Synth-pop never really left the dance floor. It just changed clothes. One minute it is neon and sequencers, the next it is lo-fi grit with a pop-rock kick, and listeners still call the whole family EDM when the pulse is there. That is the lane Mai Resol is walking with ON THE OUTSIDE.
Cole Bernard used to release as Moth-Eaten Measure. Now the project is Mai Resol, built for his synth-pop work. He started as a hip-hop producer selling beats online, then shifted into solo records he could write, produce, record, and mix himself. The first single under that DIY habit was Flash, late 2018, all his own. In May 2020 came the debut album Lying Over Seeking Every Real, also self-produced and engineered, stacked with that 80s synth-pop glow people keep coming back to.
He is open about the map. New wave is the spine. The names he cites are Ariel Pink, The Cure, Alvvays, and Neon Indian. That mix tells you a lot before you even hit play: analog-feeling synths, hooks that want to linger, a little haze, a little bite. He has said he is now putting out a run of singles in a fresher style, more lo-fi pop-rock than the first album’s full 80s costume. ON THE OUTSIDE sits in that next chapter, tagged EDM on the submission while the writing still lives in synth-pop and new wave.
That overlap is not a stretch in 2026. Synth-pop is often treated as an EDM cousin rather than a separate planet: sequenced rhythms, electronic textures, songs built to move even when they stay song-shaped instead of drop-shaped. The current wave of lo-fi and indie-leaning electronic pop is doing the same thing Cole describes, taking vintage synth language and sanding it down so it feels closer to a bedroom than a stadium. If you already live in playlists that bounce between The Cure’s mood, Neon Indian’s glow, and modern electronic pop, this is the neighborhood.
What matters here is the process. This is not a writer handing stems to a big-room team. Bernard has been building the catalog himself since Flash. That hip-hop-producer start still shows in the independence: beats first, then a full project identity, then an album, now a string of singles meant to show a new texture. Independent EDM and synth-pop scenes run on that exact loop. Artists who can finish a record at home and still sound like a scene, not a demo, are the ones playlists keep fishing for.
ON THE OUTSIDE is another of those self-contained statements. The title alone does the work a lot of new-wave writing used to do: distance, observation, the feeling of watching a room instead of owning it. I am not going to invent lyrics or a drop-by-drop breakdown you did not send. The honest read is the one in the bio. Former beatmaker. Self-made debut. 80s synth-pop album. New-wave influences. New singles tilting lo-fi pop-rock while still living under the EDM umbrella for listeners who find music by energy first.
If you make music in this lane, distribution is the unglamorous half of the job. Getting the track onto Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube is how a bedroom synth record becomes something someone can actually save at 1 a.m. DistroKid keeps that part simple for independent artists, and you get 7% off your membership with this link: https://distrokid.com/vip/seven/2058328. More platforms, more of the money stays with the person who wrote the thing.
What do you hear first in ON THE OUTSIDE, the 80s synth-pop or the lo-fi pop-rock turn? Drop it in the comments.
