Michael Doerr (born January 14, 1989), known professionally as Zookeper (stylized as Zookëper) is an American

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

artist and producer from

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. Doerr went under the alias in 2013. He released his own original songs in 2015, including "Gunz" and "Move off Ya Feet". On tour, he was a supporting act for Tritonal,

Bingo Players Bingo Players is a Dutch dance and electro house musical project fronted by DJ and record producer Maarten Hoogstraten (). Bingo Players was originally a duo, which included Paul Bäumer, who died from cancer in 2013. After the death of Bäumer, H ...

, and others. He is best known for his singles, "Watch Me" and "Parallel Lines" that reached the top ten on the dance charts. He garnered over 40 million streams on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

and has also done remixes for the likes of

John Mayer John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Born and raised in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Mayer attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but left and moved to Atlanta in 1997 with ...

Cher Cher (; born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Often referred to by the media as the Honorific nicknames in popular music, "Goddess of Pop", she has been described as embodying female ...

Jason Derulo Jason Joel Desrouleaux (born September 21, 1989), known professionally as Jason Derulo (; formerly stylized as Derülo), is an American singer and songwriter.

, The Knocks, and Teyana Taylor among others.

Career

Doerr initially started his career as a touring guitarist for Cash Cash in 2008. He was credited on their 2008 debut album, ''

Take It to the Floor ''Take It to the Floor'' is the debut studio album by the American electronic music group Cash Cash. It was released on December 23, 2008 through Universal Republic Records. Release ''Take It to the Floor'' was released digitally on December 23, ...

'', as the photo editor. He left the group in August 2009. In 2011, Doerr did a remix to the song "Dirty People" by Alsex. In 2013, Doerr began going under the name, Zookëper, remixing songs for other artists such as the Ready Set and

Goldhouse Grant Harris, also known by his stage name Goldhouse (stylized: GOLDHOUSE), is an American DJ, producer, singer and songwriter, based in Chicago. He gained recognition for remixing songs like Sam Smith's " Stay with Me", Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams ...

. He started to release original songs of his own in 2015. He released his debut single "Move off Ya Feet", in December. In 2018, he made a remix to

's song, " New Light" which has gone on to become double platinum in the United States. He also released a single that year titled, "For Real", which peaked on the Belgium Ultratip chart as an "extra tip" position. His single "Do You Think About Me" reached number four on the UK Commercial Pop Top 30 chart. His breakout hit "Watch Me" entered the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Dance/Mix Show Airplay Dance/Mix Show Airplay (formerly Hot Dance Airplay) is a monitored electronic dance music radio chart that is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. History The chart came about as a result of the small but influential impact of electronic d ...

chart at number 27, and later peaked at number 15 on the week of July 20, 2019. The song also peaked at number six on the Mediabase Dance Radio Airplay Top 100 Chart. His follow up single "Parallel Lines" was released in August 2019 and performed better than "Watch Me" on the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart peaking at number eight. The song was inspired by Howard Stern according to Doerr. In 2021, Zookëper went on a US tour with

called the "Bingo Beach Tour". He performed at the

Lollapalooza Lollapalooza (Lolla) is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991 but several years later made Chicago the permanent location for the annual music festival. Musi ...

festival in 2022.

Musical style

Speaking about what motivates him into making music, Doerr stated in an interview that he's, "not the type of producer who loves being locked in a room by himself all the time." He expresses that he loves being out, socializing, traveling, and "soaking in the energy of a packed room with music."

Production equipment and software

In the studio, Doerr uses Genelec monitors, KRK sub, a laptop, a MIDI keyboard, and a 909 machine. He also uses a Arturia Analog Lab plug-in suite and the Roland Cloud. Doerr states he tries to use "classic sounds as much as possible and to keep the arrangements bare."

Discography

Singles

Remixes

Other appearances

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zookeeper Living people 1989 births American dance musicians American DJs American remixers