Martin Raymond

Martin Raymond is a British-born Musician, Record Producer and Engineer, who migrated to Trinidad at an early age and began playing music at age nine. His first instruments were the piano and organ, but he switched to the guitar at age 14. After a few stints in school bands (including playing with the legendary Invaders steelband), the Fatima College alumni was recruited by Carl “Beaver” Henderson to join the band Fireflight as second guitarist. Through the band and its parent company, Gold Sounds Limited, Martin got a thorough grounding in many aspects of the music industry including live performance, studio engineering, sound design and synthesis. Martin was involved in the production of many of the band’s hits including “Morning Loving” and “White Horse” and also helped to co-write the hit ‘Meet Me On Level 2’ with Francis Escayg for the band RF-JAM, before moving back to the UK in 1986.

In London, Martin studied music production and digital audio and lent his skill to many artists during the emerging UK Hip-Hop / Dance scene in the 1990’s. During a 5-year stint at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts he did music arrangement/direction for academy productions and also engineered projects for clients such as CBS/Sony, Polydor, and Channel 4 Television.

Martin returned to Trinidad in 1996, working at Caribbean Sound Basin Studios and also at Eddy Grant’s Blue Wave Studios in Barbados. He co-produced tracks with top R&B producer Teddy Riley and did remixes for various artists including the legendary David Bowie. He also lent his engineering skills to projects for US acts Sean “P. Diddy ” Combs, Notorious B.I.G. Aaliyah, and Wyclef Jean, as well as British stars Sir Cliff Richard, Gerry Rafferty and Right Said Fred.

Martin produced and mixed projects for prominent Caribbean artists including Andre Tanker, Ataklan, David Rudder, Machel Montano, Mungal Patasar, Renee Castle, Brother Resistance, Shadow, Sugar Daddy, Three Canal, Iwer George, General Grant and others. He also worked with reggae hit-makers Steely and Clevie and Aswad.

In 2003, Martin established Trinidad’s premier mixing and mastering facility, Champion Sound Studios, and was responsible for mastering many of the Road March title winners from 2004 to present: “Look The Band Coming” – Shurwayne Winchester (2004), “Dead or Alive” – Shurwayne Winchester (2005), “Band Of The Year” – Machel Montano & Patrice Roberts (2006), “Jumbie” – Machel Montano HD (2007), “Get On” Fay-Ann Lyons (2008), “Meet SuperBlue” Fay-Ann Lyons (2009), “Palance” JW & Blaze (2010). He also mastered winning selections for various Soca, Calypso and Chutney Monarchs including Bunji Garlin, King Luta, Kurt Allen, Chalkdust, Karene Asche, Chucky and Rikki Jai.

Martin is Associate Professor in Practice at The University of Trinidad & Tobago’s Academy for the Performing Arts, where he is Programme Coordinator for the Digital Media Arts Programme. Martin holds an MA in Carnival Studies from UTT, and is currently a PhD candidate in the area of Cultural Studies. He has been a consultant to local industry bodies in addition to working alongside the National Training Agency (NTA) in developing a national standard and curriculum for audio engineering. He is a director of Music TT, a subsidiary of Creative TT, a division of the Ministry of Trade and Industry. He is also member of PRS – the Performing Rights Society (UK) and The Recording Academy (US). He is an Avid-certified Pro Tools Instructor in both Music and Post-Production and also an Apple Certified Professional and Trainer in Logic Pro.