• 2023-

  Euan ManningVocals, guitar

  Finn ManningAccordion

  Darragh ManningDrums

  Oskar Gudjonsson Guitar

  Aaron HurleyBass
• Cardinals are a band from Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland, built around a family core: brothers Euan Manning (guitar, vocals) and Finn Manning (accordion). An early lineup of the group had Euan on drums (the role later taken by their cousin Darragh) and school mates Oskar Gudinovic and Aaron Hurley on guitar and bass. For a period of two shows, Finn was their manager. "I was mainly just trying to get them free beer," he laughed to Mojo magazine. "I even turned up to the gigs in the suit."
• Cardinals came together less by grand design than by circumstance. "There was no band in our city making the music we wanted to hear, so we decided we'd start to write and play together," Finn told Good Call Music.
  
  Cousin Darragh was recruited after the brothers ran into him at a family christening - he had been studying avant-garde jazz drumming and playing in marching bands before making the switch to rock. The band officially formed in March 2023.
• Before Cardinals, Euan and Finn Manning's musical tastes ran more to rap than rock. "He was more Tupac and I was more Biggie," Euan told Sound of Brit. "We tried rapping, we weren't very good, so it was rock and roll instead."
  
  He describes it as "the Nirvana arc," seeing a common thread of angst running from hip-hop through to rock.
• The accordion - Cardinals' most distinctive sonic calling card - was not part of the original plan. It was when Euan asked his brother to add the squeeze box to their debut single, "Roseland," that they came up with their distinctive sound. "If you know Cork and the streets that are mentioned, the lyrics really conjure up images in your mind. It reminded me of Irish folk artists like the Clancy Brothers, but with an edge to it," recalled Finn to Mojo. "It showed that we were capable of writing songs like that without sounding like those Celtic punk bands we abhor, that we could do it delicately."
• Though he plays in an Irish rock band rooted in Cork City, Finn Manning's accordion style draws on an unlikely influence. "I love the Amelie soundtrack," he told Sound of Brit. "It's a romantic instrument, traditional, but played in somewhat of a contemporary style. It kind of gives nods back to how we started playing music as well."
  
  That tension between tradition and modernity is central to Cardinals' sound.
• The band named themselves Cardinals without realizing the name was already associated with Ryan Adams' backing band. "There is Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, but we didn't know who they were until after we named ourselves," Finn told Good Call Music. "Hopefully we can hold onto it. I know there's a big American football team with that name - I think it's football anyway, could be baseball."
  
  Crucially, the Cork band go simply by Cardinals, with no "The."

Comments

More Songfacts:

Pretty VacantSex Pistols

The riff for The Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant" was pinched from a very unpunk song, the ABBA ballad "S.O.S."

My LifeBilly Joel

Billy Joel's "My Life" was used as the theme song to the 1980 TV show Bosom Buddies, which starred a young Tom Hanks as a guy who lives in a hotel for women by dressing up as a girl.

Strawberry Letter 23The Brothers Johnson

"Strawberry Letter 23" by The Brothers Johnson was written by Shuggie Otis, whose girlfriend would send him letters written on strawberry-scented paper.

ZombieThe Cranberries

"Zombie" by The Cranberries is about an IRA bombing in England that killed two children.

MacArthur ParkRichard Harris

Richard Harris, who played Professor Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies, had a hit in 1968 with "MacArthur Park."

Dance Hall DaysWang Chung

Wang Chung's '80s classic "Dance Hall Days" is about how things can start simple but end up complex. First you "take your baby by the hand," but by the end she has an amethyst in her mouth.

Editor's Picks

Tom Johnston from The Doobie BrothersSongwriter Interviews

The Doobies guitarist and lead singer, Tom wrote the classics "Listen To The Music," "Long Train Runnin'" and "China Grove."

Lori McKennaSongwriter Interviews

Lori's songs have been recorded by Faith Hill and Sara Evans. She's performed on the CMAs and on Oprah. She also has five kids.

Dave Pirner of Soul AsylumSongwriter Interviews

Dave explains how the video appropriated the meaning of "Runaway Train," and what he thought of getting parodied by Weird Al.

HardySongwriter Interviews

The country hitmaker talks about his debut album, A Rock, and how a nursery rhyme inspired his hit single "One Beer."

Gavin Rossdale On Lyric Inspirations and Bush's Album The KingdomSongwriter Interviews

The Bush frontman on where he finds inspiration for lyrics, if his "machine head" is a guitar tuner, and the stories behind songs from the album The Kingdom.

Second Wind SongsSong Writing

Some songs get a second life when they find a new audience through a movie, commercial, TV show, or even the Internet.