Hot For 2025: Fake Friends

Fake Friends

This project between very real friends Patrick Kelly and Cathal Flaherty (who has enjoyed his own fair share of solo success) was birthed during lockdown in 2020. The Carlow/Kerry duo have been making a name for themselves with their brand of radio-ready pop-rock, and have added Phil Dunphy, Luke Tai and Darren Kelly to the line-up for live shows. Their anthemic sound very much evokes the likes of Picture This and The Coronas, the latter of whom Fake Friends supported at Kerry’s Gleneagle INEC Arena in late 2024.

Hear: The ultra-groovy ‘Girlfriend’

See: The video for their uplifting, piano-fuelled single ‘Better’

See our full Hot For 2025 list in the current issue of Hot Press: