Victor Calderone is the Master of Matter

New York’s Victor Calderone got his start DJing and producing when he was inspired by his DJ older brother Cesare.

“Growing up we shared a room together and I would just sit there listening to him DJ for hours,” Calderone says. “He eventually taught me how to play and I was hooked from that moment on. It wasn’t until the early ’90s I became interested in producing and partnered up with a good friend Gene La Fosse under the moniker Program 2. We eventually signed a record deal with Sire Records in 1992. I thought that was the moment my career had arrived, but it was short-lived and fell apart. After a hiatus, I got back in the studio in 1996 and I produced a solo track called ‘Give It Up’ that went number 1 on the Billboard charts. That led to working with Madonna and officially launched my career.”

The artist says that his sound was massively influenced by ’90s NYC.

“I have a deep reference of the NY underground that is burned into my mind and still very much part of who I am as a DJ to this day,” he says. “I would describe my sound as groovy bassline-driven techno and house.”

His own MATTER+ imprint has been dormant for a few years but Calderone is ready for a relaunch.

“When I first launched MATTER+ back in 2015 I did not have a team helping me run the label,” he says. “It became overwhelming and I could not give it the attention it required so I decided to pause it. I now feel I have a great team in place, and I’ve also brought my cousin Avision on board to help curate and run the label. The timing to relaunch MATTER+ feels right. I’ve been back in the studio quite a lot collaborating with both my cousin and long-time studio partner MYKOL. We have a lot of new music ready to help with the launch.”

Calderone recently released the “Chemical” track.

“‘Chemical’ is a track produced with my Avision,” he says. “We had been in the studio working on our EP for MATTER+ and I had come across a cool vocal that we knew we wanted to build a track around. Originally, we went in a completely different direction. It had a Breaks/D&B vibe but we knew it wasn’t quite there, so we scrapped it and started over. We kept a few elements and landed on the mix that is about to be released.”

Looking ahead, Calderone has plenty planned for the rest of 2023.

“There will be more releases on MATTER+ upcoming, as well as branded events both here in the U.S. and internationally,” he says. “The first MATTER+ parties will be the relaunch event on June 1st at Public Records in NYC, and then June 24 at Stereo in Montreal. I’m touring constantly and will be making my return to L.A. in the near future too.”

MATTER+ has relaunched after a 5-year hiatus, with the release of collab single ‘Chemical’ (Intro Mix) from Victor and Avision.