'I'm gonna do my best to make music for people to heal to,' says Juno-nominated Frank Kadillac of Neon Dreams

It's been a busy time for Neon Dreams, a pop duo from Nova Scotia. After years of making heavy electronic pop, singer Frank Kadillac made a drastic change in the type of music he was creating. 

"I got sick to my stomach," Kadillac told Tapestry guest-host Laurie Brown, about listening to the band's older music. 

"I'm like this [music] is not what I want to put out into the world. I don't want to put out a song that makes someone feel sad and it's just helping them feel worse."

"If you know something that will help people, you should share it with people. Or like, why did the universe give that to you? Just to hold on to it and throw it away?

Kadillac says their newer music builds on the inspirational feel of their 2016 song Marching Bands (featuring Kardinal Offishall) --  the song that helped the band get a spot in the 2017 Allan Slaight JUNO Master Class Winners. 

Music for healing

For Kadillac, connecting with his fans is key to realizing the vision for his music. Hearing from fans confirms his music is having the impact he had always hoped for. 

"Every day people are messaging us saying.... 'You're helping me get through life when I'm having the worst time and your music is getting me through this.' And that's all I wanted."

Kadillac himself had a difficult childhood and found music provided him the perfect outlet through which to heal. He hopes to reach fans who are in need of positive support.

"You know there's the cool kids, there's the outsiders, and then there's us. The people are in between -- stuck in limbo with life. Every show I go to, you just see in their face. They're all similar and [have] similar problems. I listen a lot to the stories and a lot of them are similar when you go to meet and greets, [yet] none of them look the same. " 

Frank Kadillac of Neon Dreams opens up about growing up

6 years ago

Duration 1:25

Frank Kadillac of Neon Dreams opens up about his childhood on Metro Morning during Sounds of the Season.

Spiritual retreat

Back in the spring of 2019, a stressed out and overworked Kadillac found himself thinking his Uber driver's car smelled like "heaven". It was the smell of essential oils. He found out the name of the store that sold it, and visited it.  There he saw and ad to for the Sedona Mago Retreat Center.

But it wasn't until a panic attack that Kadillac knew he needed help. He called his manager and booked a week- long detox retreat, that ended up providing a profound therapeutic experience. 

"It was the most healing thing I ever did in my life and that's why a lot of our music is different now. Because they helped me understand who I am," Kadillac told Brown. 

"[The retreat facilitators went back to when I was a kid and all this trauma - cause you block it all out as you get older  -and you don't get taught how to decompress from all these things. So it builds up into your personality." 

Kadillac's experience of trauma is pervasive through his upbringing in Ontario and Nova Scotia. His family moved around a lot and constantly being the 'new kid,' he was an easy target for bullies and experienced racism. 

Meanwhile, his young mother worked several jobs while studying for a nursing degree, which meant leaving Kadillac with babysitters, where he was physically abused by a caregiver. 

However Kadillac believes these experiences have provided him with a special insight that he channels into his music.

 "I guess from all the traumas it made me a quiet kid, but it made me really observant of life," Kadillac said. "My uncle said it the best, he said to me 'you will understand people the most because of what you've gone through'."

At the end of the retreat, Kadillac was guided to forgive the people who had hurt him.

Musical influences

Kadillac's lyrics in Neon Dreams draws on his own childhood traumas while also referencing hope he's found in other music.

In the 2019 song, Sweet Dreams till Sunbeams, Kadillac references himself.  

The lyrics say: 'Frankie was a kid with nowhere to sleep, Always someone there to shut down his dreams.'  
 
The song also takes a line from the popular standard, Dream a Little Dream of Me   by Mama Cass Elliot of The Mamas and the Papas.

Kadillac was inspired after hearing a remix of  California Dreamin' at a club in Halifax. 

""When I got home drunk that night I was like 'Who is this band'?"

"So I just started listening to their music and I heard the song Dream a Little Dream of Me and ...  [the lyric was] 'Sweet Dreams to sunbeams find you sweet dreams that we leave all worries behind you'. I'm like, WOW!  You know when you connect with something so hard? That moment is what I've been trying to get through to my fans."

He is committed to bringing his audience music that will uplift them and leave them feeling hopeful. 

"I have a gift -- a voice. I have a gift that people actually want to hear me sing. I'm gonna do my best to make music for people to heal to," Kadillac told Brown.

"It's like a house, you know. I'm building a house of positivity and I think the best I can do is make that house for them."