Over the last 20 years, Portland, Oregon's Federale has carved out a unique niche within the indie music landscape, blending their signature spaghetti-Western instrumental sound with increasing doses of moody vocal arrangements in the spirit of Lee Hazlewood or later-period Leonard Cohen. Still, through it all songwriter (and lead singer, when there is one) Collin Hegna has maintained a strictly retro vibe, and Federale's records have always sounded period-correct for an alternate-universe 1971 where rock and roll never caught on.
Reverb & Seduction, Federale’s sixth studio album, marks the band’s 20th anniversary, and finds them beginning to color outside those Ennio Morricone lines. Perhaps Hegna—who also spent the last 20 years as a dues-paying member of The Brian Jonestown Massacre—has finally decided to give his psych-rock alter ego a seat at the Federale table.
"Before, I'd have an idea and think, 'Well, that can't be a Federale song', because it had distorted guitars or whatever," says Hegna. "But then I thought, 'Well, why not?'" This openness to a broader palette of influences allows Reverb and Seduction to veer into psychedelic and even gothic territory—think Love and Rockets or Sisters of Mercy—that the 2010s Federale might have considered off limits. The album's first single Heaven Forgive Me, for example, draws on Goblin (the Italian prog-rockers who scored Suspiria) and perhaps even a little Depeche Mode, while Advice from a Stranger borrows the fuzz and feedback of DIG!-era BJM and The Electric Prunes.
These new musical homages are complemented by a new lineup of well-known Portland rock-scene vets, including talents from The Shivas, Roselit Bone, Dandy Warhols, Rogue Wave, and The Delines. Going forward Federale expects to fully embrace the role of a working, touring band, starting with a West Coast tour timed to coincide with the new record's July release. A European tour will follow in late fall 2024.
For all these rumblings of change, however, Reverb & Seduction is still very much a Federale record, and longtime fans will find plenty of the cinema-ready soundscapes they've come to expect. The film industry continues to take notice as well: The band's latest licensing successes include placing tracks in the trailer for the Colin Farrell/Brendan Gleeson vehicle Banshees Of Inisherin, as well as in the Kate Hudson thriller Mona Lisa & The Blood Moon and Swiss action/comedy Mad Heidi.
