Federale Covers HUEY LEWIS & THE NEWS' 'I WANT A NEW DRUG'
The Portland band transforms the glossy 1980s pop song through shadowy, dramatic production for a new album.
Portland psych-rock band Federale, featuring members of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Shivas, and Rogue Wave, has announced a new album. The announcement comes alongside a new single, a cover of Huey Lewis & the News' 'I Want a New Drug,' released on Jealous Butcher Records.
A 30-day eviction notice appeared on the door of the studio where cinematic psych-rock band Federale records. Frontman and primary songwriter Collin Hegna stared at it for five minutes, picked up his guitar, wrote a song, and texted his bandmates to book a recording session.
That scene repeated itself multiple times over the course of a year, fueling a series of back-against-the-wall writing and recording sessions. Portland, Oregon's Revolver Studios wasn't just Federale's headquarters, it was Hegna's livelihood. He founded the studio, housed all of his recording gear there, and built much of his creative life within its walls. The uncertainty of losing both his workplace and his band's home base became intertwined with a broader sense of discord and confusion he sensed in the world.
The result is Love & Other Lies, the most immediate and personal album in the Portland band's seven-album catalog.
Imagine Huey Lewis & The News' candy-coated hit I Want a New Drug subverted through the shadowy, gothic sensibilities of The Sisters of Mercy. Federale's reimagining of the 1980s song transforms it into the tragic portrait of a man consumed by an insatiable longing. He chases every vice to its darkest conclusion, only to discover that none can replicate the feeling of being held by the one he loves. It's Huey's anthem reflected through the cracked carnival mirror of obsession, addiction, and emotional ruin.
The performance oozes charred desperation made more palpable with Hegna's shadowy baritone vocals, the hypnotic reverb-drenched rhythm guitar figures, and the primal drum machine-sounding beat. Washed-out textural moments that are sonically amorphous, harmony vocals, and a new wave horn section douse the detached cool with some delicious drama.
Hegna came up with the idea as a joke with his The Brian Jonestown Massacre bandmate Joel Gion. 'I've always felt the song carried a deeper meaning than the glossy, cheesy '80s production of the original by Huey Lewis & The News might lead you to believe. Its message is universal, and I wanted to cast it in a darker, more dramatic light, giving the underlying masterpiece a fresh perspective,' Hegna shares.
Since being founded by Hegna in 2004, Federale has released seven cinematic records inspired by obscure spaghetti westerns, folk-based murder ballads, '60s and '70s European soundtracks, particularly the Italian horror movie genre Giallo, and stylishly dramatic vocalists such as Lee Hazelwood and Nick Cave.
Hegna is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, recording engineer, and sonic auteur. He has played bass with The Brian Jonestown Massacre since 2004. As the owner of Revolver Studios, he has produced and recorded artists including The Shivas, Roselit Bone, Jenny Don't & The Spurs, Joel Gion, Matthew J. Tow, and David J. He also oversaw the music for the Emmy-nominated Super Bowl commercial 'Halftime in America.'
Love & Other Lies teems with a dark sentimentality and a pronounced gloomy sensibility drawing from British new wave, post-punk, goth, and 1960s rock n' roll. Strains of The Cure, Depeche Mode, The Sisters of Mercy, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Tears for Fears, and even The Beatles abound. Hegna's emotive baritone is swathed in period-perfect Prophet-5 synthesizers and glistening counter-melody guitars lines, and supported by intricate but lyrical basslines and cold and mechanical drums.
Upcoming Live Dates
October 30th // Portland, OR // Kennedy School Theatre
October 31st // Portland, OR // Music Millenium
November 1st // Tacoma, WA // Spanish Ballroom
November 4th // Portland, OR // WK The Nest
November 6th // Seattle, WA // Baba Yaga Festival
November 28th // San Francisco, CA // Kilowatt
November 29th // Bolinas, CA // Smiley's
January 29th 2027 // Portland, OR // Crystal Ballroom
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