Cardinals tonight – recorded live at the 2025 Eurosonic Festival in Groningen on January of this year.
Cardinals are a six-piece band from Cork making waves in the current boom of Irish guitar music. Their self-titled debut EP showcases a distinct blend of raw indie and post-punk influences, yet their sound stands out due to a unique combination of musical curiosity and subversive elements. Guitarists Kieran Hurley and Oskar Gudinovic bring a raw, scuzzy energy, while frontman Euan Manning’s sweet, pop-centric vocal melodies and his brother Finn’s accordion add an offbeat touch that sets them apart from their contemporaries.
Cardinals blend influences from The Beach Boys and traditional Irish music, with Oskar’s classical training and Darragh Manning’s “aficionado” drumming further enriching their sound. Their music often evokes a layered, otherworldly quality, especially in tracks like the haunting “If I Could Make You Care,” where the accordion and guitars create a mesmerizing atmosphere.
A philosophy of taking it moment by moment and constantly reaching the next milestone isn’t unique to the band, but the ease with which they’ve hit new levels one after the other just might be. Since releasing their first single ‘Amsterdam’ just a couple of years ago, they’ve ploughed their own furrow with a sound which sometimes settles near Echo & The Bunnymen, sometimes REM, and sometimes somewhere completely different. Latest single ‘Get It’ is yet another shift, half love-song and half melancholic reflection on peoples’ changing natures, it’s also maybe the poppiest track they’ve released to date. “The reaction’s been class,” says Oskar. “It’s even reached America pretty well.”
Part of the joy for any band is the opportunity to fly thousands of miles away and experience a new country while technically claiming it’s all for work and you’re definitely not only doing it so you can see the Statue of Liberty and take photos of yellow taxicabs. But distance can also reduce a band down to a few broad strokes in the eyes of wherever they’re going, with a band like Cardinals running the risk of being labelled one-dimensionally as an ‘Irish band’, with none of the nuance that entails. “You can definitely feel the fetishization of Irish culture, both in the UK and the US, and further afield.” says Euan. “But that doesn’t mean we’re going to throw away or neglect our heritage. We’re quite proud Irish men, and proud Cork men as well. We just take it in our stride. There is a lot to take from our cultural identity, and there’s no point putting that on the back burner just because we’re afraid of people fetishizing it.”
And here is their appearance at Eurosonic earlier this year. Plug in and enjoy.
