We recently connected with André Santana and have shared our conversation below.
Hi André, thanks for joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
When I started narrating audiobooks, I had a spark of a sense for storytelling. I recorded my first few books with no training, and what was missing was an understanding that I could make choices as an artist. I took training with coaches, and most notably studied with superstar narrator and coach Joel Leslie Froomkin who really gave me a full foundation as an actor. Ultimately, I don’t know that I would have sped up the process. Recording, then listening back and understanding what I wanted to change and fine tuning my dream sound as an audiobook narrator required exactly the process it took. But perhaps, I would have loved to go into my first audiobook with some training already in my back pocket. Those first few titles sound different from top to bottom as I actively learned along the way while I narrated.
André, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is André Santana and I’m mostly an audiobook narrator, generally a voice actor, who lives in New York. I got started in narration as a fan when I was listening to tons of books and naively thought “oh I could totally do this, right?” After plenty of getting it wrong, understanding the industry, shifting my mindset to see how audiobooks aren’t just reading but acting and that this process is a craft, I finally found my footing as an audiobook narrator and now work full time. I record audiobooks for publishers of all sizes, and independent authors as well.
As an audiobook narrator, I’m super focused on the humanity of the process and the stories I tell. I love getting into character, I spend time thinking about the plot, feeling the impact of the story, and finding a specific relationship to my potential listeners that will color my performance. Ultimately, I’m proud of my work and have been recognized alongside other great narrators through different awards, titles, and organizations.
And in the end, I’m many things that color my performance. I’m Gen-z, I’m dynamic, I play everyone from middle schoolers through thirty somethings, I love being a fan of the books I narrate, I bring specific experiences and knowledge to my characters and my titles, and I love to celebrate audiobooks as a medium. It makes being part of this community (and it’s a beautiful one) all the better.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Because this work is art, it’s hard for me to remember that it’s also a business. It’s so taboo and so hard to talk about money, especially in a space where we have a union but rates aren’t the same with every company we work with. I think this is the number one thing that artists should owe each other. Not fixing prices or anything like that, just honesty about what we charge and what we earn. Because it impacts everyone in the space when there’s an understanding of the value of the work. Like many spaces, a living wage has to be identified and discussed, and people have to believe in their value and believe that their coworkers value themselves to comfortably ask for more or turn down rates that don’t fully represent the cost of their work. In all the spaces I’m allowed to, I’ve been trying to be more honest about money, and have been working on my specificity around my rates. I don’t just do this for myself: This feels important in an era when technology is capable of plagiarising our art and our voices. I don’t just want narrators to thrive, I want audiobooks to be amazing pieces of art. When a narrator can hire a prepper (someone to do a deep read of the book for them and take notes) and their remaining rate means they don’t have to immediately book another project, they’re going to focus on that book, give it their all, and make it more magical knowing their rent is paid and they’re taken care of.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
In the audiobook world, there’s a magazine dedicated to audiobook reviews called Audiofile Magazine. They have such great recommendations for titles, and even give “Earphone Awards” to titles that demonstrate excellence in audiobooks. My favorite thing they do is that, once a year, they designate “Golden Voices.” These are narrators that have shown distinction in their work across their career and are essentially being celebrated as people who will have an excellent performance on just about any one of their titles. My dream is to be a Golden Voice narrator one day, and while it won’t fundamentally alter anything about the titles that came before or after, it just feels like a fun “spark” to ground and kick off my work. I go into recording almost any title of mine and I say “I’m going to give this a Golden Voice performance. And it helps me be honest in my craft and get better. So that’s my dream! Even if I never get the title, I’m still going to try and give a “Golden Voice” performance every time! 
Contact Info:
- Website: www.andreonthemic.com
- Instagram: @andreonthemic
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/santana-a
- Twitter: @andreonthemic
- Tiktok: @andre.onthemic