As a hugely-successful songwriter, Toby Gad, last month, released his latest single LIVING FOR LOVE – Piano Diaries Version, collaborating with JERUB – a song Toby co-wrote with Madonna and Diplo, which Madonna released in 2015. Over recent months, Toby has released a number of collaborations from his album Piano Diaries – The Hits, including Big Girls Don’t Cry with Victoria Justice (previously released by Fergie), and Toby will be releasing a deluxe version of the album next year and planning several performances around Los Angeles and London. Toby recently started a podcast called Songs You Know, interviewing creators, artists and songwriters, airing weekly on all podcast platforms and his YouTube, with his first guests including Josh Groban, Greg Wells and Aloe Blacc. Amongst Toby’s hits are John Legend’s All Of Me (which went 13x Platinum), Fergie’s Big Girls Don’t Cry (4x Platinum) and Beyoncé’s If I Were a Boy (3x Platinum), and he has received three Grammy awards over the years. Further songwriting work for Toby has seen him collaborate with Disney for Hannah Montana and Camp Rock, write and release music with Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez, JLS for their song Love You More, One Direction’s Taken and Truly Madly Deeply, Justin Bieber, Madonna and Kelly Clarkson – including Kelly’s recent Christmas hit Blessed. Having taken a break from writing for a while, Toby started making a film, wrote a book, had a TV documentary release about his life, and became a judge on DSDS (German Idol). We spoke to Toby about his latest releases including LIVING FOR LOVE – Piano Diaries Version with JERUB and Piano Diaries – The Hits, his Grammy-winning songwriting career over the years and his recently-started podcast Songs You Know.

Can you tell us about your recently released single LIVING FOR LOVE – Piano Diaries Version, which you released last month with JERUB, and how was it working with him on the track?

I recently started my project Piano Diaries – The Hits, a project where I am revisiting my biggest hits I had with icons like Madonna, Beyoncé or John Legend, passing the torch to new young talent, while re-recording those songs in a very honest stripped piano-vocal rendition that is intimate and minimal, and lets the listeners feel the first time magic that we as songwriters feel while writing a song. In its stripped-down nature, the recording leaves a lot of room for the vocal to unfold, and the recording is augmented with some live orchestration.

Recording Living For Love with JERUB took a while. If you compare this version to the original, which Madonna performed at the Grammys, the song could not be more different. The time signature has changed, a lot of parts have been edited out, and a new post chorus has been added. I began performing the song with artists like Jacob Lusk, and the song evolved into a whole new structure, which is the basis for this new version.

I played the recording with JERUB to Madonna, and she was enraptured and loves the new version! She was very happy about JERUB’s amazing vocal performance.

You co-wrote the song with Madonna and Diplo, how did you decide to re-release LIVING FOR LOVE and how did the collaboration with JERUB come about?

I met JERUB two years ago in London, and was fascinated by his soulful voice and knew that one day I would record something special with him. JERUB is such a natural talent, and the range of his voice is truly remarkable. His dynamic range is world class, having a soothing softness that gets under your skin and a strong belting soul voice that is unique and memorable.

What has it been like seeing the listeners’ response to the new version of LIVING FOR LOVE?

Performing with JERUB is a real pleasure and the audience gave us standing ovations when we first performed Living For Love. My piano diaries version of Living For Love is so radically different from the Madonna version that some Madonna fans could not believe how this can be the same song.

Over recent months, you’ve released a number of collaborations on your album Piano Diaries – The Hits, how has it been working with new artists and hearing the new versions for the first time?

It is a wonderful journey that I started November 3rd 2023 with the release of a new version of my #1 hit with Fergie, Big Girls Don’t Cry with Victoria Justice. Every song has been an adventure. Big Girls Don’t Cry with Victoria Justice was so well-received that Kelly Clarkson invited us to perform on her show. That led to a lot of news coverage on KTLA and Good Day New York. Universal Republic Records then allowed us to perform and record songs with several of their artists, including Camylio, TikTok sensation Johnny Orlando, and the amazing 18-year-old, once-in-a-decade singer, Angelina Jordan.

In July, I released the eight song album, Piano Diaries – The Hits and we are now at 5.500,000 Spotify streams, which is admittedly not much compared to my songs like All of Me, which has 2.5 billion streams, but it’s quite a remarkable achievement for an independent release of a piano-vocal cover record. I am very happy with this accomplishment and we are still growing and building on this record. In 2025, I will release the deluxe version of Piano Diaries – The Hits with 15 songs. BBC invited me to do several interviews and German Radio has been very supportive. I am planning to do several performances around the release in Los Angeles and London.

The exposure from Piano Diaries has also led to a lot of other things. I recently started a brand-new podcast called Songs You Know. In the podcast, I interview creators, artists, songwriters that helped create the songs we all know, telling untold stories behind these hit songs. We are trailblazing ahead with our first 24 episodes, which are now airing weekly on all podcast platforms, as well as on YouTube. My first guests include Josh Groban, Greg Wells (who produced the music to the current Wicked movie), Aloe Blacc and many more interesting figures around and behind the songs you know. Some of my guests have worked closely with Prince, Whitney Houston, Adele, and all the stars of this generation.

What are you enjoying most about reimagining your previously-written songs?

I love sharing the first-time magic of an idea that develops with just a voice and a piano, and on The Piano Diaries project, listeners can feel how expressive a voice and a minimalist piano can be.

I spent a lot of time with just the vocal a cappella on the piano, figuring out how I can accompany the vocal in the most minimalist and most effective way, conveying as much emotion as possible, leaving the vocal as much room as possible to unfold.

On the song Untouched, it probably took me two weeks to figure out the piano arpeggios that replace the punk rock up-tempo track, which I produced on the original double platinum Veronica’s record of the song.

What can fans expect from the upcoming deluxe version of Piano Diaries – The Hits releasing next year and what do you hope they take from the new music?

The upcoming deluxe record of Piano Diaries will be a once-in-a-lifetime testament to my musical achievements as a songwriter, reimagining a fairly complete set of my biggest songs with new artists, passing the torch to the new generation and celebrating my accomplishments. It feels good performing those songs on stage with the new artists and I am surprised how much interest there is from the audience in listening to the stories behind the songs when I tell them on stage.

You’ve received massive success with many of your releases, including John Legend’s All of Me going 13x Platinum, Fergie’s Big Girls Don’t Cry going 4x Platinum and Beyoncé’s If I Were a Boy going 3x Platinum; how is it seeing your work become so successful and well-received?

Most of the big successes were written between 2002 and 2015, after that I took a break from writing for a while. I started making a movie, and became a judge on the popular TV show German Idol, DSDS, which is identical to American Idol and very popular in Germany. We filmed 18 episodes, I got to write a book about my life, and they filmed an elaborate TV documentary about my life. That’s how I got a wonderful audience in Germany, which I’m very appreciative of.

Working with those superstars at the time was humbling, inspiring, and in some sense felt like climbing Mount Everest, because so much work was involved in the preparation of these sessions, it was so high stakes, and I still can’t believe how much I have accomplished in that time.

Having written songs for Disney projects such as Hannah Montana and Camp Rock and for artists including Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez and Big Time Rush, what was it like writing music specifically aimed towards a younger audience and how did your approach differ to your other work?

That was a very interesting time. Disney had a few magical years with Hannah Montana, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, and a few extremely talented young actresses that became stars. I worked with Miley Cyrus when she was 13, Demi Lovato when she was 14, and Selena Gomez also around that time. Seeing these three artists grow up and do so well so many years after their child successes is wonderful. They have fully earned their fame. They are very hard-working individuals and at the time, being in the studio with them already was a tremendous experience.

What is it like writing and producing songs for/with bands such as JLS – Love You More and One Direction – Taken and Truly Madly Deeply opposed to with solo artists such as Kelly Clarkson, Justin Bieber and Madonna?

Working with One Direction was fun. It fills me with so much sadness hearing about the tragic death recently of Liam. Working with groups is very different to working with solo artists. I find it easier to work with solo artists because I love writing songs that are relevant to the personal experience of the artist who is performing the song, which can be a little convoluted with a group. Working with Kelly Clarkson was a wonderful experience. Before she would go in the studio with me, we had a two-hour dinner where she grilled me about my whole family. One of those days I took Kelly to my family home. She is a very warm-hearted, hard-working, extremely talented artist, and I feel lucky, having written her recent Christmas hit, Blessed.

What are some of your favourite memories from songwriting with music artists over the years, and some of your stand-out highlights from your career so far, which has seen your work win three Grammy awards?

One of my favorite memories was when I sat in the audience at the Grammys and Beyoncé’s album was nominated. When Beyoncé went on stage that evening, I fully expected her to perform Halo, but then she did a five-minute rendition of my song If I were a Boy, and I was moved to tears! I felt so happy that she put so much attention into that song. One week later, my publisher emailed me congratulations on the Grammy win and I promptly emailed back, “We did not win a Grammy”. He emailed back “yes you did”. It was a non-televised Grammy for Best Urban R&B Album, which I am very proud of, even though I did not receive the statue because I only produced one song on her album, nonetheless, it counts as a Grammy win for a producer.

How did you originally get into songwriting and was it always something you wanted to do professionally?

When we were seven or eight, and my brother and I started performing songs in the intermissions of my parents’ jazz band gigs and that’s how we made our first pocket money, going through the audience as my parents went back on stage. After our show, we were asking for donations for us. From the first hundred marks I earned, I bought a whole Smurf village!

I wrote my first song when I was seven on the bicycle on the way home from school, riding along a river through a fog bank and it was freezing cold. I thought if I wrote a song for the sun, hoping that if I sang it loud enough, it might come out and warm my hands and miraculously the sun came out and warmed my hands. From then on, I thought I would do this more often.

Do you have any favourite genres of music to listen to?

I love listening to jazz, Indian sitar music, bossa nova, anything but pop, haha. When I listen to pop music, my mind won’t stop processing, criticising, or getting inspired by what I hear and I cannot relax. One of my favourite jazz artists would be Keith Jarrett and his Cologne concert is perhaps the record I listen to the most in my life.

What advice would you give to young songwriters hoping for a career in the music industry?

It is a vastly different industry now compared to when I was starting out. My first record was a vinyl record! Back then it was impossible to release a song yourself. Someone would have to print a record, drive it to a record store, bribe the radio to play the record and let people know that this record is now available in some record stores. It was such a daunting operation and sometimes people went to record stores and that record was already sold out or not available. Nowadays, anyone can release a song and it’s instantly available anywhere in the world. Some artists release a record that resonates in the Philippines or some other place around the world, and then they notice there is an audience that they never thought of and go tour in the area. Such a globalised, warding experience. So I would advise any upcoming artists to embrace social media, their own community of listeners who enjoy listening to their music, and then start with live performances with a dedicated audience that can build on throughout their career.

How would you say your songwriting process has changed over time?

In 2000, I relocated to New York City from Germany and I felt I had to relearn how to write a song. I spent many evenings in Barnes & Noble’s doors, reading, dictionaries and discovering new words like someone looking for gold nuggets and a river. Many of these fans led to songs later on. All my songs were collaborative, right in which I would choose writers who had English as their first language. My focus was more on the melody and on a hook line that was memorable and had emotion.

How do you like to spend your time away from music?

I like to go kitesurfing in Malibu on windy days and I love standup paddling downwind for hours. I also love catching waves on the standup paddleboard. You could say that I’m in love with the Pacific Ocean.

I also love spending time with my two daughters and my lovely wife, going on road trips in California or driving down to our beach house in Baja.

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