With New Label Launch, Malóne Asks "Why Not Us?"

Malóne has had a rush of life-changing events come his way recently. His wife gave birth four months ago, and he launched a new record label with a slew of releases in the pipeline. Last year, Malóne also became a resident DJ at Club Space.

Speaking with New Times, he gets goosebumps reminiscing about the myriad of influences that turned Anthony Perez into Malóne.

First, there's DJ and producer Luciano's endless loops and track selection with a Spanish tinge that made Perez appreciate his roots as a first-generation Cuban American. Then there are the nostalgic days of listening to the Bee Gees with his mom.

"I grew up listening to the Bee Gees every single day in the car," Perez tells New Times.

Combined with the influence of Caribbean musicians like Jerry Rivera, Frankie Ruiz, and Eddie Santiago, it's no surprise that Perez ended up behind the decks.

Naturally, Perez's next evolution is his record label and event series, WhyNotUs, which is celebrating its launch at Jolene Sound Room on Friday, January 26. The lineup includes sets by Cortes, Amal Nemer, and Edgar V B2B Odk, who will follow Perez's penchant for tech house and Afro-house.

"It's going to be a lot of really strong local acts that have grown and are touring and doing their own thing," Perez says. "I think it's going to be a nice mixture of a couple of different sounds, but for the most part, I feel like proper tech house, groovy, sexy type of deep house music."
Perez learned the basics of commanding the decks from his uncle, a low-key party booker and DJ who spun under the name Easy More. "I would go to my grandma's house, and my uncle would be there and teach me, and about a year later, I was learning how to produce music and taking piano listens," he says.

Perez paused his musical pursuits to attend the University of Miami in 2007 on a baseball scholarship and eventually dove into the independent baseball league for several seasons. After hanging up his bat, he went into sales and returned to DJing about a decade ago.

Malóne's first gig was at Club Space in 2015. He didn't know how to spin on CDJs — a DJ's primary tool for beat matching — so he brought his Traktor controller and laptop to spin big-room EDM.

"Funny enough, I have the controller right here," Perez pulls it out from under his desk. "I'll never throw it away."

In 2018, Perez released his first track, "Codigo," and later had two songs, "Muy Bien" and "Besame," take the number-one spot in Beatport's Afro-house category. Moreover, his single "En Su Lugar" gained more than 16 million streams on Spotify.

Building on that momentum, Perez joined forces with DJs Calussa and Black Circle in 2021 to form the imprint Hurry Up Slowly. "In a year, it was one of the best Afro-house labels in the world, according to Beatport," Perez explains. "We had a lot of early success and did great things."

But a year ago, Malóne took a step back to focus on his own work, spinning in Ibiza and becoming a resident DJ at Club Space. "[Being a resident] really inspired me to create my label," he says. Two weeks ago, Malóne took to Instagram from an empty Club Space to announce his record label, WhyNotUs.

"Your tastes change, and what you liked two years ago isn't necessarily what you like now," Perez says of his departure from Hurry Up Slowly. "As an artist, I might feel something completely different. I feel like having your own label and just being yours gives you the ability to do that. I want to express whether it's Afro-house, an underground tech-house groover, or something more melodic."

The spirit of WhyNotUs is to counteract the imposter syndrome many artists feel and have them ask themselves, "Why can't I do that?"

"I feel like the name just lends itself to however you want to interpret it," Perez adds. "As an up-and-coming artist, I feel many challenges that we face come with a lot of self-doubts. I know I get imposter syndrome all the time."

Malóne's track "444" will christen the label on February 2. The roughly six-minute track is a pastiche of the kind of tech house that plays as the sun rises over Ibiza's coastline. The vocals repeatedly chant, "I'm in control," perhaps an on-the-nose reference to how Perez feels these days.

"I came across that vocal sample from a sample pack. That vocal really stood out to me. I had originally named [the track] 'I'm In Control,' but changed it to '444' because the lyrics keep repeating, 'It's 4:44 in the morning,' which is funny because that is the prime time at Space, and it all kind of clicked. I looked up what '444' meant, and it's a sign for good things to come."

Beyond Malóne's music, WhyNotUs will showcase local and international talent with several releases planned in 2024. Perez adds that an artist's social media or streaming numbers are not a requirement to earn a spot on the label.

"I think WhyNotUs is a community, and to just do it — go out and do it," he says. "If anybody can do it, why can't you?"

Malóne. With Cortes, Amal Nemer, and Edgar V B2B ODK. 10 p.m. Friday, January 26, at Jolene Sound Room, 200 E. Flagler St., Miami; 305-603-9818; jolenesoundroom.com. Tickets cost $20.01 via dice.fm.