Cardinal Black will release their new album, Midnight At Valencia, on 23 May via Thirty Tigers. The news comes along with their lead single Keep On Running, which will premiere at 6pm tonight. “It’s a darker track,” Tom Hollister told us, “but unfortunately, I think it will also be very relatable for a lot of our fans.”
Hollister says that Keep On Running was inspired by a friend he knew at university who was pursued by a stalker, hence the aura of menace.
Cardinal Black say that Midnight At The Valencia represents their “10,000 hours” of work. “It’s a long, shared history we have,” Hollister says. “We feel like we’ve paid our dues, and this album is the culmination of all that effort.”
It has been a meteoric rise for frontman Tom Hollister, guitarist Chris Buck, and drummer Adam Roberts. With an official formation in 2020, they began writing as Cardinal Black after the pandemic began, though their roots can be traced to before this.
Their show with Myles Kennedy in December 2021 saw them finish with their acclaimed single Tell Me How It Feels, the song that managed to topple Noel Gallagher off the No. 1 spot on the iTunes charts.
At the gig, MetalTalk tagged them as a promising act to watch out for, noting they were visibly delighted to have been chosen for this particular task. “You guys are gonna have your socks blown off by Myles,” Hollister told the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire. “It’s been like this for the whole of the tour, and it’s not gonna be any different tonight.”
Shows with The Struts would follow in 2022, a year which culminated with the bands selling out two nights at The Patriot Home Of Rock in under 24 hours.
For MetalTalk, 2023 would find Cardinal Black shows at the Firevolt Festival, and by the time they hit Chepstow Castle, the superlatives had well and truly been exhausted.
During this time, they would share stages with legends like Peter Frampton at his sold-out Royal Albert Hall show, as well as Joe Bonamassa. In just two years, they went from supporting Myles Kennedy at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire to selling out the venue for themselves.
Sold-out shows at The Troubadour in L.A. and Basement East in Nashville have brought Thirty Tigers as a partner to this fiercely independent band.
Midnight At The Valencia will be seen soon as a heartfelt and ambitious account of the Cardinal Black journey so far. It is an invitation for listeners to pull up a pew, laugh, cry and raise a glass to the past and say ‘Cheers to their future.’
Cardinal Black have a number of in-store dates in May, a headline North America tour in August, returning to the UK in October and Europe in November and December.
Cardinal Black Tour Tickets are available from https://www.thecardinalblack.com/tourdates.
Midnight At The Valencia will be available in neon pink and neon orange vinyl formats, alongside standard CD and digital editions, and can be pre-ordered from https://orcd.co/midnightatthevalencia-eu.
Cardinal Black – In-Stores:
May
24th – CARDIFF, HMV
25th – BRISTOL, Rough Trade
26th – LONDON, Lower Third w/ Rough Trade
27th – BURY, Wax n Beans
28th – NEWCASTLE, Cluny 2 w/ Reflex
29th – GLASGOW, Strip Joint
North American Headline Tour
August
6th – NEW YORK, Mercury Lounge (SOLD OUT)
8th – TORONTO, CA – The Drake Hotel Underground (SOLD OUT)
9th – ONTARIO, CA, Kitchener Blues Festival
12th – CHICAGO, Schuba’s
14th – MINNEAPOLIS, 7th Street Entry
16th – OMAHA, Playing with Fire
18th – NASHVILLE, Basement East
19th – ATLANTA, Vinyl at Center Stage
21st – AUSTIN, Antone’s
23rd – PHOENIX, Rebel Lounge
26th – LOS ANGELES, Troubadour
29th – SAN FRANCISCO, The Independent
30th – CAMINO, Concert Series @ Delfino Farms
European Tour
November
20th – AMSTERDAM, Bitterzoet
23rd – COLOGNE, Stollwerck
24th – HAMBURG, Bahnhof Pauli
25th – BERLIN, Privatclub
27th – MUNICH, Backstage Club
28th – VIENNA, Flex
December
1st – ZÜRICH, Papiersaal
2nd – FRANKFURT, Brotfabrik
6th – PARIS, Supersonic Club
