Federale. Photo by Jason Quigley.
Portland’s Federale has just unveiled the video for Dark Waters, a haunting cut from their latest album, Reverb & Seduction, out now via Jealous Butcher Records. Collin Hegna, long a member of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, helms this outfit with the grit of a man steeped in feedback and fuzz.
Twenty years on, Federale’s sound still swirls with the dust of a forgotten frontier. Hegna and his crew channel a different time—one that feels pulled from some forgotten reel of an alternate 1971 where rock and roll never caught fire, in the spirit of both The Cult and The Church alike. They bridge the cinematic landscapes of Ennio Morricone and the brooding intimacy of Leonard Cohen and Lee Hazlewood. It’s a sound that echoes like footsteps through a ghost town, full of tension and longing, always tethered to the past yet refusing to be contained by it.
“Dark Waters is the heaviest and darkest Federale track to date,” says Hegna. “It represents the furthest stylistic departure from Federale’s traditional sound on a record featuring many such departures. I fully embraced the 80’s Goth influences that have been creeping into our songs for the past couple years and turned up the chorus pedal to Stun.”
The stark simplicity of Dark Waters lays bare its bones—chorused 12-string acoustics, electric leads slicing through like a razor, and a Mellotron laced with unhealthy levels of eerie effects. The beat, relentless and driving, propels a tale that gazes past the grave.
Shot on Cinco de Mayo at Portland’s Coffin Club, a Goth bar with horror film icons and occult décor, the video couldn’t have found a better home. The setting, a visual feast of the macabre, reflects the song’s fevered spiral. Hegna, playing the doomed protagonist, unravels after a fateful tarot reading, drifting into a psychedelic nightmare. Hallucinations, fueled by drugs and drink, twist reality into a slasher flick dreamscape, with his own bandmates playing the parts. Time slips, sanity shatters. As daylight breaks, he stumbles outside, a changed man, the night’s horrors lingering, answers forever elusive.
Watch the video for “Dark Waters” below:
Reverb & Seduction is a ten-track odyssey that travels from psych-rock’s swirling energy to intimate country duets. Federale’s roots, once tied to cinematic soundscapes, have expanded into a broader range of influences. What started as homage has become something more layered. Guitars shimmer and pulse beneath vocals that stretch like echoes through the air, with each track offering a distinct stop along a winding road. The album evolves naturally, blending past and present in a way that feels effortless.
Listen to the track below and order here.
Recorded at Revolver Studios in Portland, this album was engineered by Collin Hegna, Matt Thomson, and Andrew Joslyn, and mixed by Hegna alongside Jeff Stuart Saltzman and Thomson. Mastering was handled by Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph Mastering. The album features an impressive lineup of Portland rock-scene veterans, including members of The Dandy Warhols, The Shivas, Roselit Bone, Rogue Wave, and The Delines. Additional contributions come from The Black Angels, Mission Spotlight, producer Hunter Lea, and Andrew Joslyn.
Catch Federale during their upcoming European tour! They will be making stops in France, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland.
You can purchase tickets here.
Tour Dates:
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