Cardinals Say New Album Will Be "Darker" Than Masquerade

Irish indie band Cardinals, from Cork, played their first-ever Reading & Leeds set at the festival's south stage on Friday, August 28, 2026, then sat down backstage with NME. The band gave an early look at the follow-up to their debut album Masquerade — and singer Euan Manning says it's landing darker than the first record, at least based on what they've written so far.

What Cardinals said about the new material

Euan told NME that months on the road tend to surface emotion in the songwriting whether the band intends it or not, which is part of why the new songs are skewing dark. Accordion player Finn Manning said Masquerade, released roughly six months ago, captured a specific chapter for the band and for him personally — and that their attention has now shifted fully to what comes next.

On influences, Euan named electronic music and black metal as recent listening staples: "We've been really into electronic music lately, some heavier stuff, and we've been listening to a lot of black metal." He was careful to frame this as texture rather than genre pivot — the album won't be a black metal record or an electronic one, but those directions may bleed into the sound.

Writing at home, not in the van

The band says the new record is still being written with no fixed deadline, and that the tour schedule makes sustained writing difficult — they grab time where they can. Finn pushed back on the road-mythology image of writing acoustic songs in the back of a touring van, calling it both uninteresting to the band and impractical. Instead, Cardinals prefer writing somewhere familiar: recently that's meant Cork city and the nearby coastal town of Kinsale — quiet, safe, known environments. Finn said the band is looking forward to getting back to Cork to start writing again in earnest.

Festival stages vs. small clubs

Asked about the Reading debut, Finn noted the band had just come off a Japan run that included some large stages, but that both as fans and as musicians, their preference remains club shows in front of a few hundred people — a different, more intimate connection with the crowd. Euan added that the members aren't habitual festival- or stadium-goers themselves; listening to records and catching small shows is how music mostly reaches them. In club settings, he said, it's easier to spot someone visibly moved by a song, and those people will often come up and say so afterward. Cardinals have also played the other extreme: sharing a bill with fellow Irish act Fontaines D.C. at London's Finsbury Park in front of 40,000 people.

Touring plans

The band plans to tour Europe, the UK and North America before the end of the year. Specific dates and ticketing information will be announced by the band's official channels.