I don't believe there's a cap on creativity and passion.
I didn't come up as a DJ, so I don't play by DJ rules.
I'm a video game enthusiast. I love video games! They were a huge part of my upbringing in their early form, when I was all about 'Dig Dug' and 'River Raid.' As they evolved, so did my music-making, and we just kind of grew up together like cool friends.
When I'm working on something and need to take a little break, I'll go down and play some video games.
Going out and being nice to the world at large doesn't make me feel good, so I replace that with things, with technology that does get me excited and does get my brain spinning, until one day it stops spinning, and then you can bury me.
Virtual reality, to me, seems to have a number of different tiers. Entry-level-tier VR is this experience: on a phone, some simple head-tracking, and some quick and dirty, game-engine-quality stuff.
Usually, companies, when they approach other people to do VR, they're like, 'We're gonna offer a virtual reality experience' - to me, that usually means they're gonna put a bunch of 360° cameras in a room, film something, and wrap the video in a sphere so you can head-track and look around. To me, that's not virtual reality. That's 360° video.
I get anxiety from a noise or some scuffling at the side of the stage. I hear stories all the time, from as minor as Dillon Francis getting smacked in the head with a flying beer can to Dimebag Darrell.
Disco evolved into Chicago warehouse. Then there was techno; eventually, it evolved into EDM.
I like to think of 'the studio' as a laboratory where I can go in, learn tricks, apply, revise, and release. I'd figure I had about the same emotional attachment to my craft as a guy over at NASA does over... NASA stuff.
I'd like to think I wouldn't get booed off stage if I chose not to wear the head - I did gigs prior to having the head made and never had any problems. I'm aware though that, as a gimmick, it can create its own little monster as a brand.
I'm not a DJ. I play live and think we put on a show. That's it.
I was just trickling releases out slowly and building the Deadmau5 brand slowly. There was never this big marketing machine behind it or anything like that.
If I had a nickel for every time someone asked, 'When are you doing an album?' My career is way too transparent to do say, 'Guess what - I've got 16 tracks you've never heard!'
God bless Skrillex. I love the kid, but he puts out a new video, what, every four weeks? I'm like the Dos Equis guy. I don't normally do music videos, but when I do, I go big.
I really like the grittiness of early Amon Tobin - I'm a huge fan of his old music, and I tried to borrow from it, not emulate it. I don't love my own original work.
EDM is, like... Event-Driven Marketing, I think, is the acronym there. It reminds me a lot of disco. That had some hang-time, like, 10, 15, 17 years tops... Not too many people are forward-thinking about electronic music. They're just kinda like, 'Now, now, now - do it, do it.'
The way I see EDM right now, it's a healthy industry for sure - minimal work for maximum profit.
I am very strict on what products I want to associate myself with, and I felt that some things were just to make a buck.
Creamfields is, without doubt, 1 of the highlights of year for me. I really can't wait to come back.
