inthemix | Features | Deadmau5: Where's the cheese?

If you have been hiding under a piece of cheese lately, then perhaps the name Deadmau5 has passed you by. With a string of successful releases, many are hailing this Canadian native as the next big think in electronic music. It is not hard to see why so many plaudits are flowing the way of the mau5, with his truly eclectic sound winning fans across a range of genres. From banging tech, electro house, fruity minimal and sublime melodic prog, Deadmau5 seems to have enough musical weapons in his sonic arsenal to keep even the hardened chin-stroker guessing.

You are about to embark on a short Australian tour. Have you been to Australia before?

Never been to the AU, but it’s up in my top four places I’ve wanted to go at least once in my life.

Is your touring schedule becoming more hectic?

Not really. There are the occasional one-offs here and there, but this is my first full blown tour thing… I’m kinda excited and scared shitless at the same time, but I guess we’re going to see how I can handle it.

What started your journey into the dark underbelly of electronic music?

Nine Inch Nails, actually… I’ve always been a big fan of their work, and of course the development and innovations of the audio technology that became available since my involvement in music. It was a very interesting experience to grow along with the personal computers that enabled people to make their own electronic music.

Canada has produced some quality electronic producers and DJs in recent years. How important has the Canadian scene been in shaping your style?

Man, I couldn’t possibly love my country and community more for their support and insight. Toronto has always had a very strong scene for EDM… Of course I haven’t always lived here, I live about an hour away in Niagara Falls, but the thing to do was to make the drive up to Toronto and hit that to party… so for a long while I was very estranged from the scene, until I moved up there and became a part of it myself.

Many people seem a little confused about how to pronounce your name, many people saying “deadMAU”. Where did your rather unique moniker come from?

Long story short, but for those of you who are familiar with EFnet on IRC, well, you can only have 8 characters as your nick… deadmouse wouldn’t fit. Sorry it’s not very exciting.

2007 has been a big year for Deadmau5 so far. When I lasted checked, five of the top 10 tracks on Beatport at the moment were either Deadmau5 originals or remixes. Does that spin you out?

You know what… I don’t even know how to answer that. I’ve been so flustered with everyone and everything this year, I don’t think it’s really managed to sink in. But when I look at the grand scheme of things, yeah, I’m a little blown away… but, success has definitely always been a strange concept for me to process.

I guess if one thing defines your music, it’s that it is very hard to define! Your releases to date have demonstrated an amazing array of sounds, from the melodic to the slamming. Is this something you set out to achieve or does it just happen organically?

Oh it just happens! Admittedly, I’m a little bummed out that all my latest productions are club-ish sounding… and I’ve really only started making EDM over the past 2 or 3 years, but I have been making all sorts of compositions ranging from click-hop to IDM and experimental genres, even a few pop tracks here and there. I think in the future I’d like to
put a little more emphasis on my more ‘creative’ side of my production schedule.

For all the music nerds out there, can you give us an insight into how you put together your tracks? Do you have any favourite bits of software or hardware?

Well, I’m currently in love with FXPansion, a UK based software company who’s been doing nothing but wowing me with their leaps and bounds in filter and OSC technology… I can’t speak much about specifics as I’m testing a lot of their new products, but I can tell you, I don’t create a single track without them. As far as hardware goes, I’m all about the Moog… Moog for the win! Voyager, Minimoog, Moogerfoogers, Lil Phatty… god bless them! Every single one! It’s been a dream of mine to build a pimp ass modular Moog
system one day.

Some pundits and critics have been labelling you as the new Eric Prydz. How do these kinds of comparisons sit with you?

Where’s the old Eric Prydz? I think were both on our own tangents, I don’t think I’m consciously trying to combat him in the sense that we ‘sound the same’... but I can see from one perspective to another that we both share a similar sound or engineering in general… I think in this case it’s just some vague nomenclature.

As such a prolific producer, how do you transfer your studio sounds and skills into the DJ booth? There are a few videos floating around of your skills on the Xone 3D. Is there always a live element to your show?

That’s a really good question, in fact, I’m trying to figure all this shit out myself. I think as my career kinda takes me places, and people want to see a show, I’m definitely going to have to deliver something unique… As far as the Xone goes, yeah, I’m starting small… I’m using the xone:3d to loop out and pick up bits and kinda give em some spin here, a little outboard FX there… but there’s so much more I want to do! It’s a work in progress, but I think over the year I’m going to be working on a more ‘live’ show that will be a lot more interesting then some skinny little deadmau5 kid up in the booth twiddling away on a xone like something fierce.

What can Aussie audiences expect musically from your upcoming tour?

A lot of new deadmau5 material, I have hoards and hoards of all these new releases that I’m really excited to unleash at the venues to see how they float. But my new “problem” lately has been… what exactly is deadmau5? Techno? Tribal? Electro? House? Trance? So formulating a set that flows from one to the other is going to be a bit of a challenge… but at the end of the day, expect to hear a lot of stuff you haven’t heard before.

You have been doing some collaborative stuff with Chris Lake, and we are starting to see the results. Are there any other collaboration on the horizon? Is there anyone else you would love to work with?

Mmm, so many people I’d love to pick brains with and turn out a banger, but my all time favourite would have to be Phil Kieran. That guy just dials it RIGHT in, every time. It’s that total disregard for all things standard in the techno department that I love the most.

Deadmau5 tours Australia for Kink this month. it’s his first visit to Australia, so don’t miss history in the making!

Fri 7th Sep – Kink, Canberra
Sat 8th Sep – Kink, Brisbane
Sun 9th Sep – Melbourne
Sat 15th Sep – Kink, Sydney
Sun 16th Sep – Smut, Sydney

Deadmau5 vs Allen & Heath Xone 3D mixer – crazy shit!

Deadmau5 vs Chris Lake… it’s sorta like the dance music version of The Odd Couple.

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pcatomic says...

on September 3rd, 2007

This guy is somewhat a genius in creating music, cant wait to see deadmau5 in Brisbane. :D

Flap-ur-tan says...

on September 4th, 2007

Devastated he's not coming to Perth! This guy's been producing some of the best tunes this year. I'm always hanging out for his next release and they never disappoint!