Is Deadmau5 just saying all this stuff in Rolling Stone magazine to get the attention, or is he really sincere? I don’t know exactly, but it is entertaining. I agree with his DJ caricature, and anyone making fun of Guetta, has to receive a pat in the back. This is what Joel Zimmerman, aka Deadmau5, said:
‘David Guetta has two iPods and a mixer and he just plays tracks – like, 'Here's one with Akon, check it out! Even Skrillex [a friend of Zimmerman’s] isn't doing anything too technical. He has a laptop and a MIDI recorder, and he's just playing his shit … People are, thank God, smartening up about who does what – but there’s still button-pushers getting paid half a million. And not to say I’m not a button-pusher. I’m just pushing a lot more buttons.’
Is he really? Is he really pushing more buttons? For a minute I thought he was not taking himself seriously! But the only buttons Deadmau5 seems to be pushing a lot are the ones slamming other people (he has some beef with Madonna too), but as I said, it is funny. DJs, who could be called disk jockey if CDs still existed, have this superstar status for reasons that escape me, and that’s why I can’t get enough of his rants about the likes of Guetta and Skrillex.
On his tumblr, Deadmau5 went even further, confessing that being a DJ does not require much talent:
‘its no secret. when it comes to “live” performance of EDM… that’s about the most it seems you can do anyway. It’s not about performance art, its not about talent either (really its not) In fact, let me do you and the rest of the EDM world button pushers who fuckin hate me for telling you how it is, a favor and let you all know how it is.
I think given about 1 hour of instruction, anyone with minimal knowledge of ableton and music tech in general could DO what im doing at a deadmau5 concert. Just like i think ANY DJ in the WORLD who can match a beat can do what “ANYONE else” (not going to mention any names) is doing on their EDM stages too.’
The post is longer, and if you want to read the whole thing, just go here. His point is that DJs (and he includes himself in this of course) are not doing anything special during live shows, anything requiring a special talent…
Even funnier, Swedish House Mafia spoke up to defend Guetta in this same Rolling Stone magazine a few days later: Sebastian Ingrosso declared:
‘That's interesting that [Deadmau5] said that, because that's exactly what he does – but we don't. We've have four CD players, six hands, so we're going in and out all the time, otherwise we would be bored and take our fuckin' lives. I have never seen behind Deadmau5's booth, so I can't really say anything about it. He's a great guy and awesome producer. But, buddy, if you want to start talking about people pressing buttons – just pushing 'play' – then that would be another thing.’
The problem is that Ingrosso in that same interview, went comparing his stuff to some music legends:
‘I kind of analyze music a lot, and I think that what the Beatles have done is what we do today. [It] doesn't matter that we do dance music.’
Why do I suddenly think he has lost any credibility?