Alberta Cross, led by lead singer and guitarist Petter Ericson Stakee – will release their third album via Dine Alone Records on October 16. The self-titled LP is available to preorder now at http://geni.us/albertacross. Co-produced by Stakee and Claudius Mittendorfer (Temples, Interpol, Johnny Marr), the LP showcases new musical territories with vibrant horn sections weaved throughout the 12-track collection, while in addition Stakee re-explored the band’s root. “This is the first time I’ve done everything myself,” Stakee says. “It [the album] kind of brought it back to where I’d started. I wrote all the songs. It’s a fresh start for me. That’s why it’s self-titled.” Check below to listen to the album’s lead single “Ghost of Santa Fe“…
After some months of wrangling out of old record contracts, and putting all the distracting machinery of whatever is left of the record industry behind him, Stakee took his assortment of songs and ideas to Upstate New York, near Woodstock, to a place called Dreamland. “It’s this beautiful old church that they’d turned into a studio,” says Stakee. “I’ve always wanted to record in a church.”
It was at Dreamland with friends and fellow musicians Peter Remm and Fredrik Aspelin, Stakee bottled his inspiration, which stemmed from secret late-night jams he was a part of earlier this year in New York City’s East and West Village. Some sessions went on ’til three in the morning with many musicians, including friend Kraig [Jarret Johnson] of Golden Smog. As you travel deeper into the self-titled LP, songs begin to morph like those early morning jams. The album’s depth, its sturdiness, start to standout with tracks like – “Beneath My Love” and “Get Up High“-that arrive in the second half of this blissful, complex, yet beautiful hour of sounds Stakee has built. Full of horns, strings and choruses designed to pull the listener inside, Stakee’s feeling of renewal is armed with the best songs he’s ever written.
“On this record, we have all these new colors,” Stakee continues. “It felt pretty amazing. I wanted those late night jams to inspire the record. It was very loose, not a lot of structure. I wanted to keep that vibe-the looseness and the soul. Mandolin, violin, French horn, flugelhorn, trumpet-we put those on a lot of tracks. That was a new thing for me and very inspiring. This record seems so… pure to me.”
In support of the LP announcement, Alberta Cross will be hitting the road this Fall with Heartless Bastards. The short tour run will bring the band through major cities such as: New York City, Chicago, Boston, Toronto and more. All tour dates listed below.
ALBERTA CROSS 2015 TOUR DATES:
September 9 – New Orleans, LA – One Eyed Jacks*
September 10 – Atlanta, GA – Terminal West*
September 11 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel*
September 12 – Washington D.C. – 9:30 Club*
September 13 – Woodstock, NY – Bearsville Theater*
September 14 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg*
September 16 – Northampton, MA – Pearl Street (Downstairs)*
September 17 – Portland, ME – Port City Music Hall*
September 18 – Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club*
September 19 – Montreal, Canada – Petit Campus*
September 21 – Toronto, Canada – Horseshoe Tavern*
September 23 – Chicago, IL – Metro*
September 24 – Indianapolis, IN – Deluxe*
September 25 – Cincinnati, OH – Christian Moerlein Brewing Co.*
September 26 – Madison, WI – Majestic Theatre*
September 27 – Milwaukee, WI – Turner Hall Ballroom*
September 29 – St. Louis, MO – Off Broadway*
September 30 – Little Rock, AR – Revolution Room*
* w/ Heartless Bastards
Alberta Cross LP Tracklisting:
1. You’ll Be Fine
2. Ghost of Santa Fe
3. Western State
4. Easy Street
5. Isolation
6. Water Mountain
7. Heavy Words
8. Beneath My Love
9. Get Up High
10. Shadow of Mine
11. Smoky Lake
12. It’s You That’s Changing
