I grew up in Munich Germany. My parents had a jazz band, and when I was seven years old, my brother and I started taking over their instruments in the living room where they rehearsed, and we began writing our own songs. We performed our songs in their intermissions and got great pocket money this way. From my first 100 marks, I bought a whole Smurf Village! That was my first great accomplishment. From that point on I knew that one could make money with music. Fast forward 12 years and we had our first taste of success with three songs my brother and I wrote on the European number one album of Milli Vanilli. We were not allowed in the studio when they recorded the vocals, so we never knew that it was not them singing, and when they had to return the Grammy, that’s when we realized that all this was fake. Nonetheless, we were happy to have songs on these records. I began dreaming of working with American artists, and it took another ten years before I finally packed my things and started over in New York City. When I arrived, I had to start from scratch. Nobody cared about this new ambitions German dreamer wanting to work with artists in New York. I went to open mic events and even put flyers on traffic signs that read “Are you a singer? Young producer wants to work with you!”  Eventually I found my first artist to work with and went to every record label in New York trying to get a record deal for my artist. We got 100% rejections but at least I had an open door now to all the executives and I knew if I had better songs, I could come back and might get a chance. It took three years before I made my first money in New York. These were testing, trying, very hard years and at times I was living off instant soup and one bagel a day.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Those first years in New York City, I had no connections and I realized that nobody cared that I was there. I spent a lot of time trying to put my name on the map and I understood that always giving your best and never expecting anything goes a long way. I only got further because some of the people I wrote songs with ended up recommending me to someone else. Eventually, I had the chance to work with Fergie. At the time she had just left Wild Orchid. I got in the room with her and we wrote “Big Girls Don’t Cry.” It took another six years before this song made it to number one in the Billboard charts, and became one of the biggest songs of the decade. When I got a call from Rodney Jerkins, I knew I had made it. Now I wanted to work with all the superstars, and my next victim was Beyonce. After six months of running into closed doors, telling her management, her label, her publisher, and everyone who knew her that I wanted to work with her, I finally got the call that she also wanted to work with me. Our song “If I Were a Boy” entered straight at number one. Working with Beyoncé was one of the highlights my career and at the Grammys when she performed a six-minute medley of this song I was in tears. Even though people knew me now by two songs, it still was a big hustle. I spend at least half my time promoting my songs, making contacts, networking. Half of this business is really trying to let people know who you are and what you do.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?

I get in the studio with artists to write songs about their feelings, their relationships, things that are important to them. You might know me for having written “All Of Me” with John Legend, John‘s biggest hit. The song went 13 times platinum and was the second slowest climb to number one in the history of the Billboard charts. When John Legend came into my studio that day, he knew that he wanted to write an ode to his big love, Chrissy and I felt the same feelings for my wife. So we both poured our hearts out, taking turns at the piano. After one and a half hours, we had written the song. It felt like a wonderful love song, but I could never have predicted how big this song was going to be. 

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
When All Of Me hit number one, I was in the studio with Diplo and Madonna, writing her album. At the same time, I was writing and producing Leona Lewis’s album. I felt like I had relentlessly, for the last 10 years, given everything for the music, and in the meantime, I was married, had two kids, and had completely forgotten to live. My biggest dream became to just cancel everything, stop making music, tell the record labels that Toby Gad is not writing songs anymore. I took the plunge and took some time off to become a beach bum. I learned to surf, and it changed my life! I am madly in love with the ocean, surfing, standup-paddle boarding, and most recently kitesurfing. I love the dolphins, the sea lions, the whales, the salt water…every wave…and every sunset. Then I learned film making and began a feature film about the life story of Dr. Biruté Galdikas, one of the three “Trimates.” Biruté has been 50 years in the Bornean rainforest studying and safeguarding Orangutans. The orangutans might go extinct in our lifetime because of habitat loss. That thought gave me sleepless nights and I had to do my part. This movie is still about two years from completion but its now really coming along. The last year I was a judge on German Idol “DSDS.” We filmed 18 prime time episodes and a documentary about my life which you can watch on my website www.tobygad.com. I also got to publish a book about my life in Germany. I felt celebrated full circle!