Exclusive Interview: Syd Butler (@sydfkr) co-founder of FKR.tv

 

John Blabber: Hey Syd, tell our readers a little bit about yourself.

Syd Butler: Well I’m six feet tall. I like long walks on the beach. I’m a Leo. And I’ve got a wife and kids that are awesome.  I’m a huge Capitals hockey fan. And my heart’s broken all the time. That’s about it. I run Frenchkiss Records. Started a web channel with David Cross, Frenchkiss TV. My label is Frenchkiss  Records and Frenchkiss publishing. I have my hat in many different rings.

Is that true like you were a guest blogger for the playoffs at some point?

Yes, I was, I was. Years ago when the Capitals were even in a more desperate situation – they didn’t have a following  or anything like that. No one – Danny  couldn’t find anyone to write about the Capitals. And they had gone through the grapevine and had heard that I was a huge Washington Capitals fan and that I was the only fan not for the Rangers or Bruins (Ed’s Note: GO BRUINS!!!). They had different people writing for them but I was the sole Capital.

Tell us a little bit about what FKR TV is and what you guys are looking to do with it.

The music business is just right for comedy. It’s all – the whole thing is a joke so – being in a band for 20 years and running this label I have many, many stories. I’ve known David (Cross) for just over ten years and we just figured it was time where we, you know, we had to choose and we had the support of our distributor. It sounds like the perfect opportunity. And there’s also the situation where we grow tired people sitting around their living room and you haven’t seen this directo  and a writer and an actor being like, “Oh, I wish my agent would call.” And our plan was why not you just write a show. You have an iPhone, right? Just – place people in front of the camera and then you edit it.  t took telling people that they can break through that fear. Like sketch it out. Let’s have some fun and have it be organic and independent and authentic which is sort of what David and I stand for.

Talk about some of the programming you guys are looking at.

We have the show where we have some puppeteers from Montreal. Its really amazing animated puppets and you have all these guests telling stories and they’re animating the story with these puppets. I did a  story about me being totally inebriated with a famous rock star. But those where the days when I drank and now I don’t. David has a story and my wife, Amy, has a story and David’s wife, Amber, has a story. Fred Armisen has a story. We’ve got Andy Wharton to tell us a story. So it’s kind of like now that this thing is real people they are wanting to be part of it. But that’s one of the shows called This One Time. We have another show about a haunted mansion. This guy has a  haunted mansion and he’s an old music executive trying to hide away and realizes that this mansion is haunted. But it’s a kind of stupid, scary movie and stupid humor. We made a bunch of like little shorts, you know. They’re 30 seconds long  that are just simple jokes that we like to keep things interesting.

How about working with David and what he’s bringing to what you guys are doing over at FKR.tv and how both of your I guess, styles of humor mesh and what you’re looking for in original content kind of mesh a little bit.

I think we’re just looking for smart people to show up and write stuff. David is the curator of everything so his sort of tastes are imprinted on it. You know, knowing David for as long as I have I think David is an awesome human being. He’s incredibly intelligent and really sharp and really pays attention, cares and he appreciates his audience. His fans – he always takes time to take a picture with them and he’s just – I mean he can be surly sometimes but, yeah, I mean, he’s one of the best comedians I know and one of the smartest people I know. And I have nothing but the best to say about him.

Do you guys agree, though, like when you guys are talking about original content and stuff like that – are you guys on  the same playing field in terms of what you’re looking for for the original programming end of it?

I kind of let him, you know, since he is a two time Grammy nominated comedian for his comedy record, I kind of let him do that part. I just sort of present things to him and say, “Oh, I think this is funny. How do you think about this?” Give my fifty cents about something and – but most of the time we agree. I think having been friends with him for so long we see the world the same way. We laugh at the same jokes.

You guys are working with the Orchard. Talk a little bit about how you guys are working with them and what kind of a partner have they been for you guys.