Sometimes you can look back at certain moments in a person’s life and see small clues that explain how they got where they are today. Growing up blasting music, tinkering with tools, and building fortresses out of whatever he could get his hands on, Martin "Tike" Santos would end up helping put together massive stage shows in the live music industry; unsurprisingly, his family and friends couldn’t picture him doing anything else.

“My mother used to joke that the best gift I could get was a bunch of boxes and some masking tape because my goal was always to construct things,” he says. “Later on it was Lincoln Logs, and then being fascinated with [the process of] hanging things. Interestingly enough those influences early on had a lot to do with where I ended up professionally.”

As a 20-year veteran of the touring industry, Martin has come a long way from building makeshift stages in his parents’ living room, spending the better part of his life traveling the world helping to construct and maintain concert rigs and audio setups for top artists. It’s a career that’s seen him invest long hours and countless miles on the road, and it all comes back to a genuine love for his industry that continues to inspire his compete dedication at each stop on tour.

“It’s not for everyone, there’s the technical side of it and then there’s a lot that’s physical,” he says. “That’s part of what keeps it interesting, I’m forced to learn new things and work in new situations. I think those who are successful professionally are people who keep absorbing things and want to grow. I have also been fortunate to develop a great client base. I think for an engineer, it’s really desirable to have artists who commit to their craft and their presentation, because you’re a conduit for that.”

During his career, Martin has built a strong partnership with touring giant Clair Brothers Audio, and has since served with them as a front of house engineer, monitor engineer, and monitor technician for the likes of Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Peter Frampton, and Paul McCartney. McCartney obviously means a lot of things to a lot of people, but in Martin’s case being on tour with the former Beatle has brought his career full circle, as McCartney’s work played a pivotal role in opening Martin’s eyes to the magic of live production.

“Sometime in the mid-‘70s I saw this documentary called Wings Over America, about Paul McCartney’s band Wings,” he says. “I remember being so interested, not just to see the performance, but to see what happens behind that. Then some years later to come to this position where not only had I started doing that sort of work, but actually for that very client, it was really a strange circle of events.”

Concerts can be a life-changing experience for many people – there’s nothing that compares to the rush of seeing your idols play your favorite songs in person, and sharing that experience with thousands of other fans. So you can only imagine how fulfilling it must be to spend your career helping to create those moments. Most people are lucky to get feedback on their work from their boss, but Martin is in a rare position, being able to see so many people affected by the product of his work each night of the week.

“The great thing about doing an event is to be able to put all that effort in and then have an audience that’s been anticipating this event for days or weeks or even months come in and have an enjoyable experience,” he says. “That’s really gratifying to see people react that way, and to hear people cheer and scream, and sing ‘Hey Jude,’ and to know you made a contribution to that … it still sends chills up your back.”