Some dreams are so sweet, they can only be painted in the most electric colours. Whether they’re remembered brightly, or imagined vividly.
The musical dreams and imaginings of the dynamic duo that manifest band Neon Dreams, are as bright as your favourite colours, because in my opinion, you know a song is good when it feels like your favourite colour, writes Cape {Town} Etc’s Ashleigh Nefdt.
So, who are Neon Dreams, which songs may become the soundtrack to your best days, and how did the Canadian maple syrups get to South Africa?
Neon Dreams
- The honey warm vocals of Frank Kadillac and the rhythmical artistry of Adrian Morris compromise the Canadian duo. Their music surpasses any one genre and flows subtly through a wave of sounds. From alternative pop to RnB, to punk and a taste of rap, they’ve got a sound appeasing to ears of all likings to hit the sweet spot of many frequencies. After all, as Kadillac once said, ND is more of a journey than a genre.
- They’ve got some truly dope albums under their names that will make your ears happy, but one of their first songs to stroll proudly onto the music scene, being gold certified, was “Marching Bands” back in the back of 2016.
How their song grooved into SA’s scenes
- The song and the adventure to SA went together like intertwined imaginings. Life Without Fantasies, originally released in 2019, grooved it’s way into the South African scene a whole year later, peaking on a lot of our local charts like Spotify’s Viral 50. The duo reported to NowinSA that fans from Joburg to Cape Town to Durban and Pretoria had reached out, saying “the most beautiful things”. And so, their tour in SA seems like a strangely fitting home coming.
“We are extremely grateful for the love we are experiencing. Sometimes music just needs to find the right home,” Frank said to NowinSA.
- Album wise, ‘Sweet Dreams till Sunbeams’ (2019) and latest release ‘The Happiness of Tomorrow'(2020) take us through a lot of the coming of age narrative in finding belonging. The latter album , which was inspired during the pandemic’s frosting period explored the outsider status that a lot of people feel, and turned it into melodies.
- The name itself comes from the words of a someone Frank spoke to at a party once, as told to wonderlandmagazine who said “hangovers are just borrowing from the happiness of tomorrow, and that’s why the next day always sucks.” That album too is amazing, and has a golden ticket on the tracks, ‘House Party’, for sure worth the listen.
Cape Town groove
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Their Performance
- I had the musical fortune of getting to see the Halifax duo do their thing at an intimate performance at Selective Live.
- The layout of the ‘concert’ felt more like being in a friend’s lounge, and the familiarity with which the two interacted with the audience was a tribute to how their music does just the same. It was a close affair, with ND knowing a lot of the people there, but even hearing from others who attended their bigger events in SA, the common denominator is that the band create the most welcoming atmosphere, with a genuine energy that transcends through their music. It’s like, you know the music is them in authentic way, not just because it will sound good. You’re hearing someone’s life, and then it becomes yours.
Tour Dates
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Picture: Instagram/@Neon Dreams @Nico Welgemoed