Solo Artist
Most frequent collaborator: Rob Swire · 3 tracks
Holds writing credit on 139 of 139 tracks
Yes, effectively all of them. deadmau5, real name Joel Zimmerman, writes and produces every track himself and holds a writing credit on nearly 100% of his music. His instrumentals like 'Strobe' and 'Some Chords' are entirely his, and on vocal tracks such as 'Ghosts 'n' Stuff' or 'The Veldt' the only co-writers are the guest singers who wrote and performed the words.
Across all 139 tracks: how many deadmau5 wrote alone, how many they co-wrote, and how many were written by others. The bracket marks every track they hold any writing credit on.
Share of all 139 tracks where they are personally credited, by role.
deadmau5's writing credit per album, in release order. Hover any bar for the album.
Where deadmau5 sits on the scale from a pure performer (0%, sings songs written by others) to a complete author (100%, writes everything). The bright marker is their catalogue authorship score, plotted against other artists on the site.
Reference artists spread across the scale, closest by genre and era.
None of the signature songs above fall in this category.
Covers all 8 deadmau5 solo studio albums. Also includes the 2017 compilation Stuff I Used to Do and the unverified 2023 release here's the drop. Vexillology (2006) track titles sourced from Last.fm, to be verified against the original release.
Zoolook
Play Digital
Mau5trap / Ultra Records
Mau5trap / Ultra Records
Mau5trap / Ultra Records
Mau5trap / Ultra Records
Mau5trap
Mau5trap
Mau5trap
mau5trap
No albums from this decade.
Bubble size = tracks worked on together. RS Rob Swire · WG Wolfgang Gartner · CJ Chris James · L Lights · S SOFI · GW Gerard Way
Data Insight
deadmau5's authorship score approaches 100%, he writes and produces every track himself with no outside songwriters. The score is almost entirely in the composer column; lyricist credit only appears on the handful of vocal tracks in his catalog, where guest vocalists (like Chris James or Rob Swire) wrote and performed the words. His catalog is a useful baseline for what 'pure composer' authorship looks like in electronic music.
Quick Facts
Creative Fingerprint
A pure producer-composer: deadmau5 writes and builds every track himself, credited alone on his instrumentals and adding a guest only as co-writer of the lyrics on his handful of vocal songs.
The Story
deadmau5 (Joel Zimmerman, born January 5, 1981) is a Canadian electronic music producer known for his distinctive mouse-head helmet and expansive, texture-driven progressive house sound. He rose to prominence in the late 2000s with tracks like 'Strobe,' 'Some Chords,' and 'I Remember,' and became one of the defining figures of the DJ/producer era that defined electronic music's mainstream breakthrough around 2010-2012. Unlike many of his peers, deadmau5 is skeptical of DJ culture and openly critical of producers who don't play live instruments, he builds his music on synthesizers, samplers, and DAWs, and his catalog is largely instrumental.