The native Oregonian spent much of his youth outdoors around the state's varied natural environments – the high desert, trout creeks, his grandfather's farm – and has said that upbringing helped instill an appreciation for the romanticism of the west.

[3] Gailen served as mixer and engineer on recordings for a variety of Portland-area acts including jazz bassist David Jay White, Christian metallers Godspeed, Susan and the Surftones, and 90s Caleb Klauder/Jenny Conlee band Calobo.

[7] While still attending school, Hegna began playing bass for Cocaine Unicorn, a tambourine-spiked retro-chic combo formed by singer/songwriter Paul Burkhart whose membership included Carl Werner, Dasa Kalstrom, and Ryan Sumner.

"[9] After two years in Eugene, during which Burkhart complained the act was labeled "a fashion band", they relocated to Portland and attracted strong local buzz, though intra-band strife would eventually end the group before they could record a proper album.

[10] The Pains of Being Pure at Heart founder Kip Berman was a friend of Burkhart's and wrote the song "Hey Paul", off of their self-titled debut album, as an "homage" to Cocaine Unicorn.

[12] The band, which gained an unexpected mainstream notoriety following the release of Sundance-Grand-Jury-award-winning documentary Dig, endured regular changes of membership under the volatile leadership of founding singer-songwriter Anton Newcombe.

[15] Even at the height of BJM extravagance, when their live sets swelled to include four or five guitars, critics praised "Hegna's tight rhythm work" as an indispensable grounding element.

In 2010, when Dandy Warhols' founding member Peter Holmström first assembled his psych-rock quintet Pete International Airport, Hegna added "whistling" to the self-titled debut and bass on tour.

Staffed by musicians with ties to Brian Jonestown or similarly celebrated NW-adjacent psych-garage sensations, Rebel Drones brought together bassist Hegna, guitarist Holmstrom, multi-instrumentalist William (Grails) Slater, and drummer Jason (The Warlocks) Anchondo around frontman Hollywood.

][24] Finally, in the summer of 2018, former members announced that Cardinal Fuzz Records would release both digital and (Double LP) vinyl editions of the Rebel Drones sessions entitled Abusing The System.

[26] The band became known for creating evocative, almost-entirely instrumental tunes similar to cinematic scores, which the Seattle Weekly found deserving of comparison to "Goblin, Ennio Morricone and Angelo Badalamenti for a sweeping nod to soundtracks of the past".

[27] The AV Club noted that "Federale specializes in making soundtrack music for films that don't exist yet, using pedal steel, trumpets, whistling, and all the other orchestral flourishes associated with Italian cinema of the '60s and '70s.

[1] Federale's current line-up includes Rick Pedrosa, Nalin Silva, classical soprano Maria Karlin, orchestral percussionist Brian Gardiner, Colin Sheridan (The High Violets), and Sebastian Bibb-Barrett (The Builders and the Butchers).

After playing together for three years, Federale recorded their debut LP La Rayar: A Tale of Revenge, a song-cycle based around the story of an ordinary man (Santiago) spurred toward acts of violence following the slaughter of his family by a Native American tribe.

"[31] Marveling at the seriousness with which Federale embraced Spaghetti Western soundscapes, the Portland Mercury advised listeners to "let the whistled melodies, wooden flutes, rattling snare drums, twangy guitars, and trumpets pour in.

[33] As with their debut, the LP's overarching concept focuses upon an average man driven by horrific tragedy to wreak vengeance against the railroad baron who stole his home, murdered his loved ones, and left the protagonist entombed in a shallow grave.

"[34] Acknowledging the band's debt to Morricone, the Portland Mercury further noted that Federale were "respectful in their path, crafting a graceful and stylistic sound that sprawls out as a soundtrack to some hidden western cinematic gem.

"[37] Writing for the Oregonian, Jason Simms found that the band's familiar backdrops were now laced with Middle Eastern-tinged accents, and praised the "mystical, desert feel that ties it all together.

[40] By this time, Hegna had led the act into regular licensing opportunities for television shows and commercials, and his continually expanding vision for the project made All the Colours of the Dark a significant departure from their previous blueprint.

Written by Tin House poetry editor Matthew Dickman and directed by David Gordon Green, the 2012 Wieden+Kennedy ad for Chrysler was broadcast during Super Bowl XLVI, which was at the time the most-watched program in the history of American television, with an estimated viewership above 111 million.

Lydia Van Dreel, associate professor at the University of Oregon's School of Music and Dance, played the French horn during recording sessions at Hegna's Revolver Studios.

"[49] In the two-minute piece, voiceover narration from Clint Eastwood conveys a stirring account of the United States car industry's bounce back after prolonged recessionary struggles.

Writing for his personal website, he explained that he was "pulled in not only by the rasp of Clint Eastwood's voice but also by the intriguingly dour score, which avoids the ersatz Coplandisms you might expect in this context...

[52][53] In 2013, Hegna met Ana Lily Amirpour following a Brian Jonestown Massacre gig just after the young writer-director had finished the script for her feature debut, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.

"The soundtrack to A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is one of the best in recent memory," wrote Kaleen Aftab for The Independent, "[and] at its heart are the Spaghetti Western-inspired sounds of Federale, the side project of Collin Hegna.

[64] Miracle Falls, the shoegaze project of Paul Dillon (former member of Mercury Rev, Longwave (band), Sparklehorse) and Jason "Plucky" Anchondo (The Warlocks, Spindrift), recorded their self-titled debut at Revolver.

It's in a beautiful old building [that] has a big, live room with high ceilings, old hardwood floors, and natural light during the day, which helps avoid the dissociative 'bunker effect' that can sometimes happen when you're recording.

[68] After an extended preparation for Habitual Love Song in his own basement studio, the third album from his Sons of Anarchy-feted folk-rock project Battleme, Matt Brenik came to Revolver with 20 demos.

[69] Although he had originally written the songs as piano ballads, he found they were energized in the process of recording with a full band, which included Hegna as bassist for the track "Post Is Dead".

West Coast indie-rock contemporaries of Federale comprised the majority of Revolver's early clients, but the highest-profile release associated with the studio came from a British modern rock legend spurred by tragic circumstances toward an impromptu recording session.