WAIM #146: Eef Barzelay (Clem Snide)

Eef Barzelay has seen the peaks and valleys of the music industry. In the course of a lifetime playing music, Barzelay has toured the world as a solo performer and in his longtime outfit, Clem Snide. He has had his songs used in motion pictures, and major TV commercials. He’s written original songs and scores for independent films, while also continuing to tour and release new music regularly.

Barzelay has also suffered through a painful divorce, had his house in foreclosure, and was even forced to declare bankruptcy at one point. More than one time he was sure he had reached the end of his career in music. Still, he forged ahead, beieving that better days would arrive.

During our conversation, Eef and I cover a great deal of ground. We delve into his birth and early upbringing in Israel before his family moved to New Jersey while Eef was an elementary schooler. Barzelay talks about his spiritual path and even parses out his complicated relationship with the country of his birth. We also cover Eef’s long and winding path to today which has also included crowd funding his records, writing bespoke original songs for his fans, and embarking on a series of house concert tours.

Eef openly discusses the economic realities of the music business in 2026, while also wondering if perhaps the business is as egalitarian as it has ever been. We talk about being “jazz famous”, and the concept of freedom over fame. There is discussion about the cinematic nature of Eef’s songwriting, and the ways in which we can use songs to explain our own experience.

Let’s get into it.

Cheers,
Matty C