Our Story
From Emerging Artist to Muzi Creator
In her last months at Harvard University, while her classmates announced job recruitments and masters program acceptances, Rachel Efron realized she wanted to be a songwriter.
She had been songwriting for only a year so this was a fairly bold choice.
But the truth is, she knew she wanted to devote her life to songwriting the moment she wrote her first song.
It was like a bell rang, her head turned, and she hadn’t found a way to turn it back.
Without guidance, let alone support, Rachel relied on those she trusted most: her favorite artists. If she liked a songwriter she watched every interview. If she liked a novelist she read every biography. Yes, she practiced piano and took voice lessons. But Rachel recognized immediately: the biggest challenge to her success wasn’t musical, it was accessing her creativity.
Rachel spent the next years writing countless songs, recording a handful of albums, touring both coasts, and most critically, tending to her creative health. And then something unexpected happened — she began supporting other artists. She taught Songwriting at the Berkeley Jazzschool. She held
an ongoing Songwriting Salon, serving songwriters across the US. She gave talks and held workshops. She became a songwriting coach for songwriters around the world.
And while certainly she talked her head off about song form and melody composition, more and more she found herself focusing on creativity, itself. How to access it. How to sustain it.
How to give our creativity exactly what it needs to thrive.
Rachel's clients often said she should write a book. But Rachel was hesitant to give people two hundred pages of her experiences — what she really wanted was to give people an experience of themselves.
A set of beliefs emerged...
Creativity is You
Every one of us has something distinct and vital to offer this world — a creative voice that is ours alone.
Creativity is Natural
Creativity is our natural state. If we aren't creating, it's not because we're "blocked" or "ungifted" or "not creative." It's because some aspect of ourselves needs to be coaxed back into balance.
Creativity is Expansive
Creativity is not just "fine arts." It's the flourishes we add to our day. Our listening style in relationships. The way we conceive of our lives. The scenic route we take home from work. The more we let creativity guide our choices, the more we move our lives toward fulfillment and authenticity.
Creativity is Connection
Creativity connects us to the world around us; in granting ourselves our singular abilities and curiosities, we find belonging in our relationships as who we truly are.
Creativity is Healthy
Contrary to extensive negative mythology about creativity — artists are broke, artists are addicts, artists are mentally ill, artists are over-sensitive — creativity is eminently good for us. It is a vital and overlooked aspect of human health.
Creativity is Now
Whether we're writing the first sentence of our first book or we're a Pulitzer Prize winner, what matters to our creativity is that we're creating right now. Ultimately, the best thing we can do for our creativity is pick up the paintbrush — and commit to making creativity a thrilling, joyful, and sustainable part of our daily lives.
Rachel Efron
Co-Founder and CEORachel is an artist, producer, and songwriter. She's released four full-length albums and an EP of original songs, toured extensively on both coasts, and produced albums from pop to jazz to folk to rock. She's written songs for R&B legend Narada Michael Walden and stadium rock band Journey.
In 2011 Rachel became devoted to helping other artists write songs. She taught Songwriting at The Berkeley Jazzschool for ten years, founded Songwriting Salon — an incubator for committed songwriters — and became a premier songwriting coach for artists around the world. She's given talks and workshops for such organizations as UCSF Medical, Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute, Academy of Management, and West Coast Songwriters.
In 2022 she began translating her fifteen years of creativity coaching into Muzi.
Rachel grew up in Maine and currently resides in Oakland, CA. She holds a BA in Social Anthropology from Harvard University.
Learn more about Rachel at rachelefron.com.
Jay Clemens
Co-Founder & Board ChairJay served as Global General Counsel of eBay and the Lenovo Group, and as Board Chair and Interim CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He brings to Muzi a wealth of global business and legal expertise in the tech industry, as well as leadership experience in nonprofit arts and cultural institutions.
In 2020 Jay took Rachel's songwriting class, promptly enrolled in her ongoing Songwriting Salon, and then hired her to produce his debut album, New Nirvana — whose songs have won numerous national songwriting awards. Jay was struck by the power of Rachel's creativity methods, both in his life and the lives of his classmates — and became convinced that they deserved a wider audience.
Jay can usually be found in the San Francisco Bay Area or at his ranch in the Badlands of North Dakota. He holds a degree in Asian Studies from Dartmouth College and a JD from Harvard Law School.
Learn more about Jay at jclemensmusic.com.