He was mentored by other church musicians from the greater Seattle area, and at the early age of 11 he performed with GRAMMY Award-winning gospel recording artist, Reverend Timothy Wright.
Later, his focus would turn to production during a chance encounter at a local instrument store near Seattle, as he watched a customer making a track on a keyboard workstation.
The song features vocals from Clarkson, Janelle Monáe, Kelly Rowland, Lea Michele, Zendaya and Missy Elliott to coincide with Barack Obama's SXSW speech and to promote the third-world educational initiative "Let Girls Learn".
Townsend produced the theme song for the 20th Season of ABC's longtime running daytime talk show "The View", performed by Mary J. Blige.
Townsend has cited musicians including Quincy Jones, Kurt Cobain, Phil Spector, John P. Kee, Michael Jackson, Kirk Franklin, Raphael Saadiq, Rodney Jerkins, Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Jerry Wexler, Irving Berlin, Nat King Cole, Jermone Kern, Pharrell Williams, Teddy Riley, The Gershwin Brothers, Prince, Dr. Dre, Just Blaze, Rick Rubin, Swizz Beats, and David Foster with having considerable impact on his evolution as a musician and producer.