Music

REZZMAU5 – the collaboration between REZZ and deadmau5 – shouldn’t work as well as it does.
“We produce in two totally different ways,” says Joel Zimmerman, the man behind deadmau5. “I am so old school and she is so new school.”

Both artists hail from Niagara Falls, Ontario, and both are known for their innovative production, DIY ethos and big-stage spectacle. They’re both big thinkers and big presences, instantly recognizable for their larger-than-life visual trademarks – deadmau5 with his signature LED mau5head helmet and REZZ with her hypnotic spinning light glasses – and they both have dedicated cult fanbases.

They have different sounds and use different tools, but they come together to blend the best of both of them. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s special when it does.

REZZ – born Isabelle Rezazadeh – cites deadmau5 as an immeasurable influence.

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“He essentially birthed me as a producer,” she says. “He birthed my entire interest in making music.”

With about 14 years of age separating them, REZZ grew up in a world deadmau5 created. Deadmau5 is one of the most influential artists of the last two and a half decades in electronic music. Though he doesn’t identify with the term himself, he was a major influence on the late-2000s/2010s EDM boom. His immersive and technologically innovative live shows inspired countless DJs and producers to amp up the spectacle and play to massive festival crowds.

REZZ was at some of those pivotal deadmau5 shows as a teenager, and he later became one of her earliest champions. He signed her to his label, mau5trap, and released two of her EPs and her first two albums, 2017’s Mass Manipulation and 2018’s Certain Kind of Magic.

REZZ

Matt Barnes 

In 2021, deadmau5 and REZZ officially joined forces with their first on-record collaboration, “Hypnocurrency.” It’s dark, spellbinding, and meticulously layered — a slow-burning cinematic journey that lands squarely between their two sonic worlds. To create it, they both had to step outside their comfort zones.

One of the things that characterizes deadmau5’s signature sound is his tempo. Most of his classic songs – like “I Remember,” “The Veldt” and “Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff” – fall within the same tempo: 128 BPM (beats per minute). Even the epic slow-build “Strobe” starts with a patient ambient build but eventually ramps up with a beat at the exact same tempo.

When asked what he learned from working with REZZ, deadmau5 doesn’t miss a beat.

“I learned that there are BPMs that actually do exist below 128,” he deadpans. “I didn’t know that all you had to do was click on the number and drag it down.”

When they’re collaborating, one artist comes in with a clear vision and a track sketched out, which gives them a basis to start from.

“I’m the type of person who really wants to just get an idea out by myself before even entering a studio with another person,” REZZ admits. “If we’re starting from scratch, my brain is like ‘I don’t even know where to go from here.’ The embarrassing process of making everything sound like s–t by yourself is something I’m ok with…”

“…as long as you’re by yourself,” deadmau5 interjects, finishing her thought. “I do the same thing. Even if it’s a non-producer person who’s sitting in the room with me, I’m just like,” he makes a shooing motion with his hand. “‘You gotta go.’”

That’s how “Hypnocurrency” began. REZZ started the track on her own, setting the tempo at 100 BPM. She knew that was slower and more ominous than his usual style, but she could already anticipate where he might take it.

“I was very heavily conceptualizing what I would imagine to fit into our world,” she says. “That’s something I love about collaborating in general, but especially with artists I really understand musically. I try to channel a vision that blends both worlds and makes it work for both of us.”

The two producers became REZZMAU5 for the first time in 2023 at VELD Festival in Toronto. A 16-year-old REZZ was there when deadmau5 played the same festival in 2016, and now she was standing side by side on him onstage. With mesmerizing visuals playing on a giant screen behind them, they performed songs from both of their repertoires and teased a new song: “Infralimininal.”

That would become their second released collaboration, and the first under the name REZZMAU5. This time, it was even clearer how much of his code was already in her programming. The song is a reinterpretation of deadmau5’s 2012 track, “Superliminal,” which REZZ has cited as one of the songs that first inspired her to create music. The new version drags it deep into her world: dark and pulsing, heavy and hypnotic.

But though there’s overlap in their styles, the way they get there is different. Some of REZZ’s most potent inspirations come from the movie world: sci-fi, horror and psychological thriller. For deadmau5, it’s video games or experiences in his rural Ontario oasis.

“When I’m stuck on an idea, I’ll go out on an ATV,” he says. “There’s this little trail I take, and I just do a loop around it. Then I come back and my head is clear.”

REZZ came up at a time when the EDM scene was already huge and dominant. For deadmau5, his early days were spent at illegal raves and community-focused shows in late-’90s Toronto. He often designed rave flyers, and “those serious ones with 3D skulls” for drum n’ bass nights.

deadmau5

Matt Barnes 

The technology available was nowhere near as advanced as it is now. He’s always evolving and pushing, but he maintains much of his analogue approach. REZZ is much more digital.

“She does a lot of what’s called ITB – which means in the box,” deadmau5 explains, gesturing toward REZZ. “She’ll use her computer and her controller, very minimal hardware. I’m the opposite. I hardly ever touch my computer unless I’m editing waveforms or recording and arranging. The sound sources that I use come from the analogue world.”

He’s known for his studio full of analogue synths, modular gear and rare vintage equipment. It’s the stuff of gearhead legend. REZZ tends to work more with software synths, plugins and effects that all live inside her computer. By the time the productions hit the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), it gets easier to translate between them – but not always.

deadmau5 teases that they’re working on a new collaboration called “Atri,” the third in their slowly growing REZZMAU5 discography. It started as a track that REZZ started on the recording program Ableton, the most commonly used recording software. But when deadmau5 had ideas he could only execute in Cubase – his preferred program – the workflow had to shift. That meant exporting individual sound files, or stems, so she could then reopen them in Ableton. It’s like switching between two languages mid-conversation.

deadmau5 & REZZ

Matt Barnes 

It helps that REZZ is so fluent in deadmau5. In one of the formative deadmau5 concerts she attended as a teen, she reveals, he played a track “that I f–in love” by experimental British producer Jon Hopkins called “Vessel.”

“You know that glitchy beat part that happens in the original version [of ‘Atric’] that I sent you?” she asks him.

“That’s what that’s from?” he replies, impressed. “I didn’t know that. That’s all I’ll hear now.”

Now that she’s been on that stage with him, the relationship dynamic has changed.

“Well, I’ll tell you how it changes,” deadmau5 says. “Now she tells me s–t doesn’t sound good. Change this, do that.”

She breaks into laughter, as he goes into an impression of her.

“Oh, he’s my hero, I love everything he does. Except for that.”

deadmau5 says it’s rare someone could give him that kind of feedback and he would automatically take it seriously.

“I like it, because I can count on less than one hand how many people could say that and I would actually be like ‘oh, hmm, she’s probably right.’”

While deadmau5 originally inspired her to start making music, the influence she takes from him is different now.

“Honestly, the longer I continue in this career – for me, it’s at the 10-year mark – I often think about how insane it is that Joel has been doing this for so long and still doing so much,” REZZ says. “I’m already wanting to chill and be more particular about what I do. I feel like I need to pace myself to get there.”

Being particular is the key, he says. If everything you do, in music or not, is noteworthy, then it will look like you’re doing more than you are. “Then everyone says ‘can you stop f–in talking about this guy,’” he jokes. It’s something she’s already learned. Her series of PORTAL shows is built around a massive circular screen with trance-like lighting and visuals that literally makes it feel like a portal to another dimension. You can see the influence of deadmau5’s Cube – a massive, rotating structure from which he performs and cues up visuals in real time – in its ambition and scope.

deadmau5 & REZZ

Matt Barnes 

More recently, deadmau5 made news for a less polished set at Coachella. DJing under his alter ego Testpilot in a back-to-back with Zhu, he had a little too much whiskey. He apologized the next day on Instagram, calling it “probably my last Coachella show.”

But when asked about his most memorable recent show, he doesn’t miss a beat.

“Coachella, man. It was so f–ing legendary,” he says. “Definitely the most fun I’ve had at a show.”

What has he seen the reaction online?

“No,” he says. “What’s the internet?”

It’s a classically dry and ironic deadmau5 response, but it reflects his career trajectory: always looking forward, not backward, never too caught up in backlash or hype. Recently, deadmau5 made headlines with another surprising move: the sale of his extensive music catalogue to Create Music Group in a deal valued at $55 million.

The deal includes the master recordings and publishing of more than 4,000 songs, including the label catalogue of mau5trap. The Create Music Group partnership also includes the formation of a joint venture to release future recordings from deadmau5 and mau5trap.

“It was time to just let it go,” he explains. “I’m not so attached to [my catalogue] that I think it would’ve been some huge asset 20 or 30 years down the line. I mean, I’m sure they’ll make all their money back and more. But for me it was just time to reel everything back in, throw some money back into production for the next couple of years, and then start over. So, nothing changes. I’m still writing new music and doing everything I do.”

That includes his sporadic teams-up with REZZ, both on record and on stage. Last summer, they took the stage as REZZMAU5 at high-profile festivals Tomorrowland in Belgium and HARD Summer in California. Their next appearance together will be in a candid conversation at the Billboard Summit at NXNE [in Toronta] on June 11, where they’ll delve deep into their relationship and music-making process.

Aside from that, whatever comes next for deamau5 and REZZ, there’s one thing for certain: it won’t be predictable.

This article originally appeared on Billboard Canada.

deadmau5 & REZZ

Matt Barnes