The Federale band is a seven-piece ensemble based in Portland, OR. Spearheaded by longtime Brian Jonestown Massacre bassist Collin Hegna, the band was conceived as an outlet to channel inspiration from ‘60s & ‘70s European soundtracks, particularly those from Italy made famous by the Spaghetti Western & Giallo genres.
As a mournful whistle carves through fevered melancholia, the first stirrings of No Justice‘s title track evoke the mean streets and rusted prairies of a blighted small folk roiling with palpable desperation. Embracing the enormous scope of orchestral cinematic production while subduing the bombast of electrified riffage, Collin Hegna has honed a taut, gleaming precision from his passion project’s signature sound. When his honeyed baritone waltzes with the operatic wizardry of bandmate Maria Karlin, the finely-etched lyrical depths fortify Federale’s cinematic sway.
Spare yet sumptuous, distilling the lean, gritty essence of grindhouse anomie and wielding orchestral flourishes of widescreen delicacy, No Justice feels like the defining statement of a band fully-realized – a sultry, restless stormcloud arising from the darkness at the edge of town to draw forth the fated reckoning.
Their latest release Blood Moon / Mona Lisa was written for the 3rd feature length film by Ana Lily Amirpour titled “Mona Lisa And The Blood Moon”, Federale’s original track “Blood Moon” represents yet another stylistic departure. Working from a broad synopsis of the film, songwriter and lead singer Collin Hegna headed to the woods of central Washington during a real life Blood Moon event in order to capture the mood that was required for this song and its place in the film. It was there beneath the eerie light of the Blood Moon that the song took form. Despite being written in the woods on an acoustic guitar the vision for the song included distorted guitars and pulsing synthesizers akin to those found in records by Bauhaus, Sisters Of Mercy, and John Carpenter scores. Once realized in the studio, and shared with the director. It was immediately recognized that “Blood Moon” belonged in a central moment of the film. “Mona Lisa & The Blood Moon” received its debut at the 2021 Venice Film Festival and hit cinemas Sept. 30th, 2022.
