With a demo cassette and a lot of legwork, they waged a persistent campaign for club dates and radio airtime. Mike Cronin audits expenses, income and revenues from promotional hats and T-shirts. Steve Coscarella works on booking gigs, along with Ed Minasian, who also writes the band's newsletter, Big News. Kalavantis and Coscarella manage the database of more than 600 fans, which is used for mailings and marketing analysis. Although Web pages are not uncommon for bands, Christopher claims that WPI graduates have a technological edge.
Most bands have to call around, book their own gigs.
The band's progress is carefully monitored and discussed at biweekly meetings. Although it is clearly a team effort, Christopher credits Big Character's success to Chu's vision, know-how and perseverance. The other night he came in with a 30-page printout on what the band has accomplished so far, with charts, graphs and a cost analysis of where we've played, what the pay was, and where we should be playing the most to maximize profits. Chu, the realist, says the band's journey has been intense, but fun. His advice to aspiring rock stars is to persevere, and don't get offended at the inevitable criticism.