Joel Zimmerman grew up in Niagara Falls and early on showed an interest in electronics and mechanical things. He spent his youth dismantling machines and putting them back together, and became obsessed with video games. But when his parents divorced in his teens he took to raving as a form of expression. A habit that didn’t go over well with his parents. Joel always seemed to be ahead of the curve, advocating for computers in music production long before anyone considered it. He was a wiz kid on the computer and would spend his time in chat rooms back when the Internet was in its infancy. When a dead mouse caused his computer to crash that story evolved into his online username. After high school he moved to Toronto and befriended a fellow programmer and the two made a joke track that jabbed at how formulaic house music was. What they hadn’t counted on was it becoming a huge hit.