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Meet the Band
Mona Tavakoli
Mona Tavakoli discovered the drums at age 11 — and hasn’t stopped playing them since. Her career as a drummer, percussionist, singer, and performer has taken her to all seven continents; she was a founding member of the all-female rock band Raining Jane, and wrote and recorded multiple albums with Jason Mraz. She is known for adapting the cajón, a box-shaped percussion instrument originally from Peru, and bringing it to unexpected genres like rock and pop, eventually designing a signature cajón of her own, The MT Box.
For Tavakoli, making music has always been about connecting with and uplifting others. As the cofounder and co-director of the non-profit Rock n’ Roll Camp For Girls Los Angeles, she is dedicated to helping girls, women, and female-identifying youth find their voice through music. In 2017, she traveled as a cultural diplomat to collaborate with local artists and facilitate workshops in Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, and Malawi, using the power of music to promote women’s entrepreneurship and empowerment. She is currently working with the US Embassy in Zimbabwe to create social change through songwriting.
Chaska Potter
Multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Chaska Potter has been a member of the band Raining Jane since 1998. She plays guitar, ukulele, mandolin and lap steel, and also sings lead and background vocals. Her most recent work includes co-writing and recording with Grammy award winner Jason Mraz, for his 2023 release, “Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride”. This album follows two others by Mraz, “Yes!” (2015) and “Look For The Good” (2020), where Chaska was a contributor in songwriting and recording. She is also a founding member and volunteer of the non-profit Rock n’ Roll Camp for Girls Los Angeles.
Becky Gebhardt
Becky Gebhardt is a musician and non-profit organizer motivated by collaboration and the transformational power of music. Her work with Raining Jane and Jason Mraz as a bassist, sitar player, co-songwriter, and touring band member has taken her across the globe and onto prestigious stages with the shared intention of service through music. Back in her hometown, Becky co-founded the social justice and music education non-profit Rock n’ Roll Camp for Girls Los Angeles with her bandmates which has created music-making opportunities for girls and gender expansive youth since 2010.
UCLA is where Becky met Raining Jane, and where she first learned to play the sitar. Her first teacher of North Indian Classical music was Shujaat Khan, son of Ustad Vilayat Khan, one of India’s most influential musicians. Building from this foundation and inspired by her Punjabi heritage, Becky began to blend North Indian Classical musical concepts and sounds into her work with Raining Jane, Jason Mraz, and other Western artists.
Over their 14+ years of collaboration, Raining Jane and Jason Mraz have amassed an expansive catalog of songs, many of which have appeared on Mraz’s albums, including the Certified Gold hit “Have It All” in 2018, fan favorite “Beautiful Mess” in 2008, and “Love Someone” in 2014. Raining Jane co-penned Mraz’s latest album Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride, which also features Becky on bass and sitar.
Other notable music projects Becky is involved in include composing for film and video, including scoring the Sundance 2022 award-winning documentary “Framing Agnes.” Her side project For The Horses is a collaboration with electronic producer and songwriter Gabe Lehner (9 Theory) that blends sitar with beats and synths.
Mai Bloomfield
Mai Bloomfield is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Her creative work reflects the musical miles she’s traveled, diverse collaborations, and her resilient journey through breast cancer. Fueling it all, is her love for the art of songwriting and the transformational power of words and music.
Mai was born into a family of artists in Santa Monica, CA. She started playing cello at age 9 and traveled with youth orchestras to Washington D.C. and Austria. By 15, she was writing and performing original songs on guitar. Mai graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a B.A. in Psychology, Women’s Studies, and French. She studied in France for a year and later took a job in Switzerland. When she moved back to Los Angeles, she met the women who would become her musical partners for decades to come.
Raining Jane, a harmony-rich foursome, formed in 1999 and blazed a trail in the U.S. with their acoustic–folk–pop sound and dynamic stage show. They released several albums, put 200,000 miles on their van and trailer, captivated the college market, and were a support act for Sara Bareilles. In 2010 they opened for Jason Mraz, which kicked off a collaborative friendship leading to many chart-topping co-written songs, such as “A Beautiful Mess” (2008), “Have It All” (2018), and “I Feel Like Dancing” (2023). Together, they’ve toured the world, from coffee shops to Royal Albert Hall, and have performed live on The Today Show, American Idol, and more.
Mai wears many hats as a musician–from band member, accompanist, and session player, to producer, writer, teacher, and solo artist. Her music has received songwriting awards from the Kerrville, Telluride, and Rocky Mountain Folks Festivals. She’s played on The Tonight Show with Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson, and she recorded cello on Leonard Cohen’s final album, You Want It Darker. Mai teaches songwriting at music schools such as The Song School in Colorado, Americana Song Academy in Oregon, and Rock n’ Roll Camp for Girls Los Angeles—a social justice non-profit that Raining Jane helped start in 2010. She has also worked with the American Music Abroad Program through the U.S. Department of State, facilitating songwriting workshops for cultural exchange.
Whether performing, writing, or mentoring, Mai brings strength, vulnerability, and heart to her work. Her songs often speak of the pursuit of finding the light inside the dark–a theme magnified in her own life when she became a breast cancer survivor. Writing and touring between chemo treatments, Mai learned first-hand that music is medicine. She does inspirational speaking engagements and is currently writing a memoir, hoping her story will encourage others on their creative paths.
Natalia Zukerman
Musician, painter and educator Natalia Zukerman grew up in New York City, studied art at Oberlin, started her mural business Off The Wall in San Francisco, began her songwriting career in Boston, and now resides, writes, plays, teaches and paints in the Hudson Valley. Having released eight independent albums on Weasel Records and her own label Talisman Records, Zukerman has toured internationally as a solo performer since 2005. Her music can be heard on the soundtrack of several seasons of The L Word and ABC Family’s Chasing Life. She also created the score for The Arch of Titus, an independent film created for Yeshiva University and a Harvard online course called Poetry in America. Alongside her touring career, Zukerman continues to paint private and public murals as well as illustrate children’s books, design and paint sets for plays in New York City and paint private portrait commissions. She has been the co Artistic Director of Kid Pan Alley for the past year, a nonprofit whose mission is to inspire creativity, build confidence, and foster community among children of all ages through the group songwriting process.