a real skill."

The full interview with deadmau5 is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with deadmau5 produced by Vanessa Nigro.