Today, Thursday 2nd February 2023, Alberta Cross release new single ‘Between You And Me’ - stream HERE. The track is the latest to be taken from their forthcoming album ‘Sinking Ships’, which will be released on March 31st 2023 through Dark Matter / AMK distributed through Kartel Music Group, pre-order the album HERE.
Swedish-born lead singer and guitarist Petter Ericson Stakee comments: “'Between You and Me' took a minute to finish and it went through a lot of changes along the way, especially lyrically. I started writing it in Berlin with my artist friend Martin Craft but it was left feeling unfinished, until Luke (Potashnick) and I started to work on the new Alberta Cross record at Wool Hall, we got it to where it felt close and eventually finished. Lyrically it feels like it's about escapism...wanting or seeking to be away from the noise and when you are away in transit, you get the time to reflect on everything at home. I love where the production ended up. Luke brought it to the right place”.
‘Sinking Ships’ was written mostly at the legendary The Wool Hall in Frome Somerset with Petter’s long term producer and collaborator, Luke Potashnick - Luke recently bought and renovated The Wool Hall (legendary in part due to Van Morrisson and Tears for Fears recording albums there). Luke comments on ‘Between You And Me’: “Yeah this tune evolved a lot - went away and came back again - we always loved the song but it took time to really refine the chorus lyrics - so that they meant what we were actually trying to say… But also without losing the simplicity of how it could sound. Again we were blessed with Richard Causon’s keyboards and Tom the Lion’s drums on this record. Petter and I played guitars and some synths - then it was a matter of capturing the right tone of vocal - which Petter honed in on quickly - it's a sweet melody so we didn’t want to overdo it I guess. The recording really feels like someone out there in transit to me - those silent road hum hours at night when its just headlights, lines on the road and a darkness with that brownish-blue hue if you know what I mean - that becomes mediative and often a useful time for reflection and sometimes clarity when considering relationships back home".
Since forming in 2005 - Alberta Cross have toured with Mumford & Sons, Portugal. The Man, Neil Young, Them Crooked Vultures (David Grohl, Josh Homme and John Paul Jones) and Rag N’ Bone Man to name a few, performed on TV around the world including The Late Show with David Letterman and Last Call with Carson Daly, had tracks featured in multiple US hit TV series (Million Little Pieces, Sons of Anarchy, Californication) and released six previous albums. Now back in the UK, Petter will be promoting the new album "Sinking Ships" in the UK and across Europe throughout 2023, with US dates to come.
‘Sinking Ships’, which will be Alberta Cross’ seventh album, has definitely taken longer than was first expected, Petter comments: “After everything the world has seen these past two years, the album took longer than we expected to record and release…the writing side of it actually came together quite quickly. But now that it is finally coming out, the timing actually feels serendipitous - the themes and lyrics of these songs do in fact reflect what’s going on in the world today. Even though I wrote some of these tunes a while ago they strangely feel more relevant today than they did back then”.
Luke comments: “I adore the feeling of this record - when writing together, Petter and I always end up somewhere on the same page - maybe it's the Scandinavian in us, maybe it's the life-stage we both share. I am particularly fond of ‘Mercy’ and ‘Sinking Ships’. A lot of the landscape of these songs were set up back in a basement in Sweden…the main reason I single out these two songs is in how Petter's voice soars on these recordings. I feel they are truly unique to Petter’s way of singing and I’m always very excited when we manage to capture that”.
He continues: “The cover of Sharon Van Etten’s song is also a really special moment on the record for me. I never know how I truly feel about covers on a record of otherwise original songs…But this song is just so good and again I’m really proud of this version”.