What do you get when you cross The Killers, Tron and the 80s? You get Heartracer, a born and raised Richmond electronic trio, made up of brothers Chip and Chris Cosby and Bryan Reyes.
“We are the antithesis of Richmond music,” Chris Cosby said.
This trio of passionate electronic musicians has found themselves in a sea of punk rockers, soul singers and country boys. The Richmond music scene has not yet carved out a nice for thier electronic music.
“The Richmond music scene is largely centered around metal, punk and jam music,” Chip Crosby said.
The lack of a niche for their type of music has forced them to travel, which for Heartracer, they enjoy. They have been very successful traveling to places like Raleigh, North Carolina and other bigger cities.
The venues for performing live music in Richmond are smaller and are more suitable for a grassroots, and organic sounds, they said. With their electronic and pop vibes, the venues in Richmond are not ideal performance locations for Heartracer.
“Our sounds lends itself to bigger venues … it has more of a nightclub-y feel,” Chris said.
The group has played at The National on four different occasions, where they can perform to their best ability, in an arena-like setting.
Though the group travels a lot for performances, the actual production of their music is all done locally. They start in Chris’s home studio, where they make the rough drafts of their music. Then they take it to a local recording studio to be polished and completed by an engineer, Andreas Magnusson, Chris described.
The trio has observed that for some bands that stay local, they end up fizzling out. Richmond has a lot of pride in itself and what it produces, Reyes said, but this pride can make the city somewhat insular.
“Richmond has something that’s good and they just want to keep it to itself,” Reyes said.
Richmond, for the trio, has been a good place to live, but it is not the best place to be able to spread their wings and share their music with a wider audience.
Richmond is a sizeable city, with both metropolitan and suburban environments, however at its core it is still a small city, and this can be a challenge for Heartracer.
“Recently the Richmond music scene has become a lot more of who you know and your connections,” Chris said.
Though Heartracer does not see itself staying a small Richmond band, they can appreciate the city for what it has offered them to this point. They will continue to play in Richmond, but also in other cities.
Heartracer wants to make it big, they all agree, and they will continue their music until they do.