Steven Neufeld Recalls Shitty Recording Experience With Sam Pura

Steven Neufeld (Brookhurst, This Legend, HeyMike!, ex-Craig's Brother) calls out Sam Pura of The Panda Studios in a recent blog statement, titled "PANDA STUDIOS WITH SAM PURA: A BULLY’S EGO AND THE RECORDING EXPERIENCE I WANT TO ERASE FROM MY MEMORY".   

In the realms of pop-punk and melodic hardcore, there are a handful of engineers and producers whose names crop up frequently in the credits and liner notes of albums; there's your Chad Gilbert's, your Jeremy McKinnon's, your Will Yip's, and, of course, your Sam Pura's. For those who don't know, Pura and his studio - The Panda Studios - have worked on records by Hundredth, Basement, Elder Brother, My Iron Lung, and The Story So Far, among many others.

Now, for those who read this article's title and went "WHO?", the other party here is Steven Neufeld, a former member of 90's Santa Cruz punks Craig’s Brother, a member of pop-punk outfit This Legend (also made up of ex-Yellowcard members), Brookhurst, and also performs under his long-time melodic punk rock brain-child, HeyMike!. Neufeld (I'm not sure if he's at all related to Andrew Neufeld from Comeback Kid) describes himself as a musician with seven studio albums to his name, many years of work with record labels, is a multi-instrumentalist, a singer, a songwriter, has toured for most of his life, had played countless shows, and has tracked in a dozen studios over 17 years of playing music in bands. So, by the time that he and his bandmates - he doesn't mention which of his bands recorded with Pura though I think it might be either Brookhurst or This Legend based on either's past release history - entered the Panda Studios in Fremont, California to work with Pura back in 2014 to record a 12-track album for $10K, he wasn't new to recording nor was he apparently some greenhorn when it comes to collaborating with producers and engineers on their music. This should have been an exciting time for both the producer/engineer and the artists/band in a welcoming creative space, but as Neufeld puts it himself, "Holy shit, have I ever been so incredibly wrong…".

Starting off Neufeld's recount with the heading "Recording at Panda Studios with Sam Pura: the Disappointment, the Nightmarish Debacle, & the Egomaniacal Sociopath Behind The Board" (marking the first ever complaints I've personally ever heard about Pura), the muso outright states what a horrible time he and his band had at Panda Studios, what with Pura's allegedly aggressive mannerisms, sour attitude and poor time management that crippled the band's neutrality as well as any and all pleasantries. Read on below (or over at Neufeld's blog where this was first published) for his rundown of this alleged awful experience with Pura, who hasn't made any official statement about this subject thus far.

Also, for any potential parties out there readying up cease and desist letters and/or takedown notices regarding this article, this isn't me saying any of this - I'm just reporting on what's been said. Here we go!

"Well, I’m not quite sure how to even start this off, but.. I’m stepping forward today to share an experience I had in the summer of 2014. It’s been a part of my life for a few years now, having unfortunately left quite a scar and more than a few bad memories.

Why now, you ask?

I’m writing about it now for a few reasons: I’ve had time to let the events sink in, I’ve been able to decide if I even want to open up this negative (yet insightful) can of worms at all, and most of all, to potentially shed some light on the extreme (and atrocious) practices of a certain music recording studio and a certain music producer.

From what I’ve learned about being an artist is that it’s best to treat each other like family to a degree; a community, in which we’re all on the same page, coming together to share our songs, styles, and musicality for the sake of making extraordinarily enjoyable music that shapes the soundtracks of our lives.

During the recording session I had at this studio that summer, that mutual bond was disrespected in such a way that it opened my eyes to the other side.. the dark side, where something that was supposed to be a memorable highlight in a band’s legacy (documenting a full-length album in the beautiful sanctuary that is a music studio) turned into an experience I chose to forget… until now.

I’m bringing this up now because I’ve healed from the attacks inflicted upon me. As I move into a year where I plan on hitting the studio to get tracking again, it’s exciting to look forward to the studio experience, after having the worst shown to me.

Without further ado… here we go:"

"I can honestly say that Panda Studios was a HORRIBLE fucking LET-down on ALL levels.. a nightmare of epic proportions. Mind-boggling unprofessionalism from ‘producer’ douche-bag named Sam Pura. There were times when he we would berate me to tears and fistfights would almost break out; not out of efforts to push us for better tracks/takes, but out of what seemed to be his outwardly psychotic, intoxicated, twisted episodes.. obviously taking his personal/relationship/girlfriend/life problems and frustrations out on us: the PAYING clients/musicians.. strangers in his studio who chose to come to him to make a potentially magical record.

I can’t speak for my fellow bandmates, as I know that only 2 out of 3 of them would agree with me, but we soon came to realize that we were living under the roof a maniacal madman with an itchy trigger finger, pre-determined to persecute a member of our band at random to become his session whipping boy. We entered Pura’s controlling, troubled world of insecurity.

Firstly, we lingered around for 4-5 days while he underwent ‘construction’/upgrades of his studio, on OUR dime, rather than doing any kind of pre-production work on our batch of songs. (At some point we were just wondering what the hell was going on.. why were we even there. The session cost roughly $10,000 after all.)

Not once did he have us play our songs acoustically during that time or discuss timeline of how the session will ensue. He would smoke huge amounts of weed morning, noon, and night.. re-wiring some new board gear and troubleshooting all day while we would kind of mill around aimlessly, anxious to get to work whenever he would be ready.

In a non-abrasive manner, and as little as once a day or so, I would ask him questions, trying to be super courteous about the subject, humbly knowing I was in HIS studio and was willing to work with him and his rules/schedule.. just merely curious of what amp cabinet to use/set up, or of when we might actually be starting the tracking process, since we were all 4 adults living there in the studio quarters. He would literally respond with ‘FUCK you, dude.. i told you not to ask me your stupid fucking questions. Get the fuck out of here’. Or ‘are you seriously asking me that right now?’, or something equally sarcastic, ignorant, or confrontational, as if I had no place whatsoever asking such a thing.

And he wasn’t joking like I thought he must be at first. That was his real personality. I tried my best to stay out of his way 100%, not set him off like the ticking bomb he seemed to be, and to adapt into a patient/passive person there at Panda, while we waited.. and waited.. and days and days went by, while we waited some more, and spent money on food/drinks/etc for about a week until he was ‘ready’ to finally start making the record we were paying ten thousand dollars to make."

"On day 6 or 7 out of 15 we finally started tracking some of our music, which Sam had not really even heard yet, or cared to mention about. Now, I will give the place some credit for having some nice microphones, top-notch board gear, and a pretty killer live room. (Most real studios have all of those elements.) And yet, I still couldn’t ignore the sour taste of piss in the milk pot that was the ongoing behavioral energy emanating from the man-in-charge.. the little big man at the helm, who’s name was the reason we drove 300+ miles AWAY from LA & Hollywood.

Pura’s brutally demeaning attitude certainly didn’t get any better as we set up mics and got further into the process. In fact, it got significantly worse, almost as if he was just warming me up for the REAL display of ‘who’s the boss’ and ‘who’s who in this studio’ or whatnot. It got to the point where I felt so individually degraded and cast out of his presence for no reason that I started secretly recording him cussing me out LITERALLY hundreds (no exaggeration) of times over 20 minute yelling spouts, mid-tracking, in front of my bandmates (and sometimes their guests and family members who stopped by to check out the ‘magic happening inside a real recording studio.. wow!’)."

[Feel free to have a little intermission here, there's still a while to go.]

He would be physically spitting in my face from one foot away, red-faced and fucking enraged, and frankly embarrassing himself. As you can probably imagine, this cast a huge cloud of negativity upon the whole day.. and the whole session overall. Nobody wanted to be musical.. nobody wanted to be in the same room as him. I would retreat to my bunk or car, trying to channel the feelings into something productive, like a new song I would plink around on my acoustic guitar with.

As somebody who’s dedicated as much heart & soul.. so much money & time as I have in my life for the golden opportunity to put some music down on a permanent page in a studio, Pura’s selfish behavior of making me feel unfairly isolated truly hurt my feelings almost like they’ve never been. I’m man enough to say that, mostly because I feel that his actions came from a cold, cowardly, inhumane place.. the over-worked, frustrated place of a lost human who lacks heart and compassion towards his fellow man, and whom probably shouldn’t be involved in the career that he ended up in; one in which you interact with something as whimsical as art (which he can’t seem to add to or genuinely appreciate) and with people as interesting, unpredictable as musical artists."

"Anyways, I thought it’d be good to have these sound files of an irate Pura (a generally well-regarded, ‘up & coming’ producer and public figure) yelling at me face-to-face, cursing me to hell from the bottom of his heart as if I was just another little dime-a-dozen musician bitch in his almighty domain.. so that I can use the clips as evidence/proof of the blatant and unnecessary harassment he inflicted upon me back in 2014, if i ever needed to take the dip-shit to court in the future.. something I still consider doing, with the right testimony, witnesses, and legal team. This route seems far better than some of my initial emotional reactions of anger and revenge. There’s no way of sugar-coating it: he took a huge, unjust shit on my life.. the stains and stink still lingering 3 years later, reminding me that in the music industry, one’s reputation can precede them. Don’t trust everyone and don’t judge a book by its cover.

Now, does this all sound like something that would happen at a ‘professional recording studio’? I swear to you, this was more like something out of the Twilight Zone.. a bad dream that I shakily remember as a horrific debacle, and worst of all it all could have been so easily avoided. I have lived with Pura’s scarring for years now. My hatred of how he handled the travesty he called a ‘session’ has sunken under my skin. It was harassment and emotional abuse and I did nothing to deserve it. I used to lose sleep over it, but it has thankfully lessened recently. Like a trigger, I get mad whenever I see a picture of the guy or hear the word ‘Panda’.

Ultimately, what was meant to be a productive recording session (tracking with my friends/bandmates of 15 years now), 180’d into a few of the worst weeks of my life. My wife, dog, and income all waited at home in LA while I was off in the Bay Area ‘pursuing my dream’.. furthering my music career by being mentally ass-raped by a narcissist, having all my input/ideas pushed off the record."

"Was he intimidated? Insecure? Was this some sort of tactic to assert dominance in ‘his studio’? My bandmates outwardly wanted my help with the songs we wrote together, but they were almost too worried most of the time to confront or stand up to him on my behalf, out of concern that they’d become as outwardly hated as I was.

I still consider fighting him in court for emotional damages done, to get money back for what was wasted time. He pushed any/all ideas I had off of the album, although I was a large contributing factor in the song structuring, bass, guitar, drum and backup vocal concepts for our record. He picked me at random and used me as his excuse to our label as to why he said it was taking him months to mix our record instead of the few days he said it may take, saying that my parts were ‘just so bad’ he had to hire in someone to re-track them, but I personally think he just wanted his greedy hands all over our album and I was the easiest target – the peaceful, non-confrontational shy/quiet dude I am.

I’ve heard stories of him treating people as absolute garbage in the past, so I guess I was just the unlucky chosen one. He treated everyone around me alright, but i got the cold shoulder.. and for no valid reason. I sometimes assume it was some type of sick mental tactic to keep the rest of the band ‘in check.. in line.. you don’t want me to treat YOU like i’m treating HIM, do you? well then, do as i say, motherfucker.’"

"I know nobody cares at this point, it’s water under the bridge, and this is certainly seeming more like an epic rant of an angry, venting individual who had a bad experience. I suppose it is. But, it was indeed a travesty to be made to feel like such utter shit (to the point of tears) by this asshole.. he literally BULLIED the shit out of me more than anyone ever has and probably ever will. Bullying is a horrific act and can happen when you least expect it."

What a ride.

I fully agree with Steven's sentiment about bullying at the end and if this is all indeed true, then Sam Pura sounds like an incredibly unprofessional engineer and just a straight-up toxic, rude person to be around and work with. If this telling is actually truthful, that is. That being said, to record at a quality studio like the Panda Studios, you would want the desk and any other gear to be working at their very best as to get the most out of your band's recordings and songs, so I can understand any frustration on Pura's part early on in terms of troubleshooting. Not so much for the attitude that may have followed after those first few days, however. As for Pura himself, he has only sparingly discussed this subject over his Twitter account with the guitarist of Tommy Boys regarding Steven's claims and over that band's own supposedly unsavoury recording experience with Pura, with the engineer referring to Neufeld as "A dude who gave up on his passion because I pointed out the flaws in his pursuit of it", and that there's "Nothing I can do to change the past" in regards to his work with Tommy Boys.

It's also worth mentioning that there are a few comments posted on Neufeld's original blog post, mentioning that they have had similar experiences with Pura for their own projects. However, there's no real way of clarifying and confirming these claims as no album, band or member names nor any timelines are given. Another thing, in Neufeld's massive statement, there is also no real mention of any specific contract details for this album's recording and what may breach such terms - and that's if there even was one done up - and in also not mentioning which band of his this recording was for, I do feel there's some extra detail needed from the musician to further verify his claims. Also, if he does indeed have recordings of Pura unprofessionally berating him in the studio, then I think it will be very interesting if these recordings a) actually do exist and b) if they are ever released publically; further legitimising what this guy spent around 1,600 words labelling the regarded U.S. engineer as an ass.

Look, this whole thing is a classic case of he-said X, he-said Y, and unless it goes any further to larger legal proceedings (which I doubt), that's all it will remain to be.