Today we’d like to introduce you to Billy Floyd.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
KitchenKillaz began in July of 2017 as “Billy Floyd & The Commodore”. I was so interested in Live Streaming. We would go LIVE on Facebook and play one song per day in a different room in the house.
One Friday night, we played in our kitchen.
We assumed our audience would be thin.
It was a Friday night, after all.
People are out doing things and going places.
To my pleasant surprise, I was wrong.
The crowd was not thin, and the response was amazing. People kept pouring into the feed, requesting songs, chatting with us, talking to each other; it was awesome.
We decided to perform again on the following Friday. During that broadcast, my friend Tim Haggard commented a few words that would change our lives.
“I watched you guys kill it in the band room. You killed it in the studio, and now you’re killing it in the kitchen. – You guys are like the Kitchen Killers.”
A light bulb went off in my head, and off to the races we went. I put on my business socks and got to it.
KitchenKillaz was formed.
The following Friday, as the KitchenKillaz, we performed from our kitchen once again. A good friend of ours asked us if we could kill his kitchen. I replied, “We’ll kill all the kitchens!”. Under the belief that no one would *actually* invite us to play in their kitchen, that would be silly.
Well…
1 cookbook
2 albums
8 years
1 Sweet & Smokey BBQ Sauce
…and 300 kitchens later, you can still catch us live at 9:05 pm EST, on Facebook, YouTube & Twitch, crashing a kitchen near you.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
A smooth road?
No, not at all.
The best part about KitchenKillaz was also the most challenging. Nothing like this had been done before, so there was no community for it. No template. It’s unique, and that makes it both challenging and rewarding. It carries the technological requirements of both a live band and a cooking show, which features chefs, cooks, guest counts, reservations, food inventory, kitchen appliances, Pop-Tarts & butter, quality microphones and cameras, bandwidth, sound engineering, setlists, original songs, cover tunes, live musical equipment, and all the logistics that come with it. Take that and bake it, and you’ve got a cake chock full of challenges and obstacles. Delicious. 🙂
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
It’s not easy to set myself apart from others. There are so many talented people, especially here in Orlando. I’m just happy I get to be a part of it.
This community has embraced us. They’ve welcomed us into their homes, their restaurants, and their kitchens. They’ve introduced us to friends and families, and even joined in on a song or two.
I am proud of everyone who has been, and currently is, a part of this project. They’ve all given time and love, and without that, KitchenKillaz would not be.
My professional career is in tech. I’m an IT Director by day. I get to spend the day immersed in technology and creativity. It’s a vibrant and beautiful space to play, learn, imagine, and implement.
The daytime fuels the night, and there I get to play in yet another space of technology and creativity.
Which also seems to be the 2 things I’m *most* known for.
I normally get two types of calls or messages.
1. When someone messes up their computer, or
2. When someone needs some live music.
And, tbh, I’m totally okay with both. 🙂
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I think, in general, people take risks every day. The quote “the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward” carries weight.
I’ve always been a risk-taker. With time, I’ve been able to focus my risk-taking to make failure more sustainable.
With KitchenKillaz in mind, I recognized something unique. I immediately made a heavy legal and financial investment into it, without any idea of what it could become or the promise of any ROI.
I believed that the purpose, idea, and price would be a winning recipe. The risk didn’t factor into my decision.
The decision was already made.
The risk was just part of the price.
Pricing:
- Booking the KitchenKillaz – Free
- Attending a KitchenKillaz show – Free
- Streaming our Friday night show – Free
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kitchenkillaz.com
- Instagram: @kitchenkillaz
- Facebook: @kitchenkillaz
- Twitter: @kitchenkillaz
- Youtube: @kitchenkillaz
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3v4OVc40I00NnUMuF8tZKA
Image Credits
KitchenKillaz
