The record has been out for a couple of weeks now, and we've had a chance to work through it a few dozen times, wandering back and forth in our minds (and back again, and forth again) about whether it's objectively better than her previous record "Reputation." By this point, many would concede that it is a very good record, though falls short of the Tier 1 of Taylor, a shelf occupied by "Red" and "1989."
Sam Pura on the Making of The Story So Far's "Proper Dose"
I recently reached out to Sam Pura, owner of and chief engineer at The Panda Studios to see if he could answer a few questions about the production of The Story So Far’s new album, “Proper Dose” via email. Surprisingly, he responded within hours, and requested a phone call instead.
My first thought was, ‘holy shit, that’s way too much pressure’, but nothing good comes of just hanging out in your comfort zone, so I pushed it a step further and asked if we could record the conversation for my podcast, Reminiscent. I do the show with my best friend, and we mainly talk about music from the genre, so I figured a break from the normal weekly routine would be well accepted by our listeners. Again, much to my pleasure, he agreed, and we set a date.
Proper Dose Album Art. Available Now
Within 2 minutes of the recording, I realized why he preferred a phone call to an email… there was a hell of a lot to talk about, and an email wouldn’t do it justice. I originally planned on asking a barrage of questions focused on the production from a technical/production angle, but the 80 minute conversation took a different direction. The first 25 minutes or so were heavily focused on the headaches and industry politics that hindered the initial progress of the album, as well as the overall sound.
I was able to get a couple of straight answers out of Sam about the recording processes, although he claimed at one point that he didn’t want to give away too much of his IP, or intellectual property. That’s totally fine with me, but it made me have to rethink the entire point of the interview in real time, which was difficult, as I don’t typically do this kind of thing.
However, the interview turned out better than I thought, and as it’s too difficult to type out all that was discussed, I’ll just drop a link to the podcast below. Really, there was an awful lot going on, and I’m super glad we recorded it all.
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On Air Combat's "The Story Of The Boy With The Stolen Name"
Taking a step back after weeks of listening to read all the lyrics, straight through without music, I began to admire this EP even more. As a concept album, every song is an extension of the last, unveiling another part of the story. Each song contains a call back, lyrically, to the previous song, and I felt it allowed me to connect much deeper with the songs.