Federale - Advice From A Stranger
Portland's iconic outfit Federale presents the single 'Advice From A Stranger', previewing their new 'Reverb & Seduction' album, set for release on July 12 via Jealous Butcher Records.
Their sixth studio album, this record marks the band’s twentieth anniversary. Their most immersive and varied album to date, with do-it-all frontman Collin Hegna at the height of his powers, this is a tour-de-force road trip from psych rock to country duets, never straying too far from the spaghetti western roots that inspired the band many blood-moons ago. These musical homages involve a new lineup of well-known Portland rock-scene vets, including talents from The Dandy Warhols, The Shivas, Roselit Bone, Rogue Wave and Delines.
On 'Advice From a Stranger', Federale leans into their psych-rock roots. As a 20+ year member of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Hegna has been party to a lot of feedback & fuzzed out guitars. And while the Pebbles and Nuggets oeuvre has crept into the works of Federale on occasion, it has always been as a background influence. But, for this song, the desire emerged to outwardly embrace the aesthetics of personal genre heroes: The Electric Prunes, The Pretty Things, and The Chocolate Watchband.
On this track, Hegna is joined by Jared Molyneux (The Shivas) on guitar, Pat Spurgeon (The Dandy Warhols, Rogue Wave) on drums, and Ryan Lynn (Mission Spotlight, The Needs and guitar tech for The Decemberists, Metric, and The Lumineers) on guitar.
Collin Hegna shares, “It's a mean world out there. If you don’t choose how you want to live your life, someone else is gonna do it for you. And you can bet they don’t have your best interests at heart. One has to be brave and do the hard things if one wants to accomplish anything worthwhile. And that can be hard when you're swimming against the tide. It's easy to get confused because there’s a lot out there trying to keep us all confused. To thine own fuzz pedal be true. Just a bit of advice from this stranger."
Since forming, 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 and late-period Leonard Cohen. Through it all, Hegna – as both songwriter and lead singer – maintains a strictly retro vibe. Federale's records have always sounded period-correct for an alternate-universe 1971, where rock and roll never caught on.
The ten tracks that make up 'Reverb & Seduction' were recorded at Revolver Studios in Portland and engineered by Collin Hegna, Matt Thomson and Andrew Joslyn, who boasts five 5 Grammy Award winning albums. Mixed by Jeff Stuart Saltzman (The Black Keys, The High Violets), Matt Thomson and Collin Hegna, this album was mastered by Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph Mastering.
Earlier, Federale shared two singles - the lead track 'Heaven Forgive Me', featuring The Black Angels' Alex Maas, and 'No Strangers', a tribute to Lee Hazlewood, which involved drummer Dave Mudie, who plays drums for Courtney Barnett of The Dandy Warhols, Andrew Joslyn (Nancy Wilson, Kei$ha, Macklemore, Mark Lanegan), and Hunter Lea (Grammy nominated Nancy Sinatra / Lee Hazlewood reissue producer).
Ron Laboray of Little Richard’s Almanac, who animated the video for the new single, along with Niki Elliott, explains, "This song 'Advice From A Stranger' supplied us with a broader narrative, and we were able to let our imaginations run. We came to the idea of using Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights as a backdrop while brainstorming possibilities on a hike, as the painting connects well with the themes of god and forgiveness found in the song, and it’s weird as hell. The song's tempo had also led us to consider monster movie possibilities and, after deciding on the painting, the garden gnome emerged as a sort of Godzilla figure, the perfect hero to do battle in Bosch’s garden. 'Advice from a Stranger' is our favorite animation to date - 15th century and it still slaps!"
As of June 19, 'Advice From a Stranger' will be released everywhere digitally, including Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal and Bandcamp. The full 'Reverb & Seduction' album, out July 12, will be released on CD, vinyl and as a digital download, and should also be available from fine record dealers.
Federale's 'Reverb & Seduction' tour, which takes them up and down the U.S. West coast and beyond, kicks off in Portland on July 12 with their album release show. A European tour is anticipated in late fall 2024.
