Sam Pura On The Unique Art Of Mixing Emo and Pop-Punk Albums

While Sam Pura, the renowned producer who’s worked with The Story So Far, Basement, and Hundredth, may seem like an effortless genius, he sees mixing records as an intense creative process with up and downs. As chief audio engineer and owner of The Panda Studios in San Francisco, California, Sam has put in a lot of effort to get to that point, and continues to work hard to capture the essence of an album. Working with genres like pop punk, emo, and rock has meant that he’s had a myriad different experiences...and problems to solve.

And sometimes, when things don’t go the way he likes, he finds out it still resonates with other music lovers anyway. For example, though he thinks Basement’s Promise Everything had an abundance of faults, it’s the reason Maryland rock trio The Dangerous Summer felt inspired to seek him out to produce their record.

Now, in the latest episode of Mixing Masters, our collaboration with Unstoppable Recording Machine's Nail The Mix, Sam discusses mixing as more than simply recording a band. Sam describes his many attempts and fails at finding a perfect mix, and how he believes the best way to handle mixing is by trying everything until the end result is reached.

As you'll see in the video below, the best lesson in mixing for Sam is listening to pop artists such as Carly Rae Jepsen, Katy Perry, and Ricky Reed. By staying connected to popular music and ruminating on all of the reasons it’s high on the charts, Sam is able to learn techniques to implement into his own style of production, songwriting, and song arrangements. This way, he’s also able to break apart from genre norms and deviate toward a more ingenious angle.

Check out Sam’s episode of Mixing Masters below.

Musical Credits:

Artist: The Story So Far
Song: Upside Down
Album: Proper Dose

To learn more about the production process from some of rock and metal’s finest behind-the-scenes mind, check out our other episodes of Mixing Masters below:

• Extreme metal producer Dave Otero on making chaos sound organic
• Veteran rock producer Erik Ron on building an epic client list
• Groundbreaking metal producer Machine on working with up-and-coming bands
• Converge’s Kurt Ballou on the role of a music producer
• Converge’s Kurt Ballou explains how the band found its sound