Whatever you might expect of a guy who performs in a giant mouse head, it probably isn't Joel Zimmerman, an opinionated and diversely talented producer who's been storming dance music charts for the past two years.
Going by the stage name Deadmau5 (pronounced 'dead mouse', after a mouse that met its end inside his desktop PC), Zimmerman produces tracks that take elements from trance, progressive, electro and house, and can go from emotional arpeggios to hard, driving beats.
'I'm just making music I like,' says the Niagara Falls, Ontario native. At 28, Zimmerman seems unfazed by the popularity he's garnered so quickly. Since his debut recording in 2005, he's been awarded a Juno (Canada's equivalent of the Grammy award) last year for best dance recording and was nominated for two more in the same category this year.
Last May, Deadmau5 became dance music portal Beatport's most-downloaded artist ever, with 30,000 downloads for his tracks Not Exactly, Faxing Berlin, and Ghosts N Stuff.
Treading between trance and progressive, the tracks build on precise techno beats with escalating melodic chords designed to tug emotions, and have more than a hint of floor-filling house.
He says he has 'no idea' what people like about his music. 'I just make music that I feel is really good and solid, and work on my production skills and sound. If people buy it, that's great.'