Rock ‘n’ Roll Band Drives Financial Literacy Message to Students

Rock ‘n’ roll bands and good fiscal management often go together like peas and carrots. But Gooding, a California-based band with deep Midwestern roots, wants to use music to help the youth of America to make better financial choices.

“We’re rock and rollers first, but we’re rock ‘n’ rollers with a message,” says the band’s leader, Gooding. “After traveling around the United States for a decade… we played in every state. We started seeing same-day lenders crop up, seeing people struggling. A lot of the issues — people losing hope and people feeling like they weren’t going to get ahead… came back to financial literacy. I left high school knowing more about geometry than I did balancing a check book.”

The band, which also includes Jesse Rich on drums and Billy Driver on bass, created Funding the Future, a nonprofit that delivers a message of financial literacy through an engaging music-focused presentation. They’ve been putting on their shows at high schools across the country.

You may not recognize the band’s name, but you’ve probably heard their music featured on CSI, Criminal Minds, Stephen Colbert, The Daily Show and the movie Walk the Line.

Gooding took a few minutes from his busy schedule to talk with Parade about the band, their future and their goals with the Funding the Future campaign.

Did you ever think part of your success in the music industry would be educating students on financial literacy?

I didn’t see myself giving speeches after playing rock ‘n’ roll initially, but it’s been very good. In some ways, I have always been talking about these core issues.

Your role as a rock ‘n’ roll band has evolved into being a motivational speaker as well, was this transition difficult? 

Absolutely not. I never thought of myself as those words. There’s definitely a component to that. I don’t think there’s a lot of disconnect that the way I speak to crowds and how I play shows. Things are never what you think they are going to be, but there is something nice to that. It was a kind of an organic thing that sprung up.

Students can at times be a tough crowd, do you have to adjust your presentations in order to resonate with the crowd?

We learned those lessons the hard way in the Midwest figuring out how to be a better band. We spent enough years on the road and the strongest thing I think about the band is its live show. It hasn’t been too tough. Musically, it’s sort of autopilot for us because its something we have done for many, many years.

How has the tour been so far? It must be fun to play for a new school each time.

It’s been really great. It’s great for us to bring the music to students and they get into the music and get away from their problems a bit. I am really grateful to talk to these kids, since there is a lot of difficult things out there. There’s a lot of situations where parents never even heard of this stuff.

What were some of your biggest challenges as a band while developing this tour?

Just trying to figure out we wanted to do on the charity side. Having the sponsorship like Raymond James helped us get where we wanted to go.

For someone that wants to pursue a career in the music industry, what is your advice to the person starting out?

One of the biggest things is to start where you’re at. Find some fans where you’re at. It’s so cool that all the walls have come down that we can find stuff on the Internet. Don’t forget the craft is the muse and the other stuff will come. Work at that art and put in the hours and that gives you the groundwork to be stable.

Are you guys working on a new album at the moment?

I got a set of songs that are in a notebook and a folder. I don’t know who’s going to win or if I should crash them together. I have a few weeks off the road and I want to just sit on my deck, trying to work the tunes out, listen and figure out what the next steps are.

Gooding will continue to tour across the United States this year. Check out goodingmusic.com for more info.