Since his 1992 graduation, Martin Santos has been out exploring the world to a soundtrack of its hottest musicians, living his dream of live concert touring.

Martin primarily works with Clair Brothers Audio as both front of house and monitor engineer. The veteran of the live production industry has hit the road with big names like Tim McGraw, Stephen Curtis Chapman, Faith Hill, Peter Frampton, even touring with Paul McCartney in 2005. Most recently, Martin has been working as a Monitor Engineer for Faith Hill and Tim McGraw's 2006 tour, "Soul2Soul.”

After fifteen years on the road, Martin returned to Full Sail to check out the new facilities and have a tête-à-tête with students about what working in the industry is really like. “It’s not for everyone,” he says. Martin dubs his work as ‘black collar’, a term he uses to describe the different sides of his industry role. “Live production work is sort of a combination of white collar work—- there’s intellectual parts and components, the technical side of it—- and then there’s a lot that’s physical, it’s kinesthetic too.”

Martin says his Full Sail training and work experience ensures that if problems arise, he can fix them. For this reason, he emphasizes that students understand the benefit of both education and industry experience, not relying strictly on one aspect over the other. “The most successful people I see are not successful purely by academic background, nor purely by experience, it’s really a culmination of the two,” he explains. By combining forces, you can set yourself up for success in the industry.”


Martin also attributes part of his success to the ability to maintain control of a situation to avoid any problems or technical issues. “I tend to be pretty hands on. Knowing that all of your equipment is functioning properly, and being able to implement and maintain it properly, goes hand in hand with executing that artistic moment later in the evening.”

For Martin, live production is demanding, but just as rewarding. “I think the great thing about doing a [live] event is being able to put all that effort in at the beginning part of the day, and then have an audience come in,” he says. “It’s really gratifying to hear people cheer and scream like that, and to know you made a contribution. When you see an audience—people singing ‘Hey Jude,’ it still sends chills up your back.”