If you follow music in Greater Richmond at all-or even if you don’t – there’s a good chance you’ve been told to catch a Black Girls show.

And it could be someone of any age, a fan of any musical style, who might have made that recommendation.

Delivering high-energy performances of dramatic, original songs, the band drawsm audiences in to experience its collective imagination coming to life on stage. It’s easy to picture the members of Black Girls generating ideas around campfires and on front porches, feeding off each others’ quirkiest concepts.

“I think we’ve allowed ourselves to spend too much time together,” says lead vocalist Drew Gillihan. “So we nurture our own weirdness to a point that most people wouldn’t be willing to accept.”

Their music evokes influences as unexpected as Queen (mostly because of their theatrical style) to Prince. But these similarities are often coincidental, rather than intentional.

“Every comparison that people have made to us has been nothing we ever thought of, nothing that we were listening to at the time we were writing it,” says Steve Farris, drummer and vocalist, who points out that the band was originally inspired by glam rock-such as T-Rex and David Bowie — and Portuguese salsa — such as the music of Tropicalia. Not as detectable, but also influential to their sound, are rap, R&B, and reggae. A nod to Prince, they say, was consciously incorporated into their recent music.

Because no one person is behind any composition, each song reflects the range of styles favored by each band member, explains bassist Jeff Knight. “It passes through everyone’s filter at least once, which is probably why you hear so many different things.”

Farris and Mike Bryant, lead guitarist and pianist, formed early musical projects when they were high school friends in Hampton Roads. At VCU, they met Gillihan, also from Hampton Roads, and established the line-up that would become Black Girls.

According to Gillihan, the band’s thematic, visually oriented qualities are rooted in Farris and Bryant’s background in VCU’s film program.

“The ideas are always from a film scene perspective,” he says. “Those guys think in terms of scenes, and not music.”

Farris adds, “We’re making a story and painting a picture. Every song is character driven.”

The performances born from this process have earned Black Girls an active touring schedule that takes them to far-flung cities such as St. Louis, MI and Portland, ME, and high-profile gigs around town.

In part, Farris says their local success is linked to a renewed musical vigor in Richmond and a spirit of mutual support among musicians and audiences. “It’s fans coming out, and artists being motivated by the fans’ excitement to put on a bigger and better show every time,” he explains. “I think there’s a healthy competition that’s happening in Richmond.”

But what audiences respond so positively to-what keeps people coming back to hear and see them-may also be their lack of inhibition in sharing what they genuinely enjoy doing.

“We always put 100% into it,” says Knight. “I think people feel that it’s honest. We just want to have a good time and we really like to get down.