Alberta Cross are an Anglo-Swedish rock band, formed in 2005 in London, England by singer-guitarist Petter Ericson Stakee and bassist Terry Wolfers.
Stakee grew up in a musical family with his father, singer-songwriter Peter R. Ericson and older brother leading the way.
The duo developed and recorded the songs together in Wolfers' home studio in Highams Park, Waltham Forest and soon departed from the band to concentrate on the new material.
[5] They began playing acoustic gigs together in London before forming a live band with drummer Sebastian Sternberg and Stakee's brother John Alexander Ericson on keyboards.
[7] Since 2007, Alberta Cross have toured with bands and artists such as Oasis, Them Crooked Vultures (Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and John Paul Jones), Neil Young, Mumford And Sons, Rag N Bone Man, Portugal The Man, The Shins, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Norah Jones, Heartless Bastards, Daniel Johnston, Ringo Starr, Ben Harper, Black Francis (Pixies), Dave Matthews Band, and many more and played festivals all around the globe like Coachella, Glastonbury, Bonnaroo, Lollapalozza, Reading and Leeds, Fuji Rock Festival in Japan, Splendour In The Grass in Australia, Lowlands Festival, Pukkelpop, Southside and Hurricane Festival, Rock en Seine and many more plus doing countless of headline tours throughout North America, Europe and Australia.
In April 2008, with a desire to turn Alberta Cross into more of a band,[5] the duo recruited new members drummer Austin Beede, guitarist Sam Kearney and keyboardist Alec Higgins and began work on new material together as a unit.
The band recorded its debut album Broken Side of Time in Austin, Texas with producer Mike McCarthy.
Shortly afterwards, Wolfers and the rest of the band joined Stakee in Los Angeles and began recording sessions with producers Joe Chiccarelli and Mike Daly at the East West and Sunset Sound studios.
The band returned to Brooklyn to work on additional material with producer Claudius Mittendorfer and revised the tracks recorded earlier in Los Angeles.
"[13] Wolfers admitted that it was a struggle to make the record and that they had a hard time finishing it due to problems with their management, label and other band members.
[14] The previous band members were replaced by former Jeniferever drummer Fredrik Aspelin, from Stakee's hometown of Uppsala[15] and guitarist Aaron Lee Tasjan.
Alberta Cross was invited to play Ringo Starr's birthday party outside the Capitol Records building in Los Angeles.
The song "Money for the Weekend" is featured on the soundtrack to Madden NFL 12 and on several Ketel One commercials that began to air in May 2011.