MILWAUKEE — Montreal Cain grew up in a musical family. He uses music to help address mental health through the MERA Response Team, which stands for Monitor, Engage, Recommend and Advocate.
"My father's a musician, a producer...I had the privilege to be on American Idol season 11 and I've been singing since I was three years old from the Boys and Girls Club to the Youth Leadership Academy," said Cain.
Montreal will take his musical skills to the Jammin' 98.3 stage at Juneteenth this year to help people better understand how music and mental health go hand-in-hand.
"We're gonna use this time to perform and educate how we can use music and mindfulness as a better way to cope," said Cain.
Research shows that relaxing music has the ability to lower heart rate, blood pressure and can even help ease pain, stress and anxiety.
"Doing evidence-based research backed by science to show if you listen to certain songs, whether it be the tempo, the frequency or the pace, we actually watch people's heart rate decrease," said Cain.
Montreal is also a mentor at Running Rebels, where he holds workshops with young people to help ease their minds from every day stress.
"We actually leave this facility and we go to other places. We go to Franklin Square, we go to Atkinson Park... We're attracting young people with the music and we're talking about meditation, better ways to cope, how to use music, how to do deep breathing, to understand your pulse, how you're feeling and ultimately how to mitigate those emotions," said Cain.
He will share those techniques Sunday at the Juneteenth Day ceremony.
"We just use music to create a great vibe, allow people to just chill out, relax, enjoy, so I'm excited to just see the response," said Cain.
Juneteenth falls on Father's Day this year and Montreal hasn't hesitated to pass on his skills to his son M.J., who clearly looks up to his dad.
"He's always been a really strong role model in my life. I've always looked up to him and wanted to be like him from a young age, like sitting under the desk while he would edit photos and stuff. I always wanted to learn what he had to teach me," said Montreal Cain II.
