Interview with Chris Crocetti and Dave Sawyer of R n R TV
MVP: Here we are in Baltimore, it is August 25, 2005, and we are with Chris Crocetti and Dave Sawyer from R n R TV in Balitmore, MD. Rachel is here from the Pabst Blue Ribbon folks getting us thoroughly inebriated. First question is for Chris, can you talk briefly about the difficulties of actually starting a regional music video program?
Chris Crocetti: I guess it started, believe it or not New Year’s Eve 2002, after working on a screenplay of an independent film we had shot about 25 percent of over about 2 years of my life, everything crumbled and went down the tubes. New Year’s Eve I was contemplating what the hell am I going to do. It occurred to me, I love rock and roll, and always dreamed of doing a rock show. I really had no idea how to go about it. So that was my New Year’s resolution, kissed the wife, drank a shot and said hey, rock and roll, I got to figure it out. So that’s kind of how I got started.
MVP: Now it’s about 53 or 54 episodes later. I’m curious how it’s gotten easier, I’m going to throw this question to Dave Sawyer, Chris’s main man here. How has it gotten easier now that you guys are established?
Dave Sawyer: Well it’s gotten easier because we have now been to many of the bars we go to, the clubs, and seen the bands and met the owners and the bouncers and the bartenders, and I talked to them and made our presence known. So they know us now more than they used to and getting into clubs is a little bit easier, the interviews are easier because we know what we want, what we want to ask, and just, more research into the bands history and come up with questions from that, off the website or something that Andy sends us. So that’s kind of how that’s gotten easier.
MVP: Are you getting a lot more videos now that you are on the radar screen?
CC: Yeah we’re getting tons of videos, all different labels; big ones, indie labels, east coast, west coast. It’s just an awesome feeling to know that all these reps are talking to each other and I really feel that they care about what we’re doing. They’re sending us some great stuff, they send us out to interviews and we get to shoot some live footage. It’s a lot of fun.
MVP: As the only game in town, in Baltimore, the biggest city in Maryland, the home of the Orioles and the Ravens, what has the reaction been from your viewers to all these cool music videos they’re not going to see anywhere else?
CC: Well the first reaction is; wow, where did you come from? What’s this music, it’s interesting, I haven’t seen this band. How do I find out more about this band? And I say, hey check out the show, get on their website, go out and see them live, buy their CDs. We’ll go out to some clubs where we air the program and hand out merch and people will come up to us and start telling us, hey we’re checking the show out. It blows their mind because it’s a lot of indie, a lot of up and coming superstars, they’re really digging it. I get a really big thrill out of saying that people are enjoying the show.
MVP: Next question is for Dave Sawyer. The video selection process, how does that go down at R n R TV HQ?
DS: Video selection for us is just kind of random, but not random. It’s kind of almost first come first serve but we also try to mix it up a bit and show that we are diverse in the rock genre. We show hard rock, punk rock, some pop rock and just kind of mix it all together and throw it out there on the TV for our viewers.
MVP: Ok, the next question is for Chris. Chris, curious how does RnR TV break down? You’ve got a full 60 minutes to bring all this great music and music videos to folks, do you use a host? Do you use a VJ? Do you have special themes to your show? Just curious how it’s actually looking to the viewers who are tuning in.
CC: Well we do have a set opening we use. It’s the same theme music, same with the credits, we keep that the same. We do use a VJ’s most of the time, they’ll introduce videos, they’ll help us out, they’ll help with the interviews quite a bit. That allows us to get as much video as possible. They won’t go into too much VJ breaks, because we want to put out as much music as possible for the fans. Of course the interviews, we like to clip them down to about 3 or 4 minutes. We want to give the fan some important aspects of the band so they can sort of know where they are coming from with their style, so if they’re interested in their music they’ll have an idea of what they are all about. But I’m really big on trying to get as much video out there as possible and that’s kind of what we’re focused on, to make sure the fans get all different styles of rock that I can cram in one hour.
MVP: Alright Dave, do you guys feel as though you are your own entity in Balitmore, MD or is there a sense that you are in the shadows of a bigger, more established city, Washington D.C.?
DS: Never, D.C. is kind of a sister to Balitmore. We rock and roll up here in Baltimore versus down in D.C., so I think we’re the bigger of the two.
MVP: Chris, it seems as though these independent bands are making Baltimore a mandatory stop on their tour. We are here at the Otto Bar, which has the coolest jukebox on the planet. Curious if you are feeling a palpable energy happening here in Baltimore?
CC: Oh definitely. Here in Baltimore the bands are coming back, the indie bands, the bigger bands. Even The Stones are coming to Baltimore, I think it’s been 40 years. Baltimore has a nice solid fan base and people here love rock and roll and also support so many genres of rock. You’ve got to love that, there are so many clubs popping up playing rock again and it’s about time. We love it.
MVP: Last question for the R n R guys. What’s the future for R n R? What are you guys looking to do as we move forward from 2005 into 2006?
CC: What we’re trying to do is continually put out the show in Baltimore, but we want to expand, we want to grow the show. That’s a big goal of the team of R n R TV. I’m constantly making contacts with people in different cities and states. We’re out there just fighting the good fight for rock and roll. We want people in other cities and states to check it out and become part of the R n R TV family and we’re working our butts off, I am like sweating my ass off to get this stuff accomplished. And it will happen, we will just keep plugging away and I’m not going to stop until we get to another city, and another, and another and another.