Dave Tozer

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Dave Tozer

Background information
Genre(s) Hip-Hop, R&B, Rock, Pop
Occupation(s) Musician, Songwriter, Producer
Label(s) Sony/ATV, Famous Music
Associated acts John Legend
Kanye West
Jay-Z
Natasha Bedingfield
Estelle Swaray
George Stanford
Website davetozer@myspace.com

Dave Tozer is an American producer, songwriter and musician. He has worked with several R&B, Hip-Hop, Rock and Pop artists including John Legend, Jay-Z, Kanye West, John Mayer, Natasha Bedingfield, Estelle Swaray, Heather Headley and George Stanford.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Hailing from Bridgeton, New Jersey, Tozer taught himself guitar, bass and keyboard. After moving to Philadelphia in the late 1990s, Tozer honed his production skills at various Philadelphia-area studios and began working as a freelance musician playing everything from Hip-Hop and Rock to R&B and Pop. Through a mutual friend, Tozer met University of Pennsylvania student John Stephens [1] (later Grammy Award-winning R&B star John Legend) and began a fruitful ten-year professional relationship. In addition to developing creatively with Legend and Tozer produced his three independently released albums, John Stephens (2000), Live at Jimmy‘s Uptown (2001) and Live at SOB’s [2](2003).

In 2004, Tozer contributed to eight tracks on Legend‘s Grammy Award-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 massive success of Get Lifted, which earned eight Grammy nominations. 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 [3], was also nominated for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance.

[edit] Recent Endeavors

In 2005, soon after the success of Get Lifted, Tozer was crafting songs for artists such as singers Heather Headley and Natasha Bedingfield. He has also lent his instrumental abilities to Kanye West‘s Grammy-winning single “Diamonds From Sierra Leone,” and produced another Legend track for the Luther Vandross tribute album So Amazing: An All Star Tribute. For Tozer, the year culminated in a deal with Sony Music as an in-house producer and a renewal of his Famous Music Publishing contract.

In 2006, Tozer worked as a musician on the track “Do U Wanna Ride” from Jay-Z's comeback album Kingdom Come. Tozer also reunited with his old friend Legend and produced three songs from his acclaimed second album Once Again [4], including the iTunes single “On Top Of The World."

In 2007, Tozer continued to work with several different artists, one of whom includes long-time friend, Mercury Records recording artist George Stanford. Along with contributing to the development of the Philadelphia-based artist, Tozer worked to get Stanford signed to Epic before he subsequently moved to Mercury. In addition to this, Tozer has also worked with Jazmine Sullivan (J Records), Free Sol (upcoming artist on Justin Timberlake's label Tennman Records) as well as Ashley Hartman from the television hit show The O.C..

[edit] Selected Credits

[edit] References

  1. ^ BMI Article
  2. ^ Billboard Live at SOB's Discography
  3. ^ Billboard Get Lifted Discography
  4. ^ Billboard Once Again Discography

[edit] Further Reading

[edit] External Links