Inspired by his musician father and musician siblings, Petter Ericson Stakee learnt to become a musician himself, and soon found that his home country of Sweden wasn’t really producing the kind of music he wanted to make, so he moved to someplace which did. “I feel like London, for me, in general, was so, so, so inspiring, when I first moved there,” Petter tells Post-Burnout.

“Sweden was alright, and I was really inspired by maybe my dad’s old scene – like the more rootsy, kind of old, rocker, hippy dudes or something – because I didn’t really like the very polished, clean Swedish sound that can happen sometimes. […] So, all of the artists that I loved were in the UK, really. So, London was really inspiring then, all these kinds of Libertines, and Interpol, and all these bands came over – and I loved that stuff – but, at one point, it was just like cloned versions of the same stuff.

Whilst in London, Petter and a local musician called Terry Wolfers would form the first iteration of Alberta Cross, a band which has been going since 2005. In no time, they signed to Universal (for worldwide distribution) and Geffen Records (for the U.S.); had support slots for acts as varied as Oasis, Guns N’ Roses, Neil Young, Mumford and Sons, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ben Harper, Norah Jones, among many others; played some of the world’s biggest festivals; appeared on Late Night with David Letterman and Last Call with Carson Daly; and had their music featured on the soundtracks of shows like Sons of Anarchy, Californication, and Hawaii Five-0.

With the success of the band and production on each album requiring relocation, Petter hopped around from London to New York to Austin to Los Angeles to Berlin to the Somerset town of Frome, which is where he currently resides with his family. Today, many years after the major deals and Terry’s departure from the project, Petter continues creating music with Alberta Cross.

When asked what keeps him carrying the project’s torch, he responds, “That’s an interesting question, because that’s kind of a question you ask yourself, almost, sometimes, and I have conversations with other artists that I know that are in a similar situation.

“With everything changing so much in the industry – and a lot of that I think is quite good and some of it is quite negative – but the positive is that it feels kind of new in a way, now, how you work. I feel like if you’re an artist, you’re always kind of an artist.

“Like, it’s something I’ve actually talked to my dad about a lot; sometimes when you have a bad year, and you don’t create anything or whatever, compared to being a painter or something, you know? You’ll just sit and paint for a whole year, and then you’ll have an exhibition and, hopefully, some people will turn up, you’ll sell some paintings, and then what? Then you start again, on a new project, and that’s all you do. What else can you do?”

As Alberta Cross is just a year shy of its twentieth anniversary (at the time of publication), we asked Petter if it felt like it had been that long. “I would say it definitely feels like twenty years,” Petter laughs, before continuing, “It’s been a journey, so it definitely feels like a long time, but it’s weird. […] All my mates that are playing, that are a similar age to me and have been releasing a lot of records, will still feel quite young. I feel like I have a lot to prove, already. I don’t feel like I’m eighty, you know? My record might be the sixth or the seventh record I’m working on, but I’m still like, fucking…like I want to create magic and I’m still hungry for stuff.”

Today, Alberta Cross’s music is released via a publishing deal between Petter’s co-founded label Dark Matter/Austral Media, with Kartel Music Group acting as the distributor. Now with a lot more autonomy over the music and how it’s made, which was one of the biggest restrictions Petter found when he was signed to a major that perpetually wanted to dictate the track listings, we’ve seen a flow of music from Petter which hitherto seemed unattainable.

In March of 2023, Alberta Cross released its ten-track sixth studio album, Sinking Ships, and has released four follow-up singles since the beginning of 2024. Their latest single, at the time of publication, was released last Friday. It’s titled “Born In Amazement,” and it features a collab with the Southampton garage rockers Band of Skulls, whom Petter has been working with for a while.

Talking about what he has coming up for the rest of the year, Petter says, “The stuff I mainly have coming out this year is a lot of collaboration stuff, which is coming off two records that I did with myself and my producer. So, it’s quite nice. That keeps me going. Also, to do gigs together, with other artists.

“Grassroots venues don’t sell too many tickets anymore for anyone, and you, obviously, know the live club industry stuff. It helps, maybe, if you partner up with other artists and you do joint things. So, I think that’s been quite a cool change. So, yeah, keep the hunger! […] [Laughs] When you have that curse, you have that curse! I don’t know if I’d wish it on anyone!”

Alberta Cross’s latest single featuring Band of Skulls, “Born In Amazement,” is available on all streaming platforms now. Alberta Cross will be touring across Sweden, Denmark, the UK, and Spain from May. You can see all of their tour dates here. You can also find the band’s music and social media accounts here. Tune into today’s episode of POSTBURNOUT.COM Interviews… at 16:00 (IST) to hear this conversation in full. Available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music Podcasts.

Aaron Kavanagh

Aaron Kavanagh is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Post-Burnout. His writing can also be found in the Irish Daily Star, Buzz.ie, Totally Dublin, The GOO, Headstuff, New Noise Magazine, XS Noize, DSCVRD and more.