Hello everyone it’s your host Daniel from Dulaxi, and today I have with me the exceptional future wave art-pop project, M4TR from Washington, D.C., United States. And M4TR is here to discuss their recent remix album “Reimagination: The Remixes, Vol. 1” which was released on April 17th, 2026. So, welcome, M4TR! But before we begin our interview, to our audience; here is what you need to know about this artist.
Led by songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, arranger, and sound engineer AJ Solaris, M4TR (Music 4 The Revolution) is a Washington, D.C.-based future wave art-pop project known for blending new wave, synthpop, funk, and disco into what the band describes as “good times for the end times.” Since forming in 2016, M4TR has built a reputation for emotionally charged, socially conscious music that explores themes of modern collapse, cosmic rebirth, obsession, love, and activism through irresistible grooves and sharp commentary. The project has accumulated over 2.7 million streams across 4,000+ playlists in 150 countries, while performing more than 100 shows across the DC area at venues including Jammin Java, Songbyrd Café, Pearl Street Warehouse, and The Renegade. Their critically acclaimed 2025 album “Love Is The Revolution” surpassed one million streams and became M4TR’s most celebrated body of work to date, while previous releases like the “No Tomorrow EP” earned recognition including a Wammie Award nomination for Best Electronic Album. Now entering a bold new era, M4TR recently released “Reimagination: The Remixes, Vol. 1”, a 10-track, 48-minute remix collection that reimagines songs from “Love Is The Revolution” through collaborations with Grammy-winning producer Philip Larsen and Billboard chart-topping remixer Mr. Mig. The album transforms tracks like “Coup de Grace,” “The Spektre,” “Kill The Self,” “Life Without Her,” and “Hooks” into immersive dancefloor experiences while preserving the emotional depth of the originals. The project marks the beginning of an ambitious remix series that will continue through 2027, with Vol. 2 already scheduled for release in September 2026. Alongside the remix series, AJ Solaris is also developing three new studio albums, “On Winter’s Edge,” “By Intelligent Design,” and “How To Start A Fire”, further expanding the evolving sonic universe of M4TR.
Having this brief Introduction about M4TR, I’m sure new and current fans must be excited about our Interview today.
INTERVIEW SESSION
Daniel: M4TR has been described as a “future wave art-pop project” delivering “good times for the end times,” how would you define the core identity of M4TR today, and how has that vision evolved since 2016?
Aj Solaris: The project was originally the title of a second album called Music For The Revolution, after an embarrassing first solo project when I was recording under a different name. I was so troubled by the political tumult infecting the US in 2017 that my defiance became all-consuming. So I dropped the name and used M4TR. It started as an activist solo EP, then an activist band, then the LP Rock To Resist By, but it all had more indie rock sensibilities. I think the worldview and lyrics have been pretty consistent throughout the project’s history.
But when I started writing the third album Love Is The Revolution and formed a second live band, the genre that emerged was what I call the “future wave,” which was set in the “retrofuture,” like an alternative timeline. Synth-driven, uptempo tracks with a hint of nostalgia but focused on modern angst. With the Reimagination remixes, I hear future wave.
Daniel: As the driving force behind M4TR, how do you balance your roles as songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and performer while maintaining a cohesive artistic direction?
Aj Solaris: It’s definitely tough. There’s also band manager, sound engineer, chief marketer. On one hand, after spending the “10,000 hours” across all of these roles, I’ve learned about the entire process. But it’s too much for one person. If I had to choose, songwriter would be at the top of the list. Performer is a close second.
I’m collaborating with producers now to bring some new perspectives and relief. They take a track where I can’t navigate on my own. I’m a keyboardist mostly, but I wrote half of Love Is The Revolution on acoustic guitar and I’m starting to play a lot of funk guitar. Writing on different instruments refreshingly produces different results. But no matter how hard I try to switch it up, the songs, chord progressions, and lyrics run through my lived experience and tastes. So that brings a degree of cohesion. The trick is how to retain some of that winning formula yet introduce new elements that surprise yourself and others.
Daniel: Your journey spans solo electrobusking performances to full live band experiences, how have these different performance formats shaped the sound and energy of M4TR?
Aj Solaris: I’ve had two live bands and I really enjoyed those journeys, which lasted about two years each. Different musicians can open up a song but also sometimes limit it. Both live bands gravitated toward rock but I think future wave sounds different somehow. I really like rich sonic textures, which I think you hear on the remix tracks, but that can be difficult to produce live. I only have two hands!
With the solo electrobusking, these new tracks with dramatically different rhythm and bass really drive a new live groove. I’m noticing people are dancing more to these new remixes. I’m moving to Chicago in 2026 and I’d like to bring in extra players to enhance it. Who knows, maybe there’s a third band just down the road.
Daniel: “Reimagination: The Remixes, Vol. 1” revisits tracks from Love Is The Revolution, what emotional or thematic layers did you feel were most important to preserve in these reworked versions?
Aj Solaris: I prefer exotic chord structures and melodies that feel unusual. Parallel major and minor keys, Mixolydian, Phrygian and Lydian modes, substitute chords, spare use of the tonic chord. Lyrically, I like clever turns of phrase, desert-dry wit, alliteration and what I’d generously call substandard caucasian rapping. These still feature in the remixes but they still feel very fresh.
Daniel: You describe your catalog as exploring narcissism, obsession, regret, and loss, how do these themes manifest differently in the remix versions compared to the originals?
Aj Solaris: Well, as my track Siren Song illustrates, you can spend countless hours with a song that leads to obsession and maybe regret. When you write, rehearse and play a song to death, the relationship changes. Songwriting is a form of torture if you’re a perfectionist. But I find remixing with talented engineers lets other people obsess on your behalf for a while. I just love how they refreshed songs I’d grown a little tired of. And in terms of those human themes, the lyrics explore agape, eros, philautia, philia, all of the aspects of love that need inquiry.
Daniel: Tracks like “Kill The Self” and “Coup de Grace” carry intense emotional narratives, how do the remixes reshape the listener’s interpretation of these stories?
Aj Solaris: Coup de Grace is about killing your enemies with kindness. Taking the high road takes discipline to not seek revenge or lash out in anger. Phil Larsen took this song with three distinct rhythmic sections and made it reflective yet funky. I’ve been closing street festival sets with that version and it feels alive.
Kill the Self is about a best childhood friend I lost a few years back to extreme self-obsession as an adult. Just a long downward spiral of toxic narcissism, which I think is at epidemic levels in society at large. It’s essentially a nostalgic dirge, especially the longing middle eight, and I play it to remember the person he once was but sadly no longer is. Sometimes the only way to grieve is to dance through it.
Daniel: “Hooks” explores the seductive and destructive power of melody, how does Mr. Mig’s Ibiza-inspired remix amplify or reinterpret that message?
Aj Solaris: On the surface, Hooks is about a fish falling in love with a girl on shore, a love that isn’t meant to be. He wants to be caught by her hook but then realizes he can catch her by writing pop songs and hook her instead. So its setting is obviously a beach, which is about as Ibiza as it gets. Mr. Mig heard that and leaned all the way into it.
Daniel: What was the collaborative dynamic like working with Philip Larsen and Mr. Mig, and how did their production styles influence the sonic architecture of the remixes?
Aj Solaris: Phil and Mr. Mig have very different instincts. Phil comes from a deep analog tradition, Erasure, Soft Cell, OMD, and he finds these synth patches that feel preserved in amber since 1984. Arps that sound like Duran Duran. Bass lines borrowed from Pet Shop Boys or Wham. Mr. Mig has a more maximalist, club-forward sensibility. Working with both gave Vol. 1 a range it couldn’t have had with one producer.
Daniel: Each track appears in both radio and extended versions, how did you approach structuring these formats to serve both casual listeners and club environments?
Aj Solaris: I grew up buying 12-inch remix singles. My favorite artists reimagined by Shep Pettibone, Trevor Horn, Daniel Miller, Nile Rodgers. Those extended mixes were the real versions to me. A radio edit is more of a movie trailer to a bigger film, the remix is the blockbuster. Dance music is supposed to take its time. It’s a trance that should last longer than three-and-a-half minutes. You’re supposed to lose yourself in it.
Spotify would prefer everything run under three minutes to maximize completion rates and stream counts, and that instinct is the enemy of what I was trying to do. So I made both short and long mixes. But the extended versions are what I prefer. Releasing them was a small act of defiance. Algorithms have no memory of the vinyl turntable age and in fact actively try to destroy it.
Daniel: Your sound blends new wave, synthpop, funk, and disco, how do you technically layer these influences to achieve a balance between nostalgia and modernity?
Aj Solaris: There was a time not too long ago when all of these genres sat comfortably side by side and influenced one another. I suppose the blending comes from subconscious channelling of all the things I ever heard and appreciated. I don’t think the conscious mind drives songwriting. You just channel the universe and your favorite songs from the soundtrack of your lifelong experience. You let go and see what fits together.
Daniel: Looking back at early releases like eightysixfortyfive and Rock To Resist By, how has your perspective as an artist shifted leading into Reimagination: The Remixes, Vol. 1?
Aj Solaris: The early records were more fist-in-the-air. Rock To Resist By was explicitly about collective action and protest music. That era was driven by defiance of Trump 1.0 in the U.S. But I also think the Resistance erred too far into sanctimony and purity tests, so I wrote about that on the second album, Next. You’ll find nuanced viewpoints on race and freedom of speech. Love Is The Revolution took a break from all of that as political extremism took a brief pause. Now it’s back and the risk of autocracy is worse.
I think two of the next three albums I’m writing now will return to a more incisive take of the state of the world, a return to the beginning in terms of subject matter and lyrics. I’m writing about how AI threatens humanity and this drift toward autocracy in America and across the globe. We’re essentially living through a sequel with Trump 2.0, so I feel the need to address it. But the M4TR sound will stay true to the future wave perspective of the new remixes moving forward, I think.
Daniel: The transition from politically charged work to the emotional spectrum explored in Love Is The Revolution marks a significant shift, what drove that evolution?
Aj Solaris: To be honest, the political moment shifted in 2020 and political rage is not the right muse for multiple albums. Every album is a reflection of a phase and a moment in time. Next was written during COVID and reflects isolation. Love Is The Revolution sought to explore how love shapeshifts and unites or even separates us. I went on a legal psychedelic retreat while writing the album and became convinced love is the force that binds us together and animates all things.
Daniel: During the COVID era, you stripped M4TR down to a more personal, electronic form, how did that period redefine your creative instincts?
Aj Solaris: COVID killed the first band, so it was just me and my MacBook. I bought a Fender acoustic and started relearning my songs using the barre chords from my high school days. Then I started writing new songs that way which became more rhythmic because the wrist can syncopate better. A good song should work both as an acoustic sketch by a campfire and as a fully immersive multi-instrumental track. I also introduced more vocoders, arps and sequencers during COVID, which became part of that future wave sound.
Daniel: With themes ranging from societal collapse to cosmic rebirth, how has your worldview influenced the storytelling across your catalog?
Aj Solaris: There’s a word I came across recently, “apocaloptimism.” The ability to look clearly at how bad things are and still refuse to give up. That’s my worldview. Clear-eyed positivity. Our dystopia is driven by our media diet, algorithmic force feeding, doomscrolling, AI deepfakes that warp our brain. The antidote isn’t staying online. It’s touching grass. It’s looking strangers in the eye. It’s being in a room with people who showed up for the same reason you did. Every time I play a gig and someone dances or sings back, that’s where I find this cosmic rebirth.
Daniel: You’ve described reaching for connection in a collapsing world as a radical act, how has that philosophy impacted your growth both personally and artistically?
Aj Solaris: The outdoor concert is still the closest thing I have to a religious experience. Tens of thousands of people who don’t know each other, singing the same words at the same moment. I’m not talking about my own gigs of course. I can’t command those kinds of crowds. But even at my gigs, there’s a lot of dancing, audience participation and smiling, which are all signs of connection.
Daniel: With over 2.7 million streams across 150 countries, how have audiences responded differently to your music across regions and cultures?
Aj Solaris: Well, when you’re talking streaming, you’re talking solipsism, the inability to confirm any humanity behind the data signals. Those streaming numbers may sound like a lot but I don’t really know what they mean. The data suggests my music is reaching all corners of the globe. But is it connection? Tech platforms are trying to maximize distraction in an attention-deficit economy, which is about as far from connection as you can get. But to those listeners in the US, UK, Australia, Europe and South America, I hope you’re digging the sound and I hope one day we really connect.
Daniel: Your music has been called “therapy you can dance to”, how do you see listeners emotionally connecting with your work on and off the dancefloor?
Aj Solaris: My sense is people have no idea what I’m saying on stage initially if it’s the first time they’ve heard the song, so sometimes I set it up with some context. They are primarily reacting to the music and the invitation to sing “do do do,” yell out “monkey” or sway “to fight the good fight.” If they revisit the music after the gig, I hope they check out the lyrics, because I think they’re making some pretty deep observations. As for me, songwriting is indeed cheap therapy.
Daniel: With Reimagination: The Remixes, Vol. 2 and a Complete Edition planned, what can listeners expect from the continuation of this series?
Aj Solaris: Vol. 2 is going to be a strong sequel. I’ll say that without hesitation. Phil Larsen is working on five more tracks. I’ll probably bring in another producer just to vary it a bit. I’m especially excited about reworking older tracks like Monkey God and Cancel Culture, so you’ll hear stuff that predates Love Is The Revolution as well.
Daniel: You have multiple upcoming studio albums in development, “On Winter’s Edge”, “By Intelligent Design”, and “How To Start A Fire”, what direction are you most excited to explore next?
Aj Solaris: On Winter’s Edge is where my head is right now. It’s a downtempo, reflective record spawned by the breakup of the last band and a bit of writer’s block. I was basically wintering. It has gentle grooves but more atmosphere. There are songs about living with dysthymia, empty nesting, steadfast love and how young love dissipates over time.
For By Intelligent Design and How To Start A Fire, I feel the need to write songs about technology and politics that rise to the moment we’re in, but with more maturity than the early stuff. It will be edgy and funky. I’ll keep those LPs at a crisp eight tracks each so they fit neatly on vinyl. I like the idea of creating real world artifacts that survive climate disaster, economic collapse or what have you. We need an analog revolution for human reconnection. I think it’s inevitable.
Having Had A Close Listen To This Reimagined, Dancefloor-driven Body Of Work, Here Is My Thought.
Having had a close listen to “Reimagination: The Remixes, Vol. 1,” I find myself drawn into a meticulously constructed reworking of M4TR’s sonic identity, where familiar material from “Love Is The Revolution” is not simply remixed but fully reimagined into a cohesive, club-oriented experience. From my perspective, the album succeeds most in its balance between emotional continuity and dancefloor functionality, with Grammy-winning producer Philip Larsen and Billboard chart-topper Mr. Mig shaping each track into distinct yet unified expressions of rhythm, atmosphere, and movement. Larsen’s reinterpretations of tracks like “Coup de Grace,” “The Spektre,” “Kill The Self,” and “Life Without Her” feel particularly immersive, transforming them into propulsive, low-end-driven club pieces while still retaining the emotional weight embedded in the originals, while Mr. Mig’s work on “Hooks” injects a distinct Ibiza-inspired energy that elevates its radio and extended versions into pure kinetic release. Vocally, I notice a deliberate shift away from traditional narrative prominence, as AJ Solaris’s delivery is often processed, looped, or strategically minimized to function as a textural instrument within the production, reinforcing the album’s themes of transformation, repetition, and emotional recalibration. Conceptually, the record continues M4TR’s exploration of internal conflict, memory, liberation, and psychological evolution, but reframes these ideas through cyclical structures that mirror the hypnotic nature of electronic dance music. The production itself is sleek, precise, and modern, built on pulsating basslines, crisp percussion, and layered synth textures that maintain clarity even in their most dense moments, creating a soundscape that feels both controlled and expansive. What stands out most in my listening experience is the sequencing, which ensures a seamless flow across all ten tracks and allows the project to function as a continuous journey rather than a collection of individual remixes, ultimately making “Reimagination: The Remixes, Vol. 1” a disciplined, immersive, and conceptually coherent reinterpretation that successfully bridges artistic depth with pure dancefloor intent.
~ Daniel (Dulaxi Team).
Finally to our audience, I urge to listen to the album; “Reimagination: The Remixes, Vol. 1”, add its songs to your playlist and be inspired by them. On behalf of Dulaxi I like to appreciate you all by saying thank you everyone, See you on our next interview.
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