Hailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Alt-Pop duo Neon Dreams releases their highly acclaimed music video for their single “Sick of Feeling Useless.”
The duo has a very interesting creative process, as they speak upon their current feelings before their recording sessions to see if they can strike gold with a common emotion.
Doing so with their latest music video, Adrian Morris, Frank Kadillac, and friend/collaborator Nathaniel Motte (3OH3!) all shared the same feeling of wanting to do more with their lives.
Creating an astounding stop motion music video to provide something fresh to quarantined performances, Neon Dreams definitely isn’t as useless as they think.
Neon Dreams really could’ve just cropped together their isolated performances, yet instead, they decided to take the next creative step and add these brilliant stop motion images of several nostalgic elements like; Pokemon, Pac-Man, Hot Wheels, etc.
While Neon Dreams belts out their anthemic lyrics that we can all relate to, we’re kept hooked on the video through crafty editing techniques and an overall authentic and unique approach to quarantined music videos.
Your latest music video for your single “Sick of Feeling Useless” is incredibly creative. What initially sparked the idea for a stop motion music video?
We were in quarantine and brainstorming how we could create a music video that didn’t feel like it was anything less than previous videos we’ve done. Frank had a bunch of ideas to create scenes that were reminiscent of some early 2000’s music videos but one of them he mentioned was a stop motion scene. When I was a kid, I had made a few stop motion videos for fun so I suggested that we did the whole thing stop motion combining the other ideas we had. Once we started shooting all the transition and effect ideas just started flowing! - AM
Neon Dreams incorporates nostalgic stop motion images from Pac-Man to Pokemon. Why did you want to add these unique aspects to the video, and what role did they play with the storyline?
I love it when I watch a movie and the background relates to everything I grew up on like the last 2 movies Pete Davidson starred in. King of statin island and big-time adolescence the environment hooked me in and felt like I was reliving my childhood. So I always try to recreate the same feeling but with all the cartoons and games we used to watch. - FK
We’ve heard that this video took around two weeks to create, with about 2477 photos taken. What was the most challenging aspect of the music video’s creation?
Definitely making sure we had everything in order and lined upright. Each second of the video was 12 photos, so to make sure everything was going to sync correctly with the lyrics. I had to keep in mind the 12 photo rules constantly. It was a lot of mental math and sometimes a shot in the dark but luckily almost all the shots worked out! “Sick of Feeling Useless” has had incredible success thanks to a Reddit post that went viral. Why do you think so many people are loving the music video, and what do you think initially drew them in?
The video is really nostalgic and a lot of the comments were things like “This looks like it’s straight from 90’s MTV!” or “No one puts this kind of effort into music videos anymore!” A lot of comments really praised the editing and the fact that all the effects we’re done analog and nothing in post-editing. I think people just understood we put a lot of passion and hard work into the video. - AM Seeing as your video has gained lots of success, have Neon Dreams discussed ideas for new songs or videos to keep those fans locked in?
When I discovered my favorite bands growing up I was able to step into their world like it was a house. Each album/video had so many different textures and colors... Those were the decorations. Then the message was the foundation and the emotion of feeling safe while listening was the roof of the house. That’s what we want to do for our fans.
What's next for Neon Dreams?
We’re working on our next album! So excited because we’re bringing back everything we grew up on. The theme is a coming of age soundtrack to a late 90s early 2000s movie. From start to finish each track can be played throughout a whole movie.
I think we all have those moments when we are watching a life-changing movie when something soooo relatable happens on-screen and you feel emotional about it... then bammmm the song that your gonna sing for the rest of your life comes on. I live for moments like that. - FK
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