A few days ago, seemingly out of nowhere, deadmau5 hosted a Reddit AMA. As it is, the mau5 (real name Joel Zimmerman) has always made himself quite available to fans as he more often than not live streams from home, allowing his “horde” (as he calls it) to stalk him while he has his studio time. He’s also extremely active on Twitter, responding to as many tweets as he possibly can in the speed of light!
With the Reddit AMA, he touched on topics like being an outsider, his new stage setup, how he feels about cars and hardstyle, and also dishes the dirt on new mau5 music.. From news on the 20-minute version of “Strobe” to his greatest regret, here are some of the things we learned:
1. He really enjoyed outing Skrillex’s phone number to the public:
“most satisfying troll. ever.”
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2. He revealed his greatest fear:
“being burned alive.”
3. He doesn’t appreciate people who mispronounce his name:
“how do you feel about people who pronounce your name “wang butt””
4. On wanting to play more old tracks in his live sets:
“yeah… thats a pain in the ass… its like, they give you a time slot… and you just want to play all your new stuff… you know? i figure thats what i want people to hear…. but occasionally ill sneak in a classic of course”
5. Fans can send him items in the mail to sign:
“of course, i get a pile every now and again and ship er back… the PO box is somewhere on my Facebook page still i think”
6. That 20-minute edit of “Strobe” is complete!
“it is done thankfully…. my only thing is, i hope it doesn’t subtract too much from the original…. i had to make it in such a way that the track could be at least “reproduced” in a live-ish fashion… since its for a “live PA” type show… so… of course theres the odd track mixed in that gives it a little help, but i’m happy with it!”
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7. He became a car fan later in life:
“that came much later in life. funnily enough, as soon as i was liscensed to drive one…. once my foot made that connection with the pedal, and the car made the connection to the road… it fell into place pretty fast!”
Note: He can’t spell “licensed” right.
8. He gave a reason for why he is so outspoken publicly:
“i probably have some mental health problems.”
9. He has been making music since he was young:
“i’ve been making music since.. i was 13? perhaps? just toyed away on a piano my grandmosther left me, until i took an interest in computers and graphic design… and found a way to combine both!”
Note: He also can’t spell “grandmother” right.
10. He revealed his favourite mau5head of all mau5heads:
i love the carbon one… simply because its the lightest by far. 😀 i am big on comfort when it comes to donning massive headgear.
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11. More mau5 music is on the way, apparently:
“i was actually thinking of a followup to Seven which is in the works… of course the contrast to the first 7 (being the dealy sins) i’d like to do the 7 virtues…. and do it all on modular synths…. which is a nice contrast to the piano only “sins” “
12. On how many nudes his fans send him per day:
“not nearly as many as i’d like”
13. He’s thinking about scoring a movie
“i’ve been working on getting a special project on my plate… and who knows where that will take me… i’ve always just waited for the right film for me… it wouldn’t feel right just taking any old fuckin’ movie that would be some box office smash or whatever.”
14. He’s a bit of a loner:
“honest answer: i don’t really feel connected to any kind of community. i don’t mean any disrespect, but i don’t think i’ve ever really felt a part of any group…. i always, and sometimes still do, loathe that i’ve never really had any connection in my passions with others… but, perhaps maybe that was the disconnect i needed to do the things i do?”
15. On his next tour, next album, and big future plans:
“we haven’t really solidified any “tour plans” this has been the hot topic these days… but… the wheels are in motion for something special, and i’m excited to unveil it when the time is right :D”
16. He can’t crack the mystery of the hardstyle kick:
“i have consulted with 7 of the worlds leading audio engineers and sound designers…. For 8 months, we rented out an isolated chamber deep inside the hills of West Virginia to solve this mystery. Night after night… scratching our heads to unlock the secrets of this EDM holy grail. 3 men were lost in the process and we resorted to cannibalism. To this day, the deep mysteries of the hardstyle kick still eludes us until further funding is available.”
17. He dropped some hints about his new stage setup:
“were passing around the stage drawings… and setup and production and all that now actually… “team beating” as i like to call them, this week. But the Guvernment nightclub finale show will be somewhat of a precursor to the newer show builds….. i’m more and more keen on taking a mixing console and a whole lot of synths on stage now as opposed to being the Ableton guy with a laptop in a massive show production.”
18. His greatest regret in his career?
“Twitter”
Note: deadmau5 is quite known for his Twitter spats. Take the one that he had with Armin van Buuren previously, for example.
Want more? Read more here.
Sources: edmtunes, Reddit AMA.
