Ireland’s Cardinals today share their debut single proper in the form of the brooding “Roseland”, their first release for So Young Records and their much-anticipated first material since a self-release, “Amsterdam” and its B-side “The Brow”, were uploaded earlier this year to Bandcamp and fervent word of mouth spread across Ireland around these and their enigmatic early live shows.
Starting as a light-hearted idea between two sixteen-year-olds in a sleepy fishing town on the southern coast of Ireland, a whole joke-taken-to-heart later and their difference is marked by an early immersion in Cork’s live music scene, “we were into what we were hearing but knew we could never be part of it, we wanted to juxtapose ourselves,” says front man Euan Manning, “not for the sake of doing something different but because we have pop-leaning influences and didn’t want to shy away from that.” Now barely twenty, the six-piece are next in an Irish line changing the sound of alternative music.
Perpetually keeping outside of their comfort zone, their sound has echoes of Big Music, of the effervescence of 80s indie, conjuring up an eclectic, gothic amalgam of shoegaze, Irish trad folk and alternative music for an ambitious sound that has already carved them out as a marked side-step to the recent bands who’ve broken through around them.
Euan had the following to say about the single, one that builds and builds to a thrilling final third: “Roseland is the name of a ballroom in NYC, I took it from a Portishead poster I had hanging on my wall growing up. I think I was trying to write a folk song about Cork city and a story that took place there. It touches on some new aspects of our music, so it felt right to have it as our next release.”
Following a filmed performance for Other Voices in their homeland, and the enviable support of Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten, who called them “one of my favourite new bands” during an interview with Radio 1, the band return to London to play The Great Escape’s First Fifty showcase on November 15th at The Victoria, with Picture Parlour and Trout.
“Roseland” is their first material recorded with Richie Kennedy (U2, Interpol) with further music to follow in 2024.
Cardinals are:
Euan Manning – guitar and vocals
Kieran Hurley – guitar
Oskar Gudinovic – guitar
Aaron Hurley – bass
Finn Manning – accordion
Darragh Manning – drums
