Mackenzie Roark (Photo by Gabriel Van Cleave)
Familiar faces at Richmond’s concert venues and beyond, Mackenzie Roark and the Hotpants have been making the music rounds for about two years. Now, they’re set to release a currently untitled album in early 2025.
Roark, the band’s guitarist and lead vocalist, has two solo efforts under her belt already. Her debut EP, “Mother Tongue,” dropped in 2016, and her first full-length album, “Rollin’ High, Feelin’ Low,” was released in 2022.
“My roots are classic rock,” says Roark, who’s been playing gigs in and around Richmond for about a decade. “That is what I truly grew up on, and that is the music that formed me as a human. … This album is going to be a little more true to that, but still with that kind of like country undertone.”
She says her early influences include Townes Van Zandt, John Prine and Emmylou Harris, among others. She describes the upcoming album as Americana rock ’n’ roll and an evolution from that previous sound.
The Hotpants began to take form after Roark released her 2022 album. In 2024, the band played the Friday Cheers concert series on Brown’s Island in May and went on tour in September, tallying around 30 shows during the calendar year. Roark has also continued to play solo shows.
The band, whose name reflects Roark’s affinity for 1970s fashion (and her self-professed goal to wear hotpants at most shows), has also played Richmond spots like Reveler, The Broadberry and Get Tight Lounge.
“I love the Richmond music scene,” Roark says. “It’s easy to feel a camaraderie with people.”
For the new album, Roark says her band helped bring the songs to life, and she’s taken on more of a producer role to achieve the overall vision. The group laid down all nine tracks at Red Amp Audio in Richmond’s historic Monroe Ward district.
“I’m like, ‘Let’s do something that’s just f--king real,’” she says. The goal was to produce an album reflecting the group’s concert sound.
“It’s got some attitude,” she adds. “It’s definitely from the heart. All the songs are, I would say, very personal in a way, even the kind of lighthearted ones. They’re all based on my life. It’s got energy. It’s got claws.”
In 2024, the band won FloydFest’s On-the-Rise competition; they will play the Floyd, Virginia-based festival again in July 2025.
“I made buttons,” Roark says of the band’s campaign to achieve the recognition, adding that they also handed out flyers. “[We] put them on the backs of every port-a-potty and put them around the whole festival. A ton of people showed up, and we won.”
That grassroots campaign is part of Roark’s larger boots-on-the-ground philosophy. She quit social media, instead self-promoting via a newsletter on her website and by simply playing gigs.
Catch Mackenzie Roark and the Hotpants at upcoming local shows, including Three Leg Run brewery in Chester on Jan. 10, Harry’s at the Hof on Jan. 16 and Gallery5 in Jackson Ward with Richmond-based pop project The Wayward Leaves on Feb. 1.
Mackenzie Roark is aiming for a late February or early March album release and subsequent launch party. For more information, visit mackenzieroark.com.
