For this Mood Board feature, Claire Sutton of All Ears Avow lets us in on what's inspired their most recent EP 'Skin & Bones', from musical influences to places and people she loves.
Roxette – ‘Joyride’ & ‘Look Sharp’
 I was such a huge fan of Roxette when I was really little. I started playing guitar when I was only about 4 years old and at the time I literally worshipped Roxette to the point that the band are a big part of some of my earliest memories. I thought that Marie Fredriksson was just the coolest and I just wanted to be her. Then that opening riff at the start of ‘The Look’ from [their album] ‘Look Sharp’ was also the coolest riff ever to me. I mean I was 4 years old so I didn’t really know what rock music was. Growing up and getting into rock music like Linkin Park, Incubus and Limp Bizkit I think made me kinda shun those early pop influences I used to adore in the interest of being ‘cool’, but I’ve gradually let that mind set go thankfully! A couple of years ago my boyfriend took me to see Roxette which really reignited that love and probably directed me straight down the path this latest EP went down.
Positive ThinkingÂ
This might seem like an odd one, but I feel like mental health has become so at the forefront of everything which is obviously a brilliant thing as it affects everyone. It certainly affects us in All Ears Avow. We’re a very close group so what hits one of us hits all of us. I wrote this EP largely about positive thinking, being comfortable in your own skin and knowing what things or perhaps people have a negative impact on you. We have to look after ourselves and I wanted to write about that in a positive way for a change!
No Doubt – ‘Tragic Kingdom’
 This was another huge album to me when I was a kid, and there’s a few No Doubt albums I could have chosen but this was the first one I heard and where I fell in love with them. They’re just one of those bands that only really sound like them and they’re all brilliantly talented and so fun at the same time. It has so much attitude and Gwen’s vocals are just absolutely nuts. It’s a great example of the level of musicality, hooks and attitude that I want to have in my own songwriting. One of my all time favourites and a huge huge influence on me!
My Mum
My mum passed away after a pretty awful battle with cancer and it’s coming up to 10 years since that happened. It obviously had a massive impact on all aspects of my life. She was 47 when she died and she’d been through a pretty rough divorce right before she was diagnosed so it was a really rough few years. She wasn’t a smoker, she did her best to look after herself; it really taught me that life sometimes just doesn’t go the way you expected it to. I use it as motivation to not give up on my dreams and to keep doing what I love so that if anything ever happens to me, be it when I’m 47 or 107 I know that I had an absolute blast.
Paramore – ‘Self Titled’
I actually used to hate Paramore, and as you can imagine as a female fronted band, we get compared to them all the time. I decided to just give them a go just before the self titled album came out and now they’re one of my favourite bands. I actually can’t believe I hated them and if anyone compares us to them now I’m grateful for it. That album was just astonishing. It was exactly the level of pop that I love in rock music and everything they’ve done since then has been a massive influence on me. Everything from guitar tones, melodies, to vocal harmonies, it was just massive. I love it for pretty much the same reasons I love No Doubt and Roxette, they all have the same qualities I love in music of crossing genres and creating big hooks but they were all created decades apart. But it’s this approach to music that was how I tried to approach the writing of the ‘Skin & Bones’ EP.
Porthcurno – Cornwall
Porthcurno is this relatively remote beach down in Cornwall where there’s this theatre called the Minack built into the cliffs there. It’s absolutely stunning. It was my mum’s favourite place and we scattered her ashes there. I like to go down there every now and then just to sit on the rocks and stare out at sea. I find it healing and like it just soothes my soul or something. I’m not really a spiritual person but that place is spiritual to me. I spent some time down there this summer just before we recorded the EP and it really put me in a good place for it like I’d just been reset. It’s a great way to start a new record!