Matthew Santos

Two-time Grammy nominated artist and composer Matthew Santos (MA/SA) began singing and songwriting when he was a young teenager. He later ventured to Chicago in 2001 to attend Columbia College for music composition and performance. Santos soon recorded his first full length album “Change Is Better” (2004) and follow up EP “As a Crow Flies” (2006) at the Attic Studios where he met a young and budding Lupe Fiasco. The two hit it off and went on to collaborate on many songs together, most notably the Grammy nominated hit “Superstar” (2008).

After touring North America with Rihanna, Kanye, and Pharrell Williams on the Glow in the Dark tour of 2008, performing at Coachella, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo, and appearing on Letterman, Kimmel, and Ellen, Santos stepped back from the pop lime light to focus on his own musical inclinations.

Before moving to LA after 16 years of living in Chicago, Santos recorded three more full-length, studio albums and became the front man of the deep-electro-pop band MONAKR. After the success of the first two singles “Diamond” and “Calling Out”, MONAKR signed to Berlin-based, indie record label Embassy of Music, landed a publishing deal at Songs Music Publishing (KOBALT), and released their debut EP “Calling Out” in 2015. Soon they were picked up by William Morris Agency and began touring the states extensively.

In recent years, he has collaborated with Grammy-winning Daveed Diggs (from Hamilton, Blindspotting, Snowpiercer), Rafael Casal (from Blindspotting, Bad Education, The Good Lord Bird), NGHTMRE, and Saba Pivot.

Matthew has composed music for multiple short documentaries, including "KASAMA", "Allies Welcome" and "Bodega de Edgar".

Matthew has worked with Netflix, HBO, and BET and placed music in shows such as "Games People Play", "LEGO Masters", "First Kill", "Claim to Fame", "Sacrifice", and "The Chi".