Once I caught up with deadmau5 (Joel Zimmerman) on a Tuesday afternoon in mid-August, it’s raining in Toronto and certainly one of his three cats, Peanut, goes slightly loopy with the thunderstorm exterior. Zimmerman has been within the basement, the place he’s been attempting to resolve a developer problem, earlier than he emerges to talk to us. “I’ve spent the final 16 hours redoing topology on a sure factor and I simply by no means wish to do it once more,” he explains, then rapidly quips, “nevertheless it’s for the larger good.” He’s engaged on one thing he can’t but totally disclose.
He hints at what he’s been as much as, and it’s going to be large. He’s anticipating Serj Tankian, finest referred to as the frontman of System of a Down, to drop by when he’s in Toronto quickly, so Serj could also be one of many first to know extra. The 2 might appear to be an odd pairing, however really, their kinship makes excellent sense. Every is incapable of placing on airs that match their fame. They usually each communicate and stay their fact, which typically has penalties within the press.
On today, Zimmerman doesn’t current as one of the crucial outstanding and influential figures in digital music and gaming. As an alternative, he seems to be a real, forthcoming man who likes to remain in his lanes of passions, which embrace gaming, creating music mixed with unprecedented stay experiences, and testing the boundaries of untapped expertise, reasonably than blindly adopting what exists.
Even after his April Coachella efficiency, the place deadmau5 was referred to as out for being intoxicated throughout his Testpilot B2B set with Zhu, he issued an Instagram apology with equal elements humility and attraction: “Man, even my cat is upset in me. Tho, it might be argued that she all the time has been. Sorry about final evening. lol. TO BE FAIR, I felt the three/4 was nice! Enormous shout out to @zhu for introducing me to whisky and carrying my dumb ass until the bitter finish. Lemme give up smoking, do some private resetting right here at residence, discover my spirit animal, work on some new music, and are available again higher. ;)”
As a music and expertise observer, it was laborious to overlook the influence of his three unprecedented stay Dice excursions between 2010 and 2020, the place he carried out inside a extremely stylized (proprietary) dice that synced motion and visuals to his music. Quick ahead to August 2025—his newest EP, Error5, got here out August 8 on his personal Mau5trap label. The discharge coincided with the DJ and producer being honored within the Fortnite sport with an Icon Sequence pores and skin. On the pores and skin, he proudly wears a shirt along with his beloved cat, Meowingtons, who handed away in 2023. The cat was a outstanding determine within the producer’s life, profession, and fanbase, usually showing in music movies, social media, and stay streams from his studio.
As if all that isn’t sufficient, deadmau5 has been chosen because the featured artist for the tenth anniversary launch of the favored automotive soccer online game Rocket League. Earlier artists featured within the Psyonix sport (acquired by Epic Video games in 2019), included Kaskade, Alan Walker, and Hatsune Miku. The music from deadmau5’s Error5 EP first appeared within the Rocket League launch August 5 previous to it being out there to music followers on streaming platforms August 8. Gamers within the sport might unlock entry to tracks through achievements in a limited-time occasion till August 20.
The brand new 4-track EP finds deadmau5 exploring uncharted territory within the extra melodic, upbeat sound of its final monitor, “What a Save.” The tune was really written a number of years again for Rocket League, which explains its slower, soundtrack really feel. The monitor identify stems from the favored macros utilized in gaming earlier than the chat characteristic was carried out. (Sure, there was a world with out chat.) “No Drawback” and “What a Save” had been constantly used to taunt rivals again within the day.
Zimmerman explains, “I’ve solely ever lent my skills and my model to issues that I largely take pleasure in, so video video games are actually a no brainer. I grew up enjoying video video games and nonetheless do. So, taking my music to video games was actually the best factor to do. I nonetheless play Rocket League. Nonetheless play PUBG. Nonetheless play Diablo. I’ve been mainstaying these three video games simply for about 10 years a chunk.”
If the sport is one thing he enjoys, he writes music for it.
“That’s the way it’s gone with all of the video games I’ve labored with,” he says. “The Rocket League connection got here up earlier than Epic acquired Psyonix. I reached out to the builders and stated, ‘This sport rocks,’ and so they stated, ‘Oh, we’re followers’. So, I stated, ‘Right here, have a game-ready asset mannequin of my Mousehead—simply throw it within the sport. I don’t care.’ They usually did. It was actually cool. All of them began like that—even Minecraft. I used to be speaking to the developer about 18 years in the past when the sport wasn’t even in North America. I stated, ‘Hey, this sport’s fairly cool,’ and he stated, ‘Yeah, I’ll make you a mouse factor.’ It’s nonetheless acquired my identify within the credit score even after the Microsoft acquisition.”
Modestly, Zimmerman claims to be “slightly little bit of a sport developer and modeler myself.” Meaning he’s fairly proficient at growing video games, as a result of Joel Zimmerman is incapable of doing issues midway. When requested what his excellent day is, he’s fast to reply, “Simply sitting at residence enjoying video video games. An ideal day for me is when Exile 2 lastly will get launched.”
Though deadmau5’s present contribution to Rocket League’s tenth anniversary is larger than that of Fortnite’s Icon Sequence pores and skin and accompanying bundle with a number of types, again bling, emotes, and extra, he’s equally pleased with each. The Rocket League LTE contains 13 challenges to unlock new deadmau5 music (referred to as Anthems), a Synth-Sonic Increase, and deadmau5 Decade Octane Decal, together with 11 objects impressed by deadmau5. Certainly one of his private favourite options is the mau5head topper on the Rocket League vehicles. Moreover, followers can get a McLaren 570S + deadmau5 Bundle alongside different synthesized additions such because the deadmau5 Ceaselessly Purpose Explosion within the sport store.
Deadmau5’s newest two gaming initiatives offered him with experiences he hadn’t had earlier than.For him, it was an evolution from merely giving freely game-ready property to builders. “Epic stepped in and so they’ve acquired some heavy hitting, AAA artists that may do a lot better modeling and texturing than I can. Similar with Fortnite, I couldn’t mannequin that in that fashion and texture. You want an artist for that and Epic video games has the most effective of the most effective.”
Past gaming, his present expertise obsession is with an organization in Amsterdam that’s utilizing an AI algorithmic course of for movement seize that’s marker-less. “That means you don’t need to have issues on you, you simply get in entrance of the digicam, and it tracks your skeleton,” he explains. “So I’m beginning to set that up. I really feel like AI is a model identify at this level, they’re all simply algorithms.” One other artist on the intersection of gaming, music, and the digital area that deadmau5 admires is Mick Gordon. “However he doesn’t have the model. He’s an all-around musician however his finest work was this Doom soundtrack. I’ve all the time wished to work with him on one thing actually nitty gritty.”
He’s presently engaged on Legend of Zelda’s ‘Breath of the Wild’ on his Change, which he nonetheless hasn’t accomplished but. “It’s in all probability essentially the most performed sport as a result of it’s the one I tackle the airplane and within the lodge,” he says. “It’s this lengthy sport the place there’s a billion issues to do and a billion issues to search out and I really feel like I’m 90% there.” He additionally reveals he’s engaged on a brand new full-length album.
When requested what the most important problem in his profession is now, he laughs and says, “Man, they’re all the time getting greater and greater and scarier! Now, it’s that I’m within the technique of reinvention. I don’t actually wish to discuss an excessive amount of about it, however there are some technical challenges concerned which can be driving me slowly insane! It’s like arising with the new-new. I keep in mind when it was a problem that I needed to provide you with this new stage design that needed to be so cool and it became a 10-year run with the Dice excursions. It was actually cool however you possibly can’t run that till the wheels come off. Hundreds of thousands of individuals have seen it and it’s all around the web. Time to maneuver on. And I can’t do spheres as a result of Eric Prydz already did it, so we’re out of shapes. Now I’ve to think about the subsequent factor.”
