By Eileen Tilson
If you haven’t heard of Alberta Cross yet, you will.
Having recently played with Them Crooked Vultures (Dave Grohl, Josh Homme, and
John Paul Jones) at Austin City Limits, the band is just at the start of their
tour in support of their debut album, Broken Side of Time (which we reviewed earlier on the blog here), released on
ATO Records. I recently caught up with singer Petter Ericson Stakee in Austin to
ask him just what it feels like to be poised in the calm before the
storm.
Hey Petter, how are you? You are in
Austin right now for Austin City Limits, how is it going?
It’s going great! I’m still a little jet lagged, but
we got to play with Them Crooked Vultures yesterday, which was really fucking
surreal. We are a new band, so we are the first slot to play tomorrow, but it’s
cool because most of these bands that are playing the festival have been out
touring, and then we all come back together to play the festivals; it’s like a
brotherhood.
That sounds fun! You guys are originally from
England, and decided to move to NYC because you felt like you needed a new
scene. Your music is so Americana, almost Southern Gothic, why did you decide on
Brooklyn instead of somewhere like Nashville, or even here in
Austin?
We had been playing all over London, and it was
harder to get gigs, and then we came over to NYC for CMJ, and met a bunch of bad
ass musicians over here. Brooklyn has a really great music scene, and we just
sort of fell in love instantly. We [Petter and co-founder Terry Wolfers] started
looking around for other NYC musicians to complete Alberta Cross.
I cannot help but to think it is slightly
ironic that you guys are playing Atlanta the same night as the Kings of Leon.
You guys get compared to them all the time, yet your music seems to be much
wiser than KOL. Where do you get your inspirations and how to hope people
respond to your music?
Are they playing the same night as us? Shit! Maybe I
can make it over after our show… no, they are great. I grew up listening to a
lot of Neil Young, Nick Cave, Depeche Mode, Grateful Dead, and the like, and
draw inspiration from the way they moved their audiences. I want people to come
to an Alberta Cross show, and feel like the just got cleansed.
I received a clip of you covering John
Lennon’s “Stealing Glass” at the opening of the John Lennon Exhibit at the Rock
and Roll Annex in NYC. I thought it was interesting that you choose that song;
it is definitely one of Lennon’s more personal songs with references to his
mother leaving him, etc. Was there ever something tragic that happened to you,
but the art that came from it as a result was so beautiful that you don’t regret
it happening?
The basis for our album Broken Side of Time
is all about the hardships that we have been through in the past couple of
years. When we moved to Brooklyn, we were in this giant foreign city, and nobody
knew who we were. We were so poor, and sleeping on floors and couches if we were
lucky. I can remember so many nights, just wondering whether things would
change. I was living on the broken side of time, watching everyone in NYC wake
up and hurriedly rush off to their jobs, and we were just trying to play music
and get our name out there.
Well it certainly paid off, you guys signed
with ATO records, which houses great acts like Dave Matthews and Radiohead. Your
dad was a musician also, does he come to see your shows?
Yeah, he has come to see us a few times in England.
I am originally from Sweden, so when we go over there in a couple of months, he
is going to see us there. He is the best guitar player I have ever heard, and I
find myself trying to play the same way he did. He has a sort of intensity about
him when he plays, just like Tim Buckley did, and I find myself falling into
that same intense place when I walk on stage.
So that would make you like Jeff
Buckley?
I wouldn’t dare compare myself to Jeff Buckley, but
I would say that I have the same similarities to my dad, that Jeff had with
Tim.
Well congratulations on all of your success,
and good luck today at Austin City Limits.
Thanks, I always have a few pints of Guinness before
I go on stage, so I am off to see if I can find a proper pint! That is hard
thing to find in America.
Thanks Petter, see you
Friday!
Alberta Cross plays this Friday, October 9 at The
EARL. Tickets are available at Ticket Alternative.
