Scott Lane met Daniel Bagbey over Thanksgiving dinner in 2016. At the time, neither knew of the other’s passion for capturing music as an art, but their combined experience in sound recording and videography, and their dedication to the Richmond music scene, inspired them to create a video series profiling musical performances by artists in the metro Richmond area, dubbed RVATRACK.
(provided photo)
For the series, which can be found on Facebook, YouTube and Tumblr, every performance is filmed in a historic 19th-century Jackson Ward home. A five-person unit shoots video, records and mixes audio, and occasionally fills in on instruments to back up the musicians. The current team includes Lane — guitarist and vocalist for The Congress, head of the indie label American Paradox Records, band manager, and freelance record mixer — and Bagbey, who works for an architecture firm and does freelance video projects, plus three audio and video engineers, all of whom have experience working on video and music projects around Richmond. Lane controls the audio for most shoots, while Bagbey edits the footage into the final product.
It was a “no-brainer,” according to Bagbey, when Lane came to him with the idea, to make the project a reality. “Given that I had wanted to do the same thing for years, I immediately agreed to help any way I could,” says Bagbey.
RVATRACK’s concept for a live music video series is not uncommon in Richmond, where there are groups like video collective Good Day RVA, which funds and produces music videos for local acts. RVATRACK's work is entirely volunteer-based, and is a passion project for the engineers involved. “The inspiration that drives RVATRACK is a love for music and creative, strategic collaboration,” says Bagbey. “I will say that we [also] hope to become an influential component of the music scene.”
Blues/rock musician Angelica Garcia and her band recording the next episode of RVATRACK, due to be released April 17. (Photo by Craig Zirpolo)
Lane notes that there have been issues preventing the growth of the series, mainly their ability to film only once a month. “With only one video per month, we won't be able to cover everything we want to do,” he says.
For the future, Bagbey and Lane hope to expand their series and want to present music and musicians in interesting ways, and they’d like to film interviews and short movies with artists. Their immediate focus, however, remains producing a video series that is worth sharing. “When it comes down to it,” Bagbey adds, “we are just working together to do the things that we enjoy and to produce creative, and hopefully inspirational, content for the people of Richmond.”
The next episode of the RVATRACK series debuts on YouTube April 17, featuring rock/blues musician Angelica Garcia.
