Dave Tozer is an American record producer and songwriter. He has worked with several R&B, hip-hop, rock and pop artists including

John Legend John Roger Stephens (born December 28, 1978), known professionally as John Legend, is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He began his musical career working behind the scenes for other artists, playing piano on Lauryn Hill's " Every ...

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer and record producer. One of the most prominent figures in hip-hop, he is known for his varying musical style and polarizing cultural and political commentary. After ...

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Justin Timberlake Justin Randall Timberlake (born January 31, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, and dancer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Prince of Pop", ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' honored him as the b ...

Bruno Mars Peter Gene Hernandez (born October 8, 1985), known professionally as Bruno Mars, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Regarded as a pop icon, he is known for his three-octave tenor vocal range, live performances, R ...

John Mayer John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but he left for Atlanta in 1997 with fellow guitarist Clay Cook, with whom he formed the short-liv ...

Snoop Dogg Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. ( ; born October 20, 1971), better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg), is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Rooted in West Coast hip-hop, he is widely regarded as one of t ...

Rick Ross William Leonard Roberts II (born January 28, 1976), known professionally as Rick Ross, is an American rapper. An influential figure in modern Hip-hop, hip hop music, Rick Ross has become known for his "Wiktionary:booming, booming" vocal perfor ...

Kimbra Kimbra Lee Johnson (born 27 March 1990), known Mononymous person, mononymously as Kimbra, is a New Zealand singer and songwriter. Known for mixing pop with R&B, jazz and rock musical elements, her accolades include four ARIA Music Awards, two 2 ...

Natasha Bedingfield Natasha Anne Bedingfield (born 26 November 1981) is a British and New Zealand singer, songwriter and record producer. She released her debut album, '' Unwritten'', in 2004, which contained primarily up-tempo pop songs and was influenced by R& ...

Needtobreathe Needtobreathe (stylized as NEEDTOBREATHE) is an American rock band from Seneca, South Carolina. The group first gained fame for their Christian themes, eventually reaching crossover success. The band is composed of Bear Rinehart (lead vocals, ...

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Musiq Soulchild Taalib Hassan Johnson (born September 16, 1977), better known by his stage name Musiq Soulchild (or simply Musiq; pronounced "music") is an American singer-songwriter. His music blends Rhythm and blues, R&B, funk, blues, jazz, and Gospel music, ...

, Emeli Sande,

Craig David Craig Ashley David (born 5 May 1981) is an English singer. He rose to fame in 1999, featuring on the single " Re-Rewind" by Artful Dodger. David's debut studio album, '' Born to Do It'', was released in 2000, to great commercial success. In to ...

Chrisette Michele Chrisette Michele Payne (born December 8, 1982) is an American R&B and soul singer. She won a Grammy Award for Best Urban/Alternative Performance in 2009 for her song " Be OK" (featuring will.i.am). She was previously signed to Motown Recor ...

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, Estelle, DEV and

Jazmine Sullivan Jazmine Marie Sullivan (born April 9, 1987) is an American R&B singer and songwriter. She has won two Grammy Awards, a ''Billboard'' Women in Music Award, and two BET Awards over the course of her career. In 2022, ''Time'' placed her on their ...

Early life

Hailing from

Bridgeton, New Jersey Bridgeton is a City (New Jersey), city in Cumberland County, New Jersey, Cumberland County, within the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is the county seat of Cumberland County Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

in the late 1990s, Tozer honed his production skills at various Philadelphia-area studios, such as the legendary Sigma Sound Studios and began working as a freelance musician playing everything from Hip-Hop and Rock to R&B and Pop. Through Max Blumenthal, a mutual friend, Tozer met

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

student John Stephens (later

) and began a fruitful, professional relationship. In addition to developing creatively with Legend, Tozer produced his three independently released albums: ''John Stephens'' (2000), ''Live at Jimmy‘s Uptown'' (2001) and '' Live at SOB's'' (2003).

Musical career

2004–2007

In 2004, Tozer contributed to eight tracks on Legend‘s

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

-winning major label debut '' Get Lifted'', and his writing skills garnered him a publishing deal with Viacom-owned Famous Music Publishing. 2005 proved to be an important year for Tozer with the success of ''Get Lifted'', which earned eight Grammy nominations and reached multi-platinum status. Legend won three awards including Best New Artist and Best R&B Album. Tozer was a producer on ''Get Lifted''] and the track "Stay With You," which Tozer co-wrote and produced, was also nominated for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance. In 2005, soon after the success of ''Get Lifted'', Tozer was crafting songs for artists such as

Heather Headley Heather Headley (born October 5, 1974) is a Trinidadian-born American singer, songwriter, record producer and actress. She won the 2000 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the title role of '' Aida''. She also won the 2010 Grammy A ...

and

. He also contributed to

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

-winning single " Diamonds From Sierra Leone," and produced another Legend track for the

Luther Vandross Luther Ronzoni Vandross Jr. (April 20, 1951 – July 1, 2005) was an American Soul music, soul and Contemporary R&B, R&B singer, songwriter, and record producer. Over his career, he achieved eleven consecutive RIAA certification, RIAA-certified ...

tribute album, '' So Amazing: An All-Star Tribute to Luther Vandross''. For Tozer, the year culminated in a deal with

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

as an in-house producer and a renewal of his

Famous Music Famous Music Corporation was the worldwide music publishing division of Paramount Pictures, a division of Paramount Global since 1994. Its copyright holdings span several decades and include music from such Academy Award-winning motion pictures ...

Publishing contract. In 2006, Tozer worked on the track "Do U Wanna Ride" from

's comeback album '' Kingdom Come''. Tozer also reunited with his old friend Legend and produced three songs from his acclaimed second album '' Once Again'', including the iTunes single "On Top Of The World." In 2007, Tozer continued to work with several different artists, including

J Records J Records was an American record label owned and operated by Bertelsmann Music Group until it was transferred to Sony Music Entertainment when they acquired all of BMG's record labels in late 2008 at the end of their merger. It was distribut ...

recording artist

and

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released ...

recording artist George Stanford. Along with contributing to the development of the

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

-based artist, Tozer worked to get Stanford signed to

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...

before he subsequently moved to

2008–2010

In 2008, Tozer reunited with longtime collaborator, John Legend to co-write and produce "This Time" on Legend’s third album, '' Evolver''. In 2009, Tozer worked with ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American Music competition, singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle (company), Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It a ...

Elliott Yamin Ephraim Elliott Yamin (born July 20, 1978) is an American singer known for his hit single " Wait for You" and for placing third on the fifth season of ''American Idol''. His self-titled album, released March 20, 2007, debuted at number one on ...

to co-write and produce the record "Someday" on Yamin's second album, '' Fight for Love''. In 2010, Tozer wrote and produced "Find Me" for

and

for Soulchild’s upcoming album. He also went on to collaborate with

, co-writing and producing three songs for Timberlake's signees, Free Sol, released on their debut album, ''No Rules'', on Timberlake’s imprint Tennman Records.

2011–2015

In 2011, Tozer and Legend began working together on what would become Legend's fourth studio album, '' Love in the Future.'' Tozer co-executive produced the album with

. Recording sessions for the album took place over the next two-and-a-half years. The album was released on September 3, 2013, to widespread critical acclaim, and was Grammy-nominated for R&B album of year in 2014. In addition to being one of the album's two executive producers, Tozer produced fifteen tracks, mixed twelve, and co-wrote ten songs for the album. In 2012, Tozer teamed up with

Michael Bolton Michael Bolotin (born February 26, 1953), known professionally as Michael Bolton, is an American singer and songwriter. Bolton performed in the hard rock and heavy metal music genres from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, both on his early solo a ...

to co-write and produce the

Motown Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. Founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, it was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau ...

-inspired track, "Gotta Keep Dreamin," for Bolton's, ''Ain't No Mountain High Enough: A Tribute to Hitsville.'' Later that year, Tozer worked with

, co-writing and producing "The Valley." In 2013, Tozer co-wrote and produced "Painted In Tears" for X-factor runner-up and

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

recording artist

Rebecca Ferguson Rebecca Louisa Ferguson Sundström (born 19 October 1983) is a Swedish actress. Ferguson began her television acting career in 1999 with the Swedish soap opera ''Nya tider'' and made her motion picture acting debut in 2004 with the Swedish slash ...

. In addition, Tozer mixed

Pixie Lott Victoria Louise "Pixie" Lott (born 12 January 1991) is an English singer, songwriter, and actress. Her debut studio album, ''Turn It Up (Pixie Lott album), Turn It Up'' (2009), reached number six on the UK Albums Chart and sold over 1.5 millio ...

's "Higher & Higher," as well as two songs for the award-winning soundtrack to ''

12 Years A Slave ''Twelve Years a Slave'' is an 1853 memoir and slave narrative by Solomon Northup as told to and written by David Wilson. Northup, a black man who was born free in New York state, details himself being tricked to go to Washington, D.C., whe ...

'', "Move" and " Roll, Jordan, Roll." Tozer also collaborated with

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...

recording artist

on her album, ''

The Golden Echo ''The Golden Echo'' is the second studio album by New Zealand recording artist Kimbra, released by Warner Bros. Records in the United States on 19 August 2014. Background Kimbra was inspired by Greek mythology for the album and spent time in a ...

,'' co-producing and co-writing the track "Nobody But You." On August 12, 2013, Legend's " All of Me," which Tozer produced and mixed, impacted U.S radio as the third single from '' Love in the Future.'' The week ending May 16, 2014, "All of Me" peaked at number one on the

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), ...

, becoming Legend’s first number one single in the United States. "All of Me" went on to reign the Hot 100 for two weeks and become certified eight times platinum status in the United States. The song peaked at number two in the United Kingdom and New Zealand and topped the charts in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands. In 2014, Tozer produced and mixed the track "Home" on Ella Eyre's '' Feline'' album.

2016–present

In 2016, Tozer co-wrote, produced and mixed "Beautiful & Fragile" (feat. Jay Prince) for UK newcomer D/C. Tozer co-wrote two songs, and produced a significant amount of

's sixth LP '' Hard Love'', which was released on July 15, 2016, and debuted at number 2 on the

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Sometimes, a rec ...

chart. Tozer produced and mixed "All We Needed," and "Warm It Up," which he also co-wrote, on the

album ''

Following My Intuition ''Following My Intuition'' is the sixth studio album by English singer Craig David. The album was released on 30 September 2016 by Insanity Records and Sony Music and features the likes of Big Narstie, Blonde, Sigala, Hardwell and Kaytranad ...

'', which was released on September 30, 2016 and debuted at number 1 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

. On March 22, 2017, Legend released "In America." Produced and co-written by Tozer, this song was featured on the season 2 premiere of WGN’s hit show, '' Underground''. A politically charged record that addresses issues of economic hardship and social injustice, ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' said of "In America," "‘In America’ moves deftly between a thumping verse and a sweeping chorus, building incrementally to a gospel-tinged fever pitch that tapers swiftly into a sparse, chilling end. Legend presides over the track with equal parts anger and hope."

Philosophy

In an interview with David Weiss of SonicScoop, Tozer summed up his approach as a producer, stating, “Magic is what I’m after. Writing a great song, it's like you've tapped into some spirit that’s guiding you. The words flow, the dots connect, and you've created something with a mystical quality. You know that feeling when it comes. When I’m with an artist, I’m on the lookout for voodoo.”

Discography

*2016:

- ''

'' *2016:

- '' Hard Love'' *2016: D/C - '' Badman'' *2016:

- '' Man About Town'' *2015: Ella Eyre - '' Feline'' *2014:

- ''

'' *2013:

- ''

Freedom Freedom is the power or right to speak, act, and change as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving oneself one's own laws". In one definition, something is "free" i ...

'' *2013:

- "Roll Jordan Roll", "Move" featuring Fink *2013:

- '' Love in the Future'' *2013:

- "Higher & Higher" *2013:

- ''Ain't No Mountain High Enough: A Tribute To Hitsville, USA'' *2010: Emile Sande - "Nothing Left To Lose" *2010:

- "Find Me" feat. Jazmine Sullivan *2010:

FreeSol FreeSol is an alternative soul band from Memphis, Tennessee. History The name, “FreeSol”, refers to a state of mind - a freedom of expression - with a main objective of never conforming to the usual way of doing things. Armed with this phi ...

- "The Coolest", "Panic Attack", "Restraining Order" *2009:

- '' Fight for Love'' *2008:

- '' Evolver'' *2008: George Stanford - ''Big Drop'' *2008: Lizz Wright - '' The Orchard'' *2006:

- '' Kingdom Come'' *2006:

- '' Once Again'' *2005:

- ''

Late Registration ''Late Registration'' is the second studio album by the American rapper Kanye West. It was released on August 30, 2005, through Roc-A-Fella Records and Def Jam Recordings. West recorded the album over the course of a year during sessions held a ...

'' *2005: Various Artists - '' So Amazing: An All-Star Tribute to Luther Vandross'' *2004:

- '' Get Lifted'' *2003:

- '' Live at SOB's'' *2001:

- ''Live at Jimmy's Uptown'' *2000:

- ''John Stephens''

Selected credits

References

External links

Producer Dave Tozer Helps John Legend Find Truth in ‘Love’Forbes Magazine - Dave Tozer: Making Legend-ary HitsMix Magazine - Producer Dave Tozer: Philly Musical Roots, With New York Production StyleDave Tozer on Making Hits for John Legend with UAD-2 & Logic Pro XSourceTV Exclusive: Interview with John Legend’s ‘Love In The Future’ Executive Producer Dave TozerVIBE Interview: Producer Dave Tozer Talks Making Of John Legend's 'Love In The Future,' Working With Kanye WestSonicScoop: Inside John Legend’s “Love in the Future” – Track by Track with Executive Producer Dave TozerJohn Legend Explores Hope, Strife in Charged New Song 'In America'Producer Dave Tozer Talks Co-Writing John Legend’s Politically Charged Single ‘In America’
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tozer, Dave Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Record producers from New Jersey Songwriters from New Jersey Grammy Award winners Guitarists from New Jersey American male guitarists American male songwriters