When the Canadian duo Neon Dreams’ “Life Without Fantasies” started taking over the South African music scene, after failing to garner much success in Canada, there was no doubt that they had to make the journey to Cape Town.
“I remember the day Adrian tapped me and said, ‘Hey man’, Life Without Fantasies is growing in South Africa, we should keep an eye on it. And then the following weeks we were getting messages and tags every day, to the point it was hard to keep up with,” vocalist Frank Kadillac recalls.
Kadillac says that despite people advising them not to, they knew in their hearts that they had to go to South Africa. Even though it was still in the middle of the pandemic, they announced the tour, and it sold out in minutes.
“And now, every year we come back because we found our real family and we want to keep spreading love and showing other artists the love and vibration of South Africa, it’s truly a beautiful country.”
Alongside Adrian Morris on drums, Kadillac aims to provide people with sunshine music, as he calls it. Kadillac classifies their music as music that is healing and uplifting, and mimics the way your skin feels when you step out of the cold into the sun. He says that his music is meant to help people through the day and inspire them to laugh everything off.
Kadillac explains how his music is inspired by everything from a broken branch with a little leaf falling from it to the people closest to him. He sees life as the greatest TV show and sees the beauty in even the smallest things.
“Life Without Fantasies” became a song thanks to the people of Denmark. “I saw these new friends of mine treat each other with so much love every day and I realized it’s all I ever wanted. Love and a little bit of pain to know what’s real,” Kadillac explains.
When watching the duo perform live it’s hard to comprehend how only two people can light up an entire crowd the way Neon Dreams does. Their stage presence is energetic, and positivity follows them.
“Our biggest dream was to play a Warped Tour and we have been obsessed with playing live shows since we were kids. But I’ll have to credit Adrian for being such an amazing musician and tech wizard, he really makes this show feel massive,” Kadillac responds.
“Stellenbosch was the first place we played on our South Africa[n] tour, and it will always be a pleasure coming back each year,” Kadillac says. Neon dreams already took the stage in Stellenbosch twice in 2023 and will revisit on 31 March at The Daisy Jones Bar at Summerhill Wines.
