December Kids in the Rotunda Shows
We had such a great time at our three shows at the Overture’s Kids in the Rotunda on December 2nd! Thanks to everyone who came out to see us.
The day before the show, we were the subject of a nice Wisconsin State Journal article, which is online here.
Thanks to the Overture Center for inviting us to perform again and Summit Credit Union for piggy banks for all the kids in attendance!
Here is a short video of us during soundcheck:
Aargh! Kids in the Rotunda Pictures!
We want to thank everyone who came out to our three shows at the Overture’s Kids in the Rotunda on April 29th!
Also, a big thanks to the Overture Center for inviting us and Summit Credit Union for providing surprises to the kids. It was a day we’ll never forget.
The Disclosures Release Animated Pirate Video for Kids about Borrowing $
The Disclosures – the Madison-based “musicians with a mission” – have released a new animated “lyric” video for “The Tale of Kidd Silver, the Savviest Pirate to Ever Sail the Seas”, which is from their financial education album for kids.
> View “The Tale of Kidd Silver, the Savviest Pirate to Ever Sail the Seas” music video
In the song “The Tale of Kidd Silver, the Savviest Pirate to Ever Sail the Seas”, The Disclosures – comprised of band members Christopher Morris (National Credit Union Foundation) and Chad Helminak (Heritage Credit Union) – detail the journey of Kidd Silver, a pirate who excessively borrows money without paying attention to the consequences of not being able to pay it back. He later realizes the errors of his ways and learns to budget and be more reasonable in his desires to become a pirate. The song lyrics weave in educational topics including how loans and interest work, needs vs. wants, budgeting, and more.
“Aside from ‘Thank my Piggy Bank,’ Kidd Silver has been the most popular song off of our kids album,” said Helminak. “Kids love this song when we play it live, so we hope this extension into the animated world helps more kids learn about Kidd Silver and his money lessons.”
The Disclosures worked with a leading industry marketing firm, Gira[ph}, to develop the animated video. Production support was provided by Balance, which provides comprehensive financial counseling and education services to help people achieve financial independence.
“Huge thanks to Kathryn Davis and our friends at Balance for helping support this video,” said Morris. “Gira{ph} took our vision to new heights as well by creating this video, which is our most ambitious yet.”
In addition to this new video for kids, The Disclosures also have released videos for “The Secret to Being Rich”, “I Want, I Need,” and their most popular single “Thank My Piggy Bank.” As with all of their songs and videos, The Disclosures hope that parents and teachers use these materials to spark conversations with kids about these very important topics.
“The Secret to Being Rich” album is available for download on all major digital music stores such as iTunes, Amazon and many others. Physical CDs also can be purchased at cdbaby.com, and The Disclosures also offer discounted bulk CD orders for financial institutions, schools or youth organizations. All ordering information and additional resources can be found on thedisclosuresmusic.com.
Click here for more information about The Disclosures.
Have you Picked Up our Kids Album Yet?
There is a very real need for children to be introduced to financial education at an early age. Last year, the National Financial Educators Council (NFEC) tested teens on areas covered within national financial literacy standards. The results were shocking; while only 4.7% of participants got an A on the test, 62.4% got a D or an F.
Music and education have been effectively used to teach children about important topics such as reading and math, but not around the basics of financial literacy (until now!). Our latest album, “The Secret to Being Rich,” incorporates concepts such as saving, responsible spending, the importance of charity, the dangers of “too good to be true” advertising and even the basics of how loans work for children ten and under.
It’s fun. It’s educational and the songs will stick with you (and your child)!
> Get a digital or physical copy of the album here
Just Released: Energize your Employees with a Special ICU Day Video from The Disclosures
The credit union industry’s only education-focused rock band, The Disclosures, has released a fun and informative video for credit union employees to celebrate International Credit Union (ICU) Day.
> Click here to watch the video.
The video is intended to educate credit union organization staff about ICU Day and how important it is to celebrate and share our credit union roots and mission. It features:
- Details about ICU Day and stories from credit union history;
- Important activities taking place on ICU Day;
- Last-minute ideas to celebrate in your communities;
- Takeaways around storytelling, values and history;
- And, of course, a few credit union-inspired songs by The Disclosures.
The video’s content borrows heavily from The Disclosures’ highly-rated breakout session that has been presented at industry events around the country. The video is free for all credit union organizations to use as they see fit.
“Given the ICU Day theme of ‘people helping people’ this year, we wanted to give something back to the industry that has given us so much,” said band member Christopher Morris. “Our presentation style is loose and light-hearted, and we prefer guitars to a slide deck, so we hope credit unions find value and joy in sharing our message with staff.”
“One of the goals of ICU Day is to raise awareness about the great work credit unions are doing to improve people’s financial well-being,” said band member Chad Helminak. “We hope credit unions everywhere find some inspiration and ideas in our video to spread the credit union message on ICU Day and beyond.“
The video’s estimated run time is 30 minutes and was recorded on the World Credit Union Center Campus in Madison, Wis. The Disclosures would like to thank CUNA Mutual Group for providing production support.
About the Band:
Christopher Morris and Chad Helminak are “musicians with a mission” based out of Madison, Wisconsin. Outside of their day jobs, they moonlight as music-based educators “The Disclosures” and write songs and perform presentations about the importance of financial literacy and social responsibility. After releasing their first album of original credit union songs in 2011, Christopher Morris and Chad Helminak presented highly-rated education sessions and music performances across the nation.
Their latest album, “The Secret to Being Rich”, is focused on youth financial literacy, using music and humor to introduce lessons about money, savings, responsible spending, and more. For more information about The Disclosures, click here.
Save the Date: Energize your Employees with a Special ICU Day Video from The Disclosures
The credit union industry’s only education-focused rock band, The Disclosures, will be releasing a fun and informative video for credit union employees on October 15 to celebrate International Credit Union (ICU) Day.
The video’s content will borrow heavily from The Disclosures’ highly-rated breakout session that has presented at industry events around the country. It will be uploaded to the band’s YouTube account and is free for all credit unions to use as they see fit.
If interested in viewing and sharing The Disclosures’ ICU Day video, visit the band’s YouTube page at www.youtube.com/user/thedisclosures and subscribe to be notified as soon as it’s uploaded. The video’s estimated run time will be 20-30 minutes.
The Disclosures Receive the 2015 Cooperative Spirit Award
The Disclosures, Chad Helminak and Christopher Morris, were presented with the 2015 Development Education (DE) Program Cooperative Spirit Award last week at a special reception during the annual DE Workshop, July 9-11, 2015 in Denver, Colo. in conjunction with CUNA and the World Council of Credit Union’s “CU in Denver” event. The award is given annually to “a group of individuals for a project that has made a significant difference to a community, school, a credit union or the greater credit union movement.”
Over 100 Credit Union Development Educators (CUDEs) gathered at the recent workshop to help the National Credit Union Foundation (the Foundation) present the award. In the announcement from the Foundation, The Disclosures were recognized for the following:
- Making a significant difference to youth and the greater credit union community by engaging in the credit union difference in a completely new and unique way using their own talents and gifts.
- Captured the attention of media, blogs, speaker bureaus, unique entertainment spots that always brought positive attention to the role of credit unions and financial education.
- Created lasting videos, albums and songs to be leveraged by various credit union groups.
- Known for being fresh, new, unique, inspirational, fun and impactful.
“When we met in 2009 at DE Training, we had no idea that this little band would take us on a journey from coast to coast, playing in Estes Park, school assemblies, conferences and all types of events,” said band member Christopher Morris. “But it’s been a great trip. And it’s easy when you are singing about something you are passionate about. And for us, that’s credit unions and financial education.”
“It’s very meaningful to be recognized by our peers, especially when we’ve been on hiatus for a while,” said band member Chad Helminak. “This honor has reminded us of how impactful and enjoyable our musical efforts has been, and maybe that it’s time to recharge and ramp up those efforts in the near future.”
Nominations were submitted by CUDEs and winners were chosen by the 2015 CUDE Awards Committee, which consisted of the following individuals:
- Debbie Wege, BECU;
- Larry Blanchard, CUNA Mutual Group;
- Brandon McAdams, Coastal FCU; and
- Lily Newfarmer, Tarrant County’s CU.
More information about the award and other honorees is online here.
The Disclosures wish to thank our friends and family, everyone at the National Credit Union Foundation, the Wisconsin Credit Union League, and anyone who either bought our music, shared our videos, or hired us to come out and play at their event!
The Disclosures Release “I Want, I Need” Lyric Video
The Disclosures – the Madison-based “musicians with a mission” – have released a new “lyric” video for “I Want, I Need”, which is from their recently released financial education album for kids.
> Click here for “I Want, I Need” Video
In the song “I Want, I Need”, The Disclosures discuss the difference between wants and needs to help kids manage their money better. Once kids learn the difference, it’s a great foundation for budgeting, saving, spending, etc. In fact, because the concepts on The Disclosures’ new kids album build on themselves, it’s one of the first songs on the album.
In addition to this new video for kids, The Disclosures also recently released a video for “The Secret to Being Rich” and their popular “Thank My Piggy Bank” video was released in 2013. As with all of their songs and videos, The Disclosures hope that parents and teachers use these materials to spark conversations with kids about these very important topics
“The Secret to Being Rich” album is available for download on all major digital music stores such as iTunes, Amazon and many others. Physical CDs also can be purchased at cdbaby.com, and The Disclosures also offer discounted bulk CD orders for financial institutions, schools or youth organizations. All ordering information and additional resources can be found on thedisclosuresmusic.com.
The Disclosures to Perform at Southeast Credit Union Conference & Filene’s Anniversary Party
We are pleased to announce two exciting shows this summer! First, we are performing all over at the Southeast Credit Union Conference & Expo in beautiful Orlando, Florida on June 11, 2014. We’ll be performing our musical breakout session, “Credit Unions Rock! Getting in Tune with our Roots and Philosophy,” performing a set of songs in the exhibit hall, as well as playing a special kids show in the evening. It’s shaping up to be a great event and the theme of the conference is “Living the Cooperative Principles the Credit Union Way” so it’s definitely a perfect fit for us!
> Click Here for More Information on the Event
In July, we are honored to be performing a set of live music for the Filene Research Institute’s 25th Anniversary Shindig in Madison, Wisconsin on July 15, 2014. Expect to hear some of our original songs, mixed in with some popular covers and some DJing of our favorite tunes.
> Click Here for More Information about the Event
Hope to see you at either event this summer! And of course, if you are ever interested in having The Disclosures perform at your next event, here is more information.
The Disclosures Release “The Secret to Being Rich” Video & Free Song for Financial Literacy Month
Kicking off National Financial Literacy Month, The Disclosures – the Madison-based “musicians with a mission” – have released a new video and free song download for “The Secret to Being Rich”, which is the title track off of their recently released financial education album for kids.
> Click here for “The Secret to Being Rich” Video
> Click here to download “The Secret to Being Rich” Song (free until April 30)
While other songs on their new album focus on financial literacy, the song “The Secret to Being Rich” is intended to teach kids that being ‘rich’ takes hard work and discipline, but that you can also be wealthy in many ways aside from how much money is in your wallet.
“This is one of our more serious songs for kids, but we think it’s also one of our best because it contains a message that gets lost in a lot of financial literacy instruction – that money is important, but it’s not everything,” said Christopher Morris, Disclosures band member.
Chad Helminak, the other member of The Disclosures, noted that “the title of the song and album can be initially jarring, but it’s only because we’re satirizing the ‘get rich quick’ schemes and distorted view of wealth kids might be see on TV and other places in today’s society.”
The “Secret to Being Rich” video features on-screen lyrics and outtakes from previous Disclosures videos such as the “Thank My Piggy Bank” video for kids that was released in 2013. As with all of their songs and videos, The Disclosures hope that parents and teachers use these materials to spark conversations with kids about these very important topics
“The Secret to Being Rich” album is available for download on all major digital music stores such as iTunes, Amazon and many others. Physical CDs also can be purchased at cdbaby.com, and The Disclosures also offer discounted bulk CD orders for financial institutions, schools or youth organizations. All ordering information and additional resources can be found on thedisclosuresmusic.com.
The Disclosures recently took their youth financial education songs on tour in Texas, playing live shows and assemblies for more than 1,000 K-5 students. Click here for a tour diary with pictures, videos and more.
The Disclosures’ Texas Tour – 3 Days of Music, Money Lessons and Kids
They say everything is bigger in Texas and that just might be true, as we look back at our visit to the Lone Star State and our biggest tour yet! We had a fantastic time debuting our youth financial education music performances following the recent release of our new kids album, “The Secret to Being Rich.”
Our shows featured many of our financial education songs, as well as some fun discussion with students about savings and being careful with money. We played for over 1,000 students on the tour and while it’s hard to condense all of the awesome things that happened into one blog post, here’s our attempt at doing so!
Day 1: Beaumont, Nederland and Vidor, Texas – Sponsored by FivePoint Credit Union
The first day of the tour was a busy one, with a total of four shows lined up throughout the day. Two shows were for pre-K and 1st grade audiences and we played in school gymnasiums (one was even decked out in pirate flags since their school mascot was a pirate – perfect for our “Kidd Silver” song!). For the other two shows, we were fortunate to play in the very impressive Nederland School Performing Arts Center for large groups of 2nd and 3rd graders.
At both shows for the older group, we were asked to play encores of “Thank my Piggy Bank” as the kids sang and screamed along with the chorus. Our “smash hit” with kids made us feel like The Beatles for a brief second! Afterwards, we took pictures with the students and so many of them were excited to talk about their piggy banks and what they were saving for. We wish we had more time to talk with them all, but encouraged them to keep up the great work and talk with their parents, credit union and teachers about how to make their savings dreams come true.
We were lucky to also be joined by FivePoint CU’s mascot Starbit, who was a trooper and danced with us at every show. Click here to watch a video snippet from the arts center and here are some pictures from the day:
Day 2: Ft. Worth and Azle, Texas – Sponsored by Tarrant County Credit Union
After a flight to Ft. Worth, day 2 of the tour kicked off in a neat old school auditorium (pictured at the top of this post) where we played to a large crown of 3rd through 5th graders. This was followed by a fun Q & A session with the kids where we talked about more money tips, our musical backgrounds and how we are not, in fact, brothers.
The second show venue probably had the most elaborate stage set as it was a elementary school cafeteria decorated for a Valentine’s Day assembly. The school’s 3rd and 4th graders sat on the floor and had a great time singing and moving to our songs about money! Again, we were asked if we were brothers or cousins. Again, the answer was no.
Both groups proved to be excited and very ambitious about their savings goals. When we asked them what they were saving up for, their answers included “a house”, “a car” and “money for college tuition” — impressive, right? We led the kids through a quick exercise to demonstrate the difference between wants and needs and encouraged them to keep their dreams big while also being realistic, which we hope was helpful for the few kids who said they needed a Ferrari or a mansion!
More pictures are below:
Day 3: Dallas, Texas
The third and last day of the tour culminated with a performance at the Cornerstone Credit Union Foundation’s FOCUS Summit in Dallas. The conference is for financial education advocates (credit union professionals and others) and we got to kick it off with our interactive education session called “The Power of Song – Amping up Financial Education”. We played some of our new kids songs and shared insight on the creative process, experiential learning and the power of music and humor in education. It was also a lot of fun getting the adults to shout the infamous pirate “ARGH!” just like the kids had been doing the past two days (click here for a video snippet).
We were followed on the agenda by Jean Chatzky, bestselling author and financial editor of NBC’s Today Show, who we met afterwards and later that day, she even had some nice words to say about our performance on her Facebook page. Here are some pictures of the performance and The Disclosures posing with Ms. Chatzky afterwards:
Also, as a nice surprise, the local news was there (KTXD-TV) and we are featured in a segment about Jean Chatzky at 0:30 here:
All in all, our time in Texas was extremely gratifying and something we’ll never forget and we had tons of fun interacting with the students. One teacher said that after the show kids were “pumped” about savings and “singing their hearts out.” Another said she “so enjoyed the program” and her “class was singing it all day!” And Mandy Clayton with FivePoint Credit Union said:
“The Disclosures, Chad and Chris, are truly fabulous! They have an amazing way of bringing music with a mission of financial education that is fun for students and they don’t even realize they are learning. It’s an awesome sound to hear elementary school students belting out songs about thanking my piggy bank and saving for their needs & wants, that’s when you know they really get it.”
Thanks again to FivePoint Credit Union and Tarrant County Credit Union for making this tour possible and taking good care of us (special thanks to Mandy and Tawna!). Also, big thanks to Courtney and the Cornerstone Credit Union Foundation for inviting us to their FOCUS Summit and let us “warm up” for Jean Chatzky!
New Financial Education Album Aims to Strike Chord with Kids
Two Madison musicians have released a financial education album for kids that introduces important money lessons through songs about pirates, superheroes and other non-sequiturs.
The album, called “The Secret to Being Rich”, features ten original songs for ages 10 and under that incorporate core financial literacy concepts including saving, responsible spending, the importance of charity, dangers of “too good to be true” advertising and even the basics of how loans work.
Furthermore, the album’s overall theme ties into its tongue-in-cheek title, which is meant to convey to kids that being ‘rich’ takes hard work and discipline, and that you can also be wealthy in friends, family and other things in life that can matter much more than the money in your wallet.
All songs were written by Chad Helminak and Christopher Morris, who perform as band “The Disclosures” outside of their day jobs within the credit union industry.
“We’ve found that music and humor can be very effective ways of reinforcing learning,” said Morris. “Since we both work closely financial education programs in our day jobs, we knew this was an important direction to take our music in and help a young audience learn about these topics.”
Morris and Helminak have also developed discussion topics for teachers and parents, as well as a classroom performance which they’ll be debuting in Texas elementary school tour in February, 2014.
“The Secret to Being Rich” album is available for download on all major digital music stores such as iTunes, Amazon and others. Physical CDs also can be purchased at cdbaby.com, and The Disclosures will also be processing bulk orders of CDs at discount for purchase by financial institutions, schools or youth organizations. All ordering information and additional resources can be found on thedisclosuresmusic.com.
Earlier this year, The Disclosures released “Thank My Piggy Bank,” the first single and video from the album. The video was filmed around town at the Madison Children’s Museum, Capitol Kids, and Summit Credit Union.
A record release party is scheduled for December 20th at DreamBank in Madison. Details are online here.
Click here for more information about The Disclosures.
The Disclosures’ Record Release Party Set for December 20th at DreamBank
Come celebrate the release of The Disclosures’ new kids album, “The Secret to Being Rich,” at this fun and free event.
This is your chance to meet and hear The Disclosures (Christopher Morris & Chad Helminak) – musicians with a mission – and also purchase first print copies of their new album. The album has 10 songs that use music and humor to introduce lessons about money, savings, responsible spending and more.
Live acoustic performance at 6:30. All ages are welcome and encouraged to come!
Details:
Friday, December 20th | 6:00 – 7:30 PM
DreamBank
1 N. Pinckney Street
Madison, WI
(On Madison’s Capitol Square)
You can RSVP on Facebook here & hope to see you there!
Release Date & Tracklisting for The Disclosures’ New Kids Album
We’re happy to announce that our new kids album, “The Secret to Being Rich”, will be released worldwide on December 10, 2013. The album has 10 songs that use music and humor to introduce lessons about money, savings, responsible spending and more.
It will be the first of its kind and available where ever you download music digitally (iTunes, Amazon, Napster, etc). We will also be selling physical copies of the album on CD at shows/events where we perform as well as online at stores such as CDbaby.com, Amazon and others.
Above is the back cover of the CD (in case you missed it, here’s the cover art). Thanks again goes to Lesley Clark from Sissybird Design for creating all the artwork for our album. Also thanks to Morriss Partee/Squirrel Trench Audio for his fantastic work mixing and mastering on the album.
Without further ado, here is the tracklisting for “The Secret to Being Rich”:
- Money, Moola, Dinero, Dough
- I Want, I Need
- Save!
- Won’t You Be My Money Buddy?
- The Tale of Kidd Silver, the Savviest Pirate to Ever Sail the Seas
- Thank My Piggy Bank
- Captain Smartmoney vs. Dr. Greedypants
- Spend, Save, Give
- Too Good to Be True
- The Secret to Being Rich
Look for more information coming soon on our record release party and other album-related news. We can’t wait to share our music with you!
Album Cover Released for The Disclosures’ New Kids Album
We are pleased to release the first glimpse of our album art for “The Secret to Being Rich” slated to release in December, 2013! The forthcoming kids album uses music and humor to introduce lessons about money, savings and responsible spending.
We owe a huge thanks to Lesley Clark from Sissybird Design for putting together this wonderful front cover. She’s working on all of the album art for us and every bit of it looks amazing. Thanks Lesley!
What’s the album going to sound like? In case you missed it, on April 2nd, we released the song and video for “Thank My Piggy Bank”, the first single from the album. Stay tuned for the tracklisting and more details on our album between now and December. We can’t wait to share it with you!
The Disclosures Named “Credit Union Rock Stars” in Special Credit Union Magazine Issue
In honor of International Credit Union Day, Credit Union Magazine is publishing a special bonus issue, which is dedicated to credit union rock stars – “ordinary people who are doing the extraordinary.” Forty-eight rock stars were selected based on their passion and drive to put bright ideas into action and champion the credit union ideal of “people helping people.”
The Disclosures were lucky enough to be included in the special issue and are honored to be recognized. We are in such great company as the issue is bursting with stories of amazing people from across the movement!
We can’t say this enough too – a huge THANK YOU to our employers, colleagues, family, friends and fans for your support and encouragement. You guys rock!
> Click here to view all the Credit Union Magazine Rock Star profiles
The Disclosures to Play DreamBank & Fox Cities Money Conference
We wanted to let you know about two upcoming family-oriented shows around Wisconsin. They’ll both also be featuring our new and fun financial education songs for kids off of our forthcoming album “The Secret to Being Rich.”
First, we had so much fun playing at DreamBank on Madison’s Capitol Square as part of Make Music Madison this past summer, that we’ll be playing there as part of their “Family Saturdays” series. Here are the details:
Saturday, October 26, 2013 | 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
DreamBank – One North Pinckney, Madison, WI
Click Here for the event page on the DreamBank website for more information
We are also excited to be performing a session of our new songs at the Fox Cities Money Conference next month. This should be a great event as it’s a full-day financial education conference for youth and families in Appleton. Here are the details:
Saturday, November 3, 2013 | 8:30 am – 3:30 pm (we’ll most likely be playing mid-day)
11th Annual Fox Cities Money Conference – Fox Valley Technical College, 1825 N. Bluemound Dr., Appleton, WI
Click here for the event flyer for more information and registration
Hope to see you at either of those events!
The Disclosures to Play Co-op Connection in Madison – October 5, 2013
The Disclosures are very excited to perform at the third annual Co-op Connection in Madison – a local “celebration of cooperatives and community” – alongside Pat McCurdy and David Landau. We played at the very first Co-op Connection in 2011 at the Monona Terrace and can’t wait to play this year as it is off the Capital Square Dane County Farmer’s Market!
The free event is hosted by Summit Credit Union and they’ll be joined at the event by local cooperatives sharing their stories. You can expect family activities, live entertainment, prize drawings, free product samples and more.
Details:
Saturday, October 5, 2013 | 8:30 am -1 pm | Martin Luther King Blvd in Madison, Wisconsin
> Click here for more information about the event
We are slated to play at 9:25 am and 12:30 pm. The first set will be full of our new youth financial education songs so bring your kids! The second set will be made up of our original co-operative and credit unions songs mixed in with a few of our favorite covers.
Hope to see you there!
Summer So Far…
As you might have noticed, we’ve taken a little break from recording our forthcoming youth financial education album to play a few exciting shows in various places this summer.
First, we played at Capitol Kids and Dreambank on the capitol square in Madison as part of the first Make Music Madison, a city-wide celebration of music. We played a special set of kids music, including new songs we’ve been recording.
A few weeks later, we traveled to West Yellowstone in Montana to play at the Mountain Regional Credit Union Roundtable. We performed our “Credit Unions Rock! Getting in Tune with our Roots and Philosophy” education session for attendees and played some music after dinner at the historic Union Pacific Dining Hall. Combining some of the best acoustics we’ve heard in the hall with a great group made it an awesome experience.
We also were invited to perform at the fundraiser for CUNA Management School in Madison, which was a lot of fun. As a bonus, they gave us some glow bracelets and necklaces while we were performing. Also for the first time in the band’s history, Chad played electric guitar live.
Now the rest of our forthcoming album beckons, which we are looking forward to finishing writing and recording. All in all, we’re having a blast this summer and hope you are too!
The Disclosures to Perform at Mountain Regional Credit Union Roundtable
We are pleased to announce that The Disclosures will be performing at the upcoming Mountain Regional Credit Union Roundtable taking place in beautiful West Yellowstone, Montana on July 9-11, 2013.
The event was developed for senior credit union management and board members from the following states: Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah.
On July 9th, we’ll be performing our music-driven “Credit Unions Rock! Getting in Tune with our Roots and Philosophy” session for attendees, which has been described as a credit union version of “VH1 Storytellers.” After dinner, The Disclosures will be the evening’s entertainment at the historic Union Pacific Dining Hall.
Hope to see you there!
The Disclosures to Perform New Kids Set for Make Music Madison
We are excited to announce that The Disclosures are performing as part of the 1st Make Music Madison on June 21, 2013!
First, what is Make Music Madison?
On Friday, June 21, music will be popping up all over Madison, in likely and unlikely places, to create one huge city-wide celebration of community. From 10am until 9pm, there will be 270 free performances. All types of music and all skill levels of local musicians will appear in parks, in front of libraries and fire stations, floating down the Yahara River, in front of the Children’s Museum, at Bernie’s Beach, and at one hundred other locations. Listings of all performances now are available at our interactive map at makemusicmadison.org, and soon will appear in Isthmus and on our Smartphone apps. Join in for the fun.
We’ll be performing an all-new set of our fun youth financial education songs from our forthcoming album, along with a few other kids classics. Madisonians have the chance to catch the set twice on the square:
4:00 – 5:00 PM Capitol Kids – 8 N. Caroll St.
5:00 – 6:00 PM DreamBank – One North Pinckney
See you there!
The Disclosures on CUBroadcast
The Disclosures were lucky enough to chat with Mike Lawson at CUBroadcast recently to play our new youth financial education song “Thank My Piggy Bank,” talk about our new kids music and much more. Enjoy the interview!
Madison Music Duo Releases “Thank My Piggy Bank” – New Youth Financial Ed Song & Video
Song is first single from forthcoming financial ed album for kids
Kicking off National Financial Literacy Month, The Disclosures – the Madison-based “musicians with a mission” – have released a new song and music video for kids called “Thank My Piggy Bank”, which introduces basic concepts of saving. This is the first single from The Disclosures’ forthcoming untitled financial education album for kids due to be released later this year.
“Thank My Piggy Bank” is available on most digital music stores including iTunes, Amazon, and CDbaby. The video is available for viewing and embedding on YouTube here.
“Our rock song breaks new ground combining music and humor to teach kids important lessons about money, savings and responsible spending,” said Disclosures band member Chad Helminak.
“It’s not just a song, it’s a teaching tool,” said Disclosure Christopher Morris. “Organizations can use the video for educational social media content and parents can download the song and watch the video with their kids.”
Since the release of their first album in 2011 entitled “(Hey, We’re) The Disclosures” – comprised of songs that focus on credit union history and philosophy – Christopher and Chad have presented highly-rated education sessions and music performances to credit unions, chapters, trade associations and vendors across the nation.
For their next project, The Disclosures have decided to go in a new direction and address a problem that continues to affect almost all consumers – personal finance.
Chad and Christopher work closely with a lot of financial education resources and realize the importance of teaching kids how to responsibly handle their finances. “Thank My Piggy Bank” is the first single from their next album, which they are currently recording. The pop/rock album – due to release in late 2013 – will be entirely focused on youth financial education, the first of its kind.
“Thank My Piggy Bank” was written and performed by The Disclosures and mixed and mastered by Morriss Partee/Squirrel Trench Audio. Video was directed by The Disclosures. Song lyrics are available here.
Connect with The Disclosures on Facebook to get the latest news about the band and their efforts to raise awareness of the need for youth financial education.
About the band: Christopher Morris and Chad Helminak are musicians with a mission based out of Madison, Wisconsin. Outside of their day jobs, they moonlight as the music duo “The Disclosures” and write songs and perform presentations about the importance of financial literacy and social responsibility. To learn more, visit thedisclosuresmusic.com.
Pictures from CUNA GAC Shows
We had such a great time playing in Washington, DC last week at a few events related to the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) Governmental Affairs Conference (GAC). At both shows, we talked about our unique history as a “credit union” band and played a few songs. We also decided at the last minute to unveil a new song (“Thank My Piggy Bank”) from our forthcoming youth financial education album we are currently recording and the response was incredible! It makes us really excited at the new direction we are focused on. We can’t wait to release the album later this year!
The first show we played was at Clyde’s of Gallery Place for the Tom Connors Memorial Luncheon. This is a special event for alumni of the Credit Union Development Education (DE) Training Program and we were humbled to be on the agenda for the event. The band met at DE Training in 2009 and is a major reason why we’ve chosen (and been inspired) to write and perform songs about financial literacy, cooperatives and credit unions.
We also played at the Friends of the Foundation reception, a private reception held prior to the National Credit Union Foundation Dinner Presenting the Herb Wegner Memorial Awards. As you can see by the pictures, it was a formal event and we were so honored to be asked to perform and tell our story!
The Disclosures: Musicians with a mission 