Of course, never one to sit around idly (“I’m a workaholic. If someone gave me a vacation, I’d wanna go home,” he said.), Zimmerman has plenty of appearances on the books through the summer, including stops at Lollapalooza in Chicago’s Grant Park (August 9) and the Electric Zoo at New York City’s Randall’s Island Park (September 5).

Deadmau5 will unveil his latest concoction, For Lack Of A Better Name, September 22 and then immediately hit the road for a two-month tour, dropping in on clubs and theatres across the U.S. and Canada.

The trek kicks off September 23 at Ritual in Ottawa, Ontario, and wraps November 24 at The Roxy in Boston, with stops including Showbox SoDo in Seattle (October 3), a headlining appearance at Hard at The Forum in Los Angeles (October 31), House of Blues in San Diego (November 1), Stubb’s Bar-B-Q in Austin (November 11), Revolution in Fort Lauderdale (November 13), Limelight in Nashville (November 19) and 9:30 Club in Washington, D. C. (November 23).

Fans of Deadmau5’s 2008 debut Random Album Title will find him exploring new directions on For Lack, which features a variety of musical styles incorporated into “multi-blocks of songs.”

When I interviewed him for his Hotstar feature, Zimmerman told me besides a top-secret new mouse head, he was planning to integrate more live instruments and vintage gear into his live shows.

“I’ve just ordered a really cool synth called a Bukla, that all lights up and just looks amazing and sounds great to boot,” he explained. “So I’m gonna have that up there and do some live patching kind of stuff. It should be interesting.”

Even though people not familiar with his work sometimes consider him a DJ and not a live musician, he doesn’t take it too personally.

“It is a little annoying – DJ Deadmau5. I still get billed that way sometimes,” he said. “It is a little weird, but it is what it is. It’s not like it’s a derogatory term, by today’s standard of the DJ anyway.”

Zimmerman said advances in technology have enabled him and acts like Daft Punk, The Crystal Method, Justice, The Presets and Thievery Corporation do what they do better.

“New software has come out that lets you break apart and recycle and reuse and re-edit your music live. Whereas you couldn’t really do that about five years ago. So it’s a cool thing.”

But Deadmau5 also believes advances in technology are a double edged sword that makes it difficult for artists to keep fresh material under wraps until it’s released on an album, even if it’s not leaked online as an mp3.

“It’s so hard to surprise people with new music these days. It really is,” he said. “Not in terms of style – but here’s the thing: I do a new track and I want to play it out. You know what I mean? I want to test it. Before you could do that all the time and just get a reaction.

“I played my first track [from the new album], which is this new one that I’d been working on for four days. It never left my computer at all. It hadn’t gone to distribution or anything. But so many people film it and then jack it up on YouTube. So then you think, ‘Man, I should have saved that one for the album!’ Because as soon as you give anyone a hint of an audio signal that’s new, it’s up there and then everybody knows about it. Then you put it on the album and everybody goes ‘Oh yeah, I heard this months ago.’

“You just have to be really smart about how you get things out. I like throwing curve balls.”