Neon Dreams come true at DalFest

In 2012, Adrian Morris, the lead singer of Neon Dreams, attended DalFest to see the Toronto band, Keys N Krates. Fourteen years later, Morris and the other half of Neon Dreams, Frank Kadillac, prepare to perform on that same stage.

A blend of various and vast genres, Neon Dreams finds inspiration in whatever they are listening to at the moment. Whether that’s folk, Indigenous rock, alt-pop or alt-rock — their music is a melting pot for any and every type of sound. 

Their inspirations may be unpredictable, but their performances aren’t. Morris says Dalhousie University audiences can expect an uplifting and hopeful presence from the duo. 

“When you leave the show, you feel like there’s a lot of love,” says Morris.

The duo will open for the Beaches on Sept. 11 at DalFest, the Dalhousie Student Union’s largest annual event. 

They have been in bands together since high school when Morris was 15 and Kadillac was 16, but it wasn’t until their early twenties that they formed Neon Dreams. 

“At that point, all our bands had broken up,” says Morris. “We just decided to start producing music.” 

Together, Morris and Kadillac became engrossed in making electronic dance music, but only played their songs to friends and didn’t perform publicly. It wasn’t until 2013, when a friend approached them with a last-minute plea to perform, that they finally showcased their new music to audiences. 

“Before the show, we needed a name real quick, and we came up with Neon Dreams just to go play the show,” says Morris.

Morris remembers receiving a whole new reaction from the audience during Neon Dreams’ debut. 

“It was the first time anybody had ever respected us,” he says. “There’s a difference between ‘Oh good job’ and ‘That was amazing.’” 

Before the show, Morris and Kadillac had no intention of becoming a band, but they reconsidered after the performance’s positive response.

“It came from just doing a favour for a friend,” says Morris. 

Interested in success beyond the Halifax music scene, Neon Dreams hopped in their van and drove all over the country to promote their music. 

“We had nothing but the lint in our pockets and some lobster keychains and gave [our music] to radio stations hoping they would play our music,” says Kadillac. “That was how we broke out.”

During COVID-19, Morris and Kadillac were in a transitional period with Neon Dreams, having just wrapped up their first-ever U.S. tour. The two now wanted their music to reach an international audience. That’s when Morris began to notice an influx of streams on their songs from South Africa. 

“The point we really knew something was connecting was [when] all of a sudden we were getting hundreds of messages from kids in South Africa,” says Morris. 

In 2021, Morris and Kadillac embarked on their first tour there. 

“It was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before,” says Morris. The experience changed their lives, and now the group splits their time between Canada and South Africa. 

During their first trip to South Africa, Morris and Kadillac wrote their song, “Little Dance,” inspired by the magic of their experience. 

“[The song] holds this special moment in time for me in my life that I will always cherish and remember,” says Morris. “It’s one of the most important moments in my entire life.”