Deadmau5 a Top Techno producer from Toronto Canada was recently visiting Vancouver for Stereotype’s 1 Year Anniversary at Celebrities (presented by BluePrintEvents.ca). TheFreshpage was happy to shoot our first real video of the night including Vancouver’s best DJ – Timeline. Additionally our new sexy and smart reporter LA Diaz has a candid and clever interview with Deadmau5 you just gotta read!
Deadmau5 at Celebrities Nightclub Vancouver:
WRITTEN BY: LA DIAZ
DIAZ: Where were you born?
DEADMAU5: Niagara Falls, Ontario (Canada)
DIAZ: First concert you ever went to?
DEADMAU5: Like rock concert? That would be Motley Crue.
DIAZ: How old were you when you were first inspired by the sounds you presently record?
DEADMAU5: I’ve been inspired as far back as, when I became confident, around 13 or 14. And then the means to get there was more difficult at the time. But then years go by and the technology gets better and more susceptible to achieve what I want. But I can’t say I had these ideas in my head, I just had the thought that ‘yeah, I like techno music’.
DIAZ: While doing my research I saw that you had plenty of fans worldwide. What would you want people to know about you?
DEADMAU5: Ah, what would I want people to know? That’s a loaded question.
DIAZ: Oh….ok….then how about….
DEADMAU5: No. That’s a good question. I’ve just never thought of what people would want to know about me. I’ve just never been asked. I mean if you could advertise one thing about you in your whole life, what would that be?
DIAZ: Ok. So what would you want people to know about you outside of the DJ world, what preconceived notion would you want them to know isn’t true.
DEADMAU5: I’m not a DJ. That’s what I’d want them to know. I’M NOT A DJ. At least for now I’m not one. I’ll get better I promise (laughing) one day I’ll upgrade to a CDDJ but for now you’re just going to have to deal.
DIAZ: So what do you consider yourself?
DEADMAU5: I’m a producer first. I mean this is really only my second month in performing and being in a night club. This is all new territory for me but not so much with the technology. Cause I’m doing a lot of things up there that a lot of guys now aren’t doing. There are only like 3 or 4 DJ’s who do what I do. Sasha, he does it all live, Van Dyk does, and uh…
DIAZ: Do you consider yourself an artist?
DEADMAU5: Yeah…I’m not going to look good if I start talking about how I feel as an ‘artist’. An artist making techno music, yeah, cause techno music isn’t on the record. It’s so maniacal, so like, it’s so easy, nothing really creatively cool about it.
DIAZ: What were you listening to in High school?
DEADMAU5: I was a big fan of Nine Inch Nails. I was also listening to a lot of Radio Head, whatever Thom Yorke was doing at the time, creative genius that dude is, but that was grade school. In grade 8 I had a Metallica thing going for a while, they were appropriate for that grade.
DIAZ: What were your parents listening to, what did they have playing in the back ground?
DEADMAU5: They were listening to, oh god, they were listening to Billy Joel. Actually I was named after that guy. Apparently what I was told was that my mother named me after Bill Joel that is how that whole thing came to be. She threw the piano lessons on me; I guess she wanted a little musician.
DIAZ: Do you still play?
DEADMAU5: I use it, but I wouldn’t say I’m a virtuoso. I try to think that I can, better than people who can’t.
DIAZ: So with regards to ultimate highs of world stage stardoms, great festivals or venues, do you have any you’d like to play?
DEADMAU5: Ah, that’s pretty fucked up too, because my first gig ever was Ministry of Sound in London. Most DJ’s play their whole fucking lives, and not get into that club, you know what I mean. So you got to be moving and shaking to get in there. So it’s like baptism by fire. I was up there, oh, and I was shaking like a mother fucker for the first 15 minutes, but then I just got into it. Then I realized, it’s just going to go downhill from here. I do want to go to Brazil, and I think that’s actually happening later this year. Then, the top two places I’ve already nailed, it was Japan and Australia. I just wanted to go to those places regardless if I was playing or not. Moving ahead I want to do more stage, kind of Daft Punk but maybe more interesting, not to shit on Daft Punk, because they are doing great things, and always have. To set up more of a stage, a more visually integral show instead of just having a guy nodding his head with a set of head phones, that would be great.
DIAZ: I’ve read about the highs of the night, the high one gets from a show, you’re out there, and everyone loves you, and that there is a down fall after the show.
DEADMAU5: Is there? I don’t know, I don’t think so. It’s a head fuck, if you ask me. Maybe I’ve got some cross wires in my head. I have real trouble interpreting all of it. I think there are two different types of people in that area, the ones where it goes to their head and get high off of the crowd; they probably experience the roller coaster ride. But I’m pretty sorted through out, you know, so I’ll go home feeling just as good as I do now.
DIAZ: I like that though, is it a good way to be?
DEADMAU5: Maybe, maybe, well, you want to be extra pumped, and you want to interact with the crowd and stuff like that, and I think that’s something I have trouble doing. The way I have my set laid out technically, everything needs your bloody attention constantly. I guess when you’re a DJ and you’re playing record A you got a good four minutes to sing along and clap, hit on a chick, whatever. But when my thing is going, it’s going; I’m always on that mixer so my eyes are glued on that shit.
But, I’m trying to interact with the crowd more, I’m really a reclusive person. I don’t whip my shirt off and get up there and start singing and dancing, I can’t pull myself to do, but I’m fearing I’m going to have to start doing a little more of that. NOT so over the top but you know, right now it’s strictly smiling and nodding. I’ve perfect that art.
Here are the links:
Deadmau5 bio and video clips
Deadmau5.com
