Khan Queso

Geek-Infused Indie Rock - Kirksville, MO

Khan Queso is a band I formed in 2016 while I was a freshman studying Computer Science at Truman State University. Before we all graduated in 2020, we played over 40 shows, recorded and self-produced our debut album, organized a music festival to celebrate the album’s release, and completed a weeklong tour throughout the Midwest.

We were known for our fun, energetic performances and our geeky sense of humor on stage. But I took our silliness very seriously. I wasn’t content to sit and hope for gigs to come our way. I decided that I was going to learn and implement everything I could about running a band as a business, using all of my varied skills and talents.

For me, Khan Queso was more than a band. It was an entrepreneurial, interdisciplinary, and leadership experience like no other. While I was studying hard enough to graduate cum laude, serving in leadership positions in 4 other campus organizations, and playing solo gigs and giving piano lessons so I could graduate without debt, I:

Recruited band members, and scheduled and directed rehearsals based on the disparate schedules of 5 college students.
Worked with local promoters and bands to plan, promote, and play shows.
Recorded and produced our debut album.
Designed, produced, sold, and shipped merchandise to finance the album’s production costs.
Registered our music with performance rights organizations and publishers, enabling us to collect royalties from live performances and radio plays.
Hired and directed freelance photographers and artists to help us build our brand.
Built our website, in collaboration with our ukulele/guitar player and fellow programmer Jeremie Amano.
Managed our social media presence by continually creating and publishing image and video content, as well as flyers for upcoming shows.
Planned a music festival to celebrate our album’s release, which involved raising funds by approaching local businesses to negotiate sponsorships for the event, scheduling 8 support acts between local bands and campus music organizations, promoting the festival digitally and via print and radio throughout the entire town, and contacting campus and local news outlets to secure press coverage for the event, including a feature story in Truman State University's campus newspaper and publicity from local broadcasting station KTVO.
Negotiated with support bands and promoters in Columbia, St. Louis, Omaha, and Kansas City to plan a Midwestern tour to promote the album.