Stoke-on-Trent alt-rockers In The Cards have shared the influence behind their new EP ‘Eyes Beyond Reflection’.

Recorded with Romesh Dodangoda at Longwave Studios in Cardiff, the five-track EP flows with the energy expected from a predominately pop-punk release with an added rock twist that’ll have you hooked from track to track.

Following the EP’s release, the band shared five singles that helped to shape the release.

Decode – Paramore
This is such a dark, emotional song. It taught us that it’s okay to show vulnerability through the lyrics and to show that maybe you’re not feeling the way that people expect or want you to feel. The lyrics tell such a story and really hit a chord with us.

Resuscitate – Mallory Knox
These guys are a huge inspiration for us, particularly their early work. They showed us how to write a song for two vocalists as they have lead and backing vocals switching for the pre-choruses and chorus. More of a structural inspiration, they showed us how to write songs with a structure that we really liked.

Wolves – Mallory Knox
As well as writing songs with lyrics that are honest and hard-hitting, this song (along with pretty much the whole of this album!) showed us how metaphors and lyrics that perhaps aren’t as obvious in meaning can mean just as much. Sometimes the mystery is part of the meaning…

Misery Business – Paramore
There is one song on the EP that melodically is quite different to the other four. When we wrote that song, we said that we wanted a melody that was fast and aggressive and basically agreed that ‘Misery Business’ was the finest example of what we were looking for.

30 Seconds to Mars – Hurricane
The lyrics for this song are so honest and open, but they 100% address the “elephant in the room” with regards to what the song is about. There is a particular line in this song that we thought: “Wow! We have to write songs that make others feel how we feel when we hear this.”

You can stream In The Cards EP via Spotify below: