Hi everyone and hope you had a great Halloween (I spent it playing spooky video games)! It's been a super busy month prepping for BTTB LIVE stuff while much of my "Jabun energy" has been spent making beats for Cyberdevil's INKtober challenge, so I only got a little bit of arrangement work done for Jabun's Lost Tracks this time (no more mixes complete). Some exclusive downloads to share this time as well as hefty dose of news so let's get straight to it!

First of all as has become tradition, my good friend Cyberdevil has been back to his usual yearly INKtober challenge where he pens, performs and records a new rap every day for October! This year I threw 2 beats his way and he came up with 2 amazing raps to complete them! The first was a super emotional tribute to his parents. Check it out, it's quite the journey:

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/1482515

And the second turned what I thought would be a throwaway meh b-side beat into something awesome with tight wordplay commentary on the culture of gratuitous movie violence! Check it out below too, I think it's a winner!

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/1483066

I think they were 2 of the highest played tracks this month too not including guest remixes!

And feel free to explore the entire month of Cyberdevil's INKtober challenge over here:

https://www.newgrounds.com/playlist/490470/inktober-2025

My supporters on patron also have an exclusive download of both instrumental beats below too:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/140648898

A little backstory: both beats were written and performed on my KORG EM-1 Electribe Groovebox (with just some mastering in Ableton after recording) which has been my go-to instrument for these INKtober Challenges for the past few years now. "b55" was the first of the ideas, but as it developed I kind of went in a different direction to what I intended to make so call it the B Side of this year's grooves XD "b59" was the beat I intended to make with a more chill grimey edge! Hope you get a kick out of them!

Onto some Better Than The Book News, in case you missed the show when it aired BTTB's Hold Me Tight (Non-acoustic) from the Side Character In My Own Life album was on BBC Music Introducing The South earlier this month! Check out the replay below and thanks so much for spinning the track Melita!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002kqzp

Melita also shared a HUGE BTTB announcement on the show too, which unfortunately since has been a bit up in the air and needing some correction... Some big news (see last month's post https://www.patreon.com/posts/138213103/) I'd HOPED to have shared is that Better Than The Book will be playing its very ever LIVE show on Friday 6th of February at the Hope & Ruin in Brighton but unfortunately an error/miscommunication in the venue booking has left us without a venue for that date at the moment! We're working hard to restore and finalise the date/venue details and aim to have it sorted in the next week or so, so keep an eye out for a big concrete announcement later this month if all goes to plan! In other news though, if aIl's still good we've confirmed our second support act band for the night and it's looking to be an amazing night to come! Amazingly too, the previously alluded to first support band just had their BBC Radio debut on the same show as I was on, but the following week's episode. See if you can guess who we'll be playing with (they're friggin' fantastic). All will be revealed soon! Keep a note on your calendars!

Next, a couple of Tuesday Takeover features to share on Newgrounds! Thanks so much for sharing the music guys:

October 7, 2025 - Jabun's Apotheosis - Final Boss Theme Phase 2 featured in Takeover Tuesday on Newgrounds.com (by Cyberdevil)

October 21, 2025 - Cyberdevil and Jabun's Cyberdevil's Back featured in Takeover Tuesday on Newgrounds.com (by larrynachos)

And while there was no new YouTube videos this month (and I've still got to a Patch Bay and J-6 sound list video to do at some point too), I will be sharing those INKtober beats on my JabunAudio YouTube Channel in the coming weeks too!

That's about it for this month unless you're a $10 patron in which case I'm sharing with you the final mix (pre-mastering) download for "Thinking" from the upcoming Jabun Lost Tracks project (a very old idea that's finally coming to fruition)! Head over here to grab the reward and hope you enjoy a new (old unreleased) jam!

$10 Extra Reward: https://www.patreon.com/posts/142736671

It's set to be a super busy month ahead finalising these gig details, and I'll actually be down South again for another big rehearsal too so should be very exciting! Until the next update (which I'm hoping will be the long overdue gig announcement in a week or so), I hope you have a great November to come and thanks as always for supporting my music and projects however you can! All the best and take care and I can't wait to share some HUGE news with you soon!

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/140648898
$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/142736671​
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

​Hi everyone and hope you've had a great September and start to October (man oh man things feel like they've been moving fast)! It's been a busy hectic month as usual (only set to get to busier) and there's lots of news to share so let's get straight to it!

First of all of course, Jabun's Apotheosis OST was finally released on September 5th, and seems to have gone down very nicely! I've said a lot about it in previous posts so I'll not repeat myself here, but you can find out more over on Bandcamp: https://jabun.bandcamp.com/

It's also now available worldwide on Spotify and all those places too, and while we're on the topic of Bandcamp, it happens to be Bandcamp Friday again! If you've been meaning to pick up the latest Jabun or Better Than The Book records then now's the best time. Thanks so much for the support if you're able to:

Jabun: https://jabun.bandcamp.com/
Better Than The Book: https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/

Back to Apotheosis, thanks so much to Newgrounds for the 4 front page awards for the project! I'm super happy people have been enjoying the tunes! Check out the full list of awards below:

September 5, 2025 - Jabun's Apotheosis OST album receives Front Page Award on Newgrounds.com
​September 7, 2025 - Jabun's Apotheosis - Level 2 receives Front Page Award on Newgrounds.com
September 8, 2025 - Jabun's Apotheosis - Boss Theme receives Front Page Award on Newgrounds.com
September 9, 2025 - Jabun's Apotheosis - Final Boss Theme Phase 1 receives Front Page Award on Newgrounds.com

And keeping with the topic of Newgrounds thanks so much to PhantonArcade for nominating and awarding me Supporter Status for the month! It's a great honour and I hope to be able to become a more permanent supporter properly at some point soon! Newgrounds really means the world to me as one of the greatest communities that I've found on the net, and one of the last places that I still consider uncorrupted by the greed (and other stuff) that fuels much of today's online world. Let's keep building each other up together! Speaking of which, October means Inktober for Cyberdevil and he's back at it again with a rap a day! I'll have to cook up a beat for him soon!

Onto project updates, starting with Better Than The Book, over the past few months I've been intensely busy preparing for what I hope to be the project's first live show early next year for the 10th anniversary of the debut full-length album Two Years On! Dates have been put in the diary and feelers are out (and penciled) for a venue in Brighton, England with one support act (out of a hopeful two) confirmed for the night so far. The details have still yet to be finalised, but last week we had our first practice since last year, and things went great! So great we forgot to record any footage this time! There's still much to prepare but things are looking in a very good position for early next year including contingencies and backup plans in case of (minor) disaster this time! More details to be announced as soon as I can, and I hope you're as hyped as I am for an HOUR long set of BTTB celebrating Two Years On and much MUCH more! Fingers crossed we can actually get to make it happen this time!

And on the topic of Better Than The Book, the new Side Character In my Own Life album was back on Beefy's Ska Club Radio Show / Podcast last month, this time spinning the lead single from the album "Plot Holes"! Thanks so much to Beefy for sharing the tunes and love and you can listen back to the show below (it's a great one as always):

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/beefys-ska-club-6th-sep-2025-pod-2-ep-657/id1510126760?i=1000726202925

Next onto some Jabun project updates! As you're probably well aware by now, for the last few months (when possible), I've been going back through some of my unfinished/mostly done tracks and polishing them up for what I hope to be a long ongoing "Lost Tracks" project I'll start releasing soon. After finishing one more mix and bring the total to 8 earlier this month, I decided to go back and do the mastering for these 8 tracks before I start on finishing the recording and mixes for the next batch! That's 8 tracks (around 30 minutes so far) which are now mastered and complete out of around 20-30 unfinished tracks I'm hoping to complete over the next few months! I've not thought about a release schedule just yet, but just to tease a little, here are the names of the current completed tracks to come. I hope you're as excited as I am for some more Jabun:

01 Arc Welder
02 Flow State
03 Thinking
04 Cold Case
05 Chocolate Birds Part 1
06 Falling In Love
07 Longing
08 Moving Forward

Another 16 are already somewhat in progress currently, with a few more potential additions (or subtractions) from those! If you're a $10 patron then this month I'm sharing with you the final mix (pre-mastering) for Flow State, right here on Patreon! Head over here to grab the reward and hope you enjoy a new (old unreleased) jam!

$10 Extra reward: https://www.patreon.com/posts/140274727

Finally for this month, I've not being doing much video recording lately, but an unfortunate mishap made for an excellent opportunity to do so! Partway through the month, my Yamaha YC-25D Organ decided that one of the stop tabs (amongst other things) didn't want to work anymore which was very troublesome but after a teardown and deep clean and service its seems to have resolved itself nicely (and actually plays better now that it ever has done)! While I had the organ all opened up, I thought I do a little video explaining how it works, some common faults, and how to try to start solving them! The video seems to have gone down really well too so I hope the community finds it a useful resource. Check it out below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipoKcy-s8vA

And here's a link to the full updated gear related playlist of videos too. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWEmqIhrNPvQTBoOjZdKLgL4ecTvLz6sm

And I've still got to a Patch Bay and J-6 sound list video to do at some point soon. Busy busy!!!

That about wraps things up for this month! More BTTB practice and Jabun Lost Tracks work for me this coming month and I recon it's going to be super busy trying to get as much as possible sorted before the next practice! I'll keep you posted with any gig related updates especially and until the next one, thanks as always for supporting my music and projects however you can and especially on Patreon and Newgrounds! Take care and all the best!

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/138213103
$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/140274727 ​
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great summer so far! It's finally time to release another Jabun album: the complete soundtrack I composed for the Apotheosis video game by Meneer Guus! Pick it up on Bandcamp and come join the listening party tonight at 8pm BST on YouTube. Hope to see you there! Remember that today is Bandcamp Friday too, where Bandcamp waives all its usual fees and gives all revenue directly to the artists! If you want to support the project, now's the best time to pick up a copy on Bandcamp!

Bandcamp: https://jabun.bandcamp.com/album/apotheosis-ost

Listening Party: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XonALOrdJ4Q

Unfortunately, not every project I work on makes it to full completion, but this game project was immense fun to be a part of and I'm super pleased with the soundtrack work I did for it. This OST was originally composed from September 2014 to March 2018, and contains 11 tracks from the project including a few which didn't make it into the final public release game demos. With it being a legacy project so to speak, I decided to give this official soundtrack release only the lightest of remastering from the original demos of 7+ years ago. I hope you enjoy this long overdue collection of cinematic tracks to accompany the bullet hell, roguelite that is Apotheosis!

Although it never got a finished release, Apotheosis had some very fully fledged game demos available for free public download! Read more about the project and check out the latest demo below. It's a tonne of fun!

meneerguus.itch.io/apotheosis

To celebrate the release my supporters on Patreon have downloads for the full album including mp3s and artwork (+ the Master WAVs for the $10 patrons)! If that sounds good to you, grab the album below, and remember you'll be getting all past rewards for your tier when you sign up to Patreon too including the full BTTB and Jabun Discographies + a tonne of Patreon exclusives. I hope to see you around the posts!

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/136534556
$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/136534561
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Jabun - Apotheosis OST

01 - Prologue
02 - Level 1
03 - Level 2
04 - Level 3
05 - Boss Theme
06 - Final Boss Theme Phase 1
07 - Final Boss Theme Phase 2
08 - Victory Fanfare
09 - Post-Victory
10 - Game Over
11 - Apotheosis Trailer Suite

All tracks written, performed and produced by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Recorded, mixed and mastered at JabunAudio by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Album Artwork by game designer Meneer Guus (Lars Warink)

No generative A.I. tools were used in the creation of this album.

A huge thanks to Apotheosis game creator Meneer Guus (Lars Warink) for letting me score his fantastic game and all the feedback and discussions that went into creating and polishing this soundtrack. I'm so happy to finally be able to release it to the world in full!

A big thanks also goes to all my subscribers on Patreon past and present who keep my music going each month with special mention to the current $10+ patrons: Michael White! Thank you all so much for your help and support in making my musical dreams a reality! You folks are amazing!

Full album credits, special thanks and descriptions are available on the Apotheosis OST Bandcamp page:

https://jabun.bandcamp.com/album/apotheosis-ost

That about wraps things up for this post! With the Apotheosis OST album now FINALLY out to the world I'll be getting back to going through my unfinished Jabun ideas and aim to start releasing some "Lost Tracks" on YouTube/Newgrounds/Patreon very soon (the $10 Patreon supporters will getting some sneak peeks starting from next month too)! Until then, thanks as always for supporting my music and projects however you can, I hope you enjoy the Apotheosis OST as much as I did composing it, and take care!

​Next up on this month's news, after the release of Better Than The Book's Side Character In My Own Life album, I've gone and updated the reward archives on Patreon again for you all! Check out the updated archive below

Updated Rewards Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842

New additions include the SCIMOL and instrumentals albums + the "Something Riffy" exclusive demo and various WIP BTTB Art packages for $10 Patrons. Enjoy!

And speaking of Better Than The Book's Side Character In My Own Life, Punktuation Web Magazine gave the album an amazing feature and review earlier this month! Thanks so much for all the kind words and sharing the music! Check it out below:

https://www.punktuationmag.com/album-review-better-than-the-book-releases-side-character-in-my-own-life/

While we're on the topic of the web and internets, after a LONG time waiting to do it (mainly until after the Side Character In My Own Life album release), I've finally decided to quit Twitter/x. I'll be leaving my account active for people to discover (and be redirected) for now, but I'll no longer be posting there or sharing the link around. The best places to find me for the moment are on Patreon, YouTube, Newgrounds, Instagram and Facebook.

Onto creativity! After so many album release cycles (4 in the last 12 months would you believe?!!) it's been nice to get back to some creative studio work again going through and polishing some of my "lost" Jabun ideas mainly from 2019 onwards! 7 mixes have been finished so far with a total of 20-30 I'll be aiming to complete for "this project" before moving onto the next (which'll potentially be some non-BTTB guitar heavy music). It's been nice to relax a little in the studio again and get creative! There's been a few tracks teased before on YouTube, but prepare yourself for some emotional cinematic wanderings, chill jazzy hip hop (à la Daydream) and some more "out there" experiments too! I'm still not sure how exactly I'll be collecting them (and not every track will likely get an official release), but for now it's just about creating, having fun, and sharing the music! On a side note, it's been a fun challenge transferring lot of grooves from the MPC1000 into Ableton for mixing and arranging! I think I'm getting the hang of it!

Meanwhile and lastly, while there are no new videos last month, I have been working on a little geeky side project: making a detailed sound list spreadsheet for my Roland J-6 synthesizer! It's a grand little preset based synthesizer based of the legendary Juno-60 but the manual doesn't come with a detailed sound list or ANY details of what the presets are?! After a TONNE of tweaking and experimenting I've finally finished a spreadsheet containing all details of the approximate settings along with patch descriptions, notes and suggestions! It's stuck in Excel for the moment, but I'll be aiming to transfer it into a more printer friendly format and sharing it with the world soon. I'm sure it's something people will find useful!

That about wraps things up for this time and I'll be back on Friday for the Apotheosis OST album release! Until then I hope you have a great week and as always thanks as always for supporting my music however you can! Take care and see you soon!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great summer so far! Lots to share this time so let's get straight onto the news for this month!

In case you hadn't heard yet, last week, Better Than The Book released the "Side Character In My Own Life (Instrumentals)" bonus album to celebrate a great first month of Side Character In My Own Life! I've already said a lot about it, so feel free to read more and grab the rewards etc... over here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/132967034/

Both albums are available on Bandcamp and it's actually Bandcamp Friday today (the first one since both albums were released) which means that Bandcamp waives its usual fees and passes all the revenue to the artists! If you've been meaning to pick up a copy then today's the best time. Explore Better Than The Book's bandcamp page below:

https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/

(The regular version of Side Character In My Own Life is also available on CD and Vinyl too here: https://elasticstage.com/betterthanthebookuk )

And thanks for supporting my music however you can!

Speaking of which, there's a few more press features from the new album(s) to share too! Better Than The Book was interviewed on Breathing The Core (along with having the Side Character In My Own Life album featured on the site), The Punk Site featured the Side Character In My Own Life (Instrumentals) album over on their site, and "2020 Was A Write-off, But What Comes Next? (Instrumental)" got a front page feature award on Newgrounds too! Thanks so much for the love everyone and check out the features below:

July 24, 2025 - Better Than The Book's Side Character In My Own Life (Instrumentals) album featured on ThePunkSite.com
July 24, 2025 - Better Than The Book's 2020 Was A Write-off, But What Comes Next? (Instrumental) receives Front Page award on Newgrounds.com
​July 24, 2025 - Better Than The Book's Side Character In My Own Life album featured on Breathing The Core
July 24, 2025 - Better Than The Book interview on Breathing The Core

With the Side Character In My Own Life (and Instrumentals) albums finally out now, I thought it be cool to share with you one of the unused demos from the project writing sessions of 2020 as well! It's very rough and ready as it never got to the "studio recording" stage, just some instrumental roughing out, but I'm pleased with the composition (I just never got around to getting some lyrics in which I was happy with). Perhaps I'll revisit it for the next project? We'll see, but hope you enjoy the behind the scenes look/listen at "Something Riffy"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQuQnCPO5II

And the paid Patreon supporters have a download link for this exclusive demo track here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/134779001

Next for the news post, some studio and project updates! First of all: the studio, after months of planning and sorting stuff I'm super excited to announce that I've finally set up a mixer and patch bay for the studio which effectively integrates much of equipment into a convenient hub! A special thanks to Martin for gifting me his old patch bay and mixer to set this up and I'm looking forward to putting it to good use! I'm aiming to make a video about it at some point, but the gist of it is that now there's lots of cabling neatly behind everything connecting the studio together instead of in a spaghetti mess across the floor like it has been whenever I needed to set things up in the past. Horray!

Onto project updates, there's been a lot going on this past month and set for the future. The first big one is a special animation music commission project which I can't say anything about at the moment. Due to the project lead times though, despite the work being finished on my end it may be up to a year until it finally sees a public release... No matter though as I have plenty to get on with in the mean time, (but I really can't wait to share it with you when the time comes)! Speaking of project delays and commissions though, after around 7 years of inactivity on the project, I have finally been given permission to release the original soundtrack I composed for the Apotheosis Video Game by Meneer Guus! The master WAVs have been cut and I'm just waiting for some final stuff to do with the art and admin, but it should be out before the end of the year. I'm really pleased with this project so it's great to finally have permission to release my work! Check out the older demos here and play the game demo too, it's great fun!

https://soundcloud.com/jabun/sets/apotheosis-soundtrack-demos

Meanwhile Better Than The Book has been back to practicing to prepare for gigs again! Aiming to meet up again in September after some concentrated solo practice, if all goes to plan we're hoping to finally put a live show on early next year, even if its a one night only deal! I'll keep you posted with details when I have them. It's very exciting!

Finally, with lots of big album projects finally released or approaching release, I'll be heading back to the studio to do a big sort out and clear out of lots of my older Jabun demos and projects which have been still on my hard drive since 2019+. There's over an hour of IMHO decent (or at least fun to share) tunes there, some of which are basically finished, and others which only need a little work. Rather than waiting to release them as an album, I'll likely be starting a "Jabun - Lost Tracks" unofficial album playlist shortly which I'll be adding individual tracks to as I finish them, with some of the tracks I'm sure making there way to more official cataloged releases eventually. I just really want to get this music out there, and there's plenty of less formed ideas I'd like to pursue too. It's going to be a hopefully less stressful way to release music for a while so I can just have some fun with it! More Jabun coming very soon!

That about wraps things up for this month and post! No new videos for July, but there's lots of stuff still to come on the horizon, and I'll also be aiming to update the Patreon Reward Archives in the coming month too so keep an eye out for that! I hope you enjoy the new music and music to come and thanks as always for supporting my music however you can! Take care and all the best!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great summer so far and staying cool! It's time for ANOTHER Better Than The Book album release and I'm super happy to share with you today the Side Character In My Own Life (Instrumentals) bonus album! Check it out, read more and pick it up pick it up pick it up on Bandcamp below:

https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/album/side-character-in-my-own-life-instrumentals

Of course my Patreon supporters have a full digital download of album right here, that's the Mp3s of the full 10 track album, 4 bonus tracks, 4 radio edits, and the full sized album artwork (+ the master WAV files for the $10 patrons)! If that's something you're interested in then become a patron and remember that you'll get access to my full discography and past rewards for your tier including all the music from Better Than The Book and Jabun as well as a tonne of exclusive downloads and bonus tracks. Find out more below:

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/132967013
$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/132966985 ​
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Better Than The Book - Side Character In My Own Life (Instrumentals) is a bonus album to celebrate an amazing month since the release of "Side Character In My Own Life" and everything BTTB's 3rd full-length album has achieved so far! If you’ve yet to hear the original non-instrumental album, grab it on Bandcamp or on CD and Vinyl on elasticStage:

https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/album/side-character-in-my-own-life

https://elasticstage.com/betterthanthebookuk/releases/side-character-in-my-own-life-album

With all three pre-release singles featured on the radio worldwide from the UK to Australia including numerous shows on BBC Introducing, The Ska Time Show, The Warp Factor, Tonic Ska Radio and Beefy’s Ska Club (the #1 ska music show in the world which also featured the bonus track “Hearts Racing Backwards”), web blog and zine features, and 15 Front Page Feature Awards on Newgrounds.com, it’s fair to say that the Side Character In My Own Life album has made quite the splash in its first month of release!

A monumental thanks to everyone who helped make all this happen with a huge shout out to Beefy, Melita, Kirk, Mr P, Nick, and Phinky for their continued support and great vibes, the BTTB LIVE band's Eamon, Sam and Andy for their boundless enthusiasm to take these tunes to the stage, and of course to my supporters on Patreon who keep my music going each month with special mention to the current and past $10+ patrons: Michael White and Nathan Puray! Thank you all so much for your help and support in making these dreams a reality!

Side Character In My Own Life (Instrumentals), much like I did for Two Years On and Hopes and Dreams, is a complete off-vocal version of the album for you to sing along to, make silly mash-ups, or simply listen to when you want some BTTB but without any vocals! I hope you enjoy this bonus album while I get the Better Than The Book live show prepared for the stage, and I'm already back in the studio for a little more Better Than The Book coming soon as well! Thank you all so much again and see you for some more BTTB soon!

Better Than The Book - Side Character In My Own Life (Instrumentals)

01 - 2020 Was A Write-off, But What Comes Next? (Instrumental)
02 - Side Character In My Own Life (Instrumental)
03 - Mood Swings (Instrumental)
04 - Red Kite (Instrumental)
05 - Rewrite (Instrumental)

06 - Don't Be Too Hard On Yourself (Instrumental)
07 - Hold Me Tight (Instrumental)
08 - Bump In The Night (Instrumental)
09 - Plot Holes (Instrumental)
10 - You'll Never Be Too Old For This (Instrumental)

Bonus Tracks

11 - Hearts Racing Backwards (Instrumental)
12 - Plot Holes (Alternative Version) (Instrumental)
13 - Hold Me Tight (Non-Acoustic) (Instrumental)
14 - Side Character In My Own Life (Acoustic) (Instrumental)

+ Additional Radio Edits for Tracks 07, 08, 09 & 10

Written, performed and produced by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Recorded, mixed and mastered at JabunAudio by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Artwork, images and photography by Nick Standing [Jabun]

No generative A.I. tools were used in the creation of this album.

The album will be up on the usual YouTube, Soundcloud, Newgrounds, Spotify and global distribution places too (shortly if not already).

That about wraps things up for this post! I'll be back at the beginning of August for the usual monthly roundup of news and hopefully an updated Reward Archive soon too! Until then, thanks so much for supporting my music however you can as always and I hope you enjoy the new tunes both instrumental and vocal! Take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great summer so far! As I'm sure you're already well aware it's been a monumentally busy month gone by as Better Than The Book released its 3rd full-length album Side Character In My Own Life on June 13th, and what a splash it's made already in only the first 2 and a half weeks since its release! There's still a lot more to share on top of that this post but let's get started with that!

In case you haven't heard already, Side Character In My Own Life is Better Than The Book's 3rd full-length album: 10 tracks + 4 bonus tracks + 4 radio edits for your playlisting convenience! It really follows directly on from where the Hopes and Dreams album left off and takes a darker more aggressive tone reflective of the intense pandemic years during the writing process. Reaching even further across genres than BTTB's usual ska and pop punk tones and rock experimentation, Side Character In My Own Life is undoubtedly Better Than The Book's (and my own in general's) most ambitious release to date!

The first Single Plot Holes released on December 30th 2024 and was featured on BBC Introducing The South! The second single and title track released on March 28th and featured on the Ska Time show on Button Down Radio, The Warp Factor Radio Show, Tonic Ska Radio and Beefy's Ska Club in Australia (which also featured the bonus track Hearts Racing Backwards)! The final pre-release single Bump In The Night released on May 23rd and was also featured on BBC Introducing The South! EVERY track on the main album as well as 3 out of 4 bonus tracks and the full album stream received Front Page Feature awards (15 awards total) and have racked up a collective over 43,000 plays on the media site Newgrounds within the first 2 weeks of the album release! If you're wondering, the only track to not get the front page feature was the bonus track Plot Holes (Alternative Version). It's still racked up over a hundred listens though and interestingly, the regular version of Plot Holes received 2 front page features (one for the album version and one for the radio edit)! The album's up in full on Newgrounds now too, so check out the full playlist here:

https://www.newgrounds.com/album/464602/bttb-side-character-in-my-own-life

(or the full album stream here: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/1440051)

Along with the radio and Newgrounds features (including being finally scouted for the Newgrounds Art Portal for the album's cover art), the release has been shared on a few cool music sites and blogs including my good friend World Beyond's Blog, The Punk Site, Pete's Rock News and Views, and even the elasticStage Instagram (who are the people who make the CD and Vinyl releases for the album)! Check out some fantastic podcast replays of the radio show and the blog features below:

June 21, 2025 - Better Than The Book's Hearts Racing Backwards featured on Beefy's Ska Club Podcast (with an album review!)
​June 20, 2025 - Better Than The Book's Side Character In My Own Life (Single) featured on The Warp Factor Radio Show
​June 14, 2025 - Better Than The Book's Side Character In My Own Life album featured on the World Beyond Blog
​June 13, 2025 - Better Than The Book's Side Character In My Own Life album featured on ThePunkSite.com
June 9, 2025 - Better Than The Book's band feature page updated on Pete's Rock News and Views
​June 9, 2025 - Better Than The Book's Side Character In My Own Life CD and Vinyl releases featured on elasticStage's Instagram

And along with a tonne of nice encouragement and comments for the new album and Better Than The Book, I'd like to share 2 of my favourite comments I've heard since the release:

''​A huge milestone and a massive effort, Better Than The Book's new release is a heartfelt reflection on everything Nick’s been through since the last release. Yet, in true ska-punk fashion, it’s not just about struggle—it’s a celebration of the good stuff life throws your way between the chaos. Packed with irony, energy, and infectious optimism, this record reminds us that even if things go off the rails, they do get better'' - Vladimir Kuznetsov via Bandcamp on Side Character In My Own Life

''Not every track is a ska track... there’s a few ska tracks; there’s a few rock tracks; there’s all sorts; there’s something there for everyone! ... Well done, Nick! I am very VERY encouraged by this album... Compliments to the chef! ... Go and buy it, just buy the album people! Nick has put a hell of a lot of work into this one and it shows! It’s so good; so well produced as well! There’s not a bad track on it!'' - ​Beefy on the Side Character In My Own Life album | Beefy's Ska Club (#1 Ska Radio Show in the world)

What can I say? Thanks so much to everyone for the support and for sharing my music and I'm so happy that people are enjoying this new album (I think the above accolades and comments say it all)! Being super honest for a moment, I know that not many people are buying music these days, but if you really enjoyed Side Character In My Own Life (or Better Than The Book's music in general) and want to support the project, please consider picking up a copy on Bandcamp (or becoming a Patreon Supporter to download the album) or a CD / Vinyl from elasticStage. Remember that despite how it may seem, I'm still just one guy making these records with whatever equipment I can scrape together, no label, or financial backing or anything like that, just the kindness of people who want to help me out however they can, so anything you can do to help means the world to me to try and keep this project going and growing to new places (and there are some big plans in the pipeline if I can make it happen)! Thanks so much again everyone and if you STILL haven't listen to the album yet, check it out on Bandcamp and or pick up a CD / Vinyl below:

https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/album/side-character-in-my-own-life

https://elasticstage.com/betterthanthebookuk/releases/side-character-in-my-own-life-album

With such a great few weeks since the album launch, I'd like to announce that to celebrate all the radio play and Newgrounds features (etc...) so far, I'll be releasing a bonus instrumental version of the album on July 23rd (in about 3 weeks)! I know I usually wait a full year to do this, but it seemed like a good a time as any to keep the hype train going as much as I can! Here's to officially announcing "Side Character In My Own Life (Instrumentals)" which will be available as a digital download on Bandcamp as well as in all the usual streaming places on July 23rd! Check out the edited album artwork below:

And if you're a Patreon supporter, you have a download of the full-sized artwork package to look forward to in your rewards this month! For the $10 Patrons you have full early access to the Side Character In My Own Life (Instrumentals) album today! Grab the rewards below and I hope you enjoy it:

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/132960623
$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/132960630
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Finally for this month, a quick round up of YouTube videos! It's the second month since slowing down from the 2 a week posting, so there's only a few new videos to share this time, 2 video previews of the CD / Vinyl release of the new album + a tappy guitar live performance which was my entry to the UK Guitar Icon 2025 Contest sponsored by Ibanez and Laney. Doesn't look like I made the cut so far but I was pleased with the way it turned out and I hope you enjoy it too! Check out the updated playlist below:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWEmqIhrNPvQTBoOjZdKLgL4ecTvLz6sm

On top of that, I also released a rather silly video revealing that the bonus "Hearts Racing Backwards" from Side Character In My Own Life, is in fact really just "Hearts Racing" from the Two Years On album (2016) but reversed and with new words?! Check out the comparison below (yes I am really losing my mind...):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M75Mu1A3DPU

That about wraps things up for this post! On top of all this album release work, I've also been super busy with a super secret project I can't wait to share with you (hopefully soon), as well as working on finally setting up a mixer and patch bay for the studio (exciting but LOTS of planning)! On top of that, plans are also being made to get Better Than The Book back in the LIVE scene and on the stage (even if just for one night)! More updates next time and until then, thanks as always for supporting my music and Better Than The Book and hope you're enjoying all the new tunes! Take care, all the best, keep on skankin' and if you like the new album then you know what to do: pick it up pick it up pick it up!

Hi everyone and hope you're as excited as I am on this very fine Friday 13th of June! It's finally FINALLY time and I'm super excited to announce that Better Than The Book's 3rd full length album "Side Character In My Own Life" has just been released!!! Check it out including all the album credits and about sections over on Bandcamp and pick it up on CD and/or Vinyl over on elastic stage!

Bandcamp:

https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/album/side-character-in-my-own-life

CDs & Vinyls on elasticStage:
https://elasticstage.com/betterthanthebookuk/releases/side-character-in-my-own-life-album

And here's a quick video of what to expect from the CD and Vinyl releases:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/b4LbNcz3bbc

And here's the full stream here on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhB1UtJKccw

Of course my Patreon supporters have a full digital download of album too, that's the Mp3s of the full 10 track album, 4 bonus tracks, 4 radio edits, the full sized album artwork and pre-release Plot Holes (Single) photo, and the vinyl album lyric sheets (+ the master WAV files for the $10 patrons)! If that's something you're interested then become a patron and remember that you'll get access too my full discography and past rewards for your tier including all the music from Better Than The Book and Jabun as well as a tonne of exclusive downloads and bonus tracks. Find out more below:

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/130599781
$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/130599817​
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

This album has been a major undertaking and undoubtedly my biggest project to date! I started writing Side Character In My Own Life back in 2020, and since Hopes and Dreams we've had a global pandemic, I've been to hospital a fair few times, had 2 major computer meltdowns, had a tonne of equipment broken, then resurrected, then broken and resurrected again, and had a handful of live shows booked which never came to fruition (for many reasons including those above). To be finally at the finish line so to speak with this project feels unreal to me and with all three of the pre-release singles featured on the radio before the album even released already, including Plot Holes and Bump In The Night on BBC Introducing and the title track Side Character In My Own Life making onto the Ska Time show on Button Down Radio as well as Beefy's Ska Club over in Australia, I have no doubt that this album is going to blow your socks off!

To everyone who's supported this project and Better Than The Book, the live band peeps, the DJs and promoters, friends and family, fans and supporters on Patreon with special extra mention to past and present $10+ patrons: Nathan Puray, and Michael White during this project, I extend my deepest thanks for giving me the time and space to make this dream a reality and I hope that you enjoy it and it's an album you'll remember forever!

That about wraps things up for today but Better Than The Book isn't done quite yet and I'm happy to announce that I'll be releasing a little extra something next month on July 23rd before I call this project closed. Some of you may have already guessed what it is but I'll leave that to your imagination for the moment! Until the next time, thanks as always for supporting Better Than The Book and my music projects however you can, and I hope you enjoy Side Character In My Own Life. Take care everyone and while I have no idea what comes next, I'm excited to see how things unfold! THIS IS MY LIFE!

Better Than The Book - Side Character In My Own Life

01 - 2020 Was A Write-off, But What Comes Next?
02 - Side Character In My Own Life
03 - Mood Swings
04 - Red Kite
05 - Rewrite
06 - Don't Be Too Hard On Yourself
07 - Hold Me Tight
08 - Bump In The Night
09 - Plot Holes
10 - You'll Never Be Too Old For This

Bonus Tracks (CD and Digital Only - Not Vinyl)
11 - Hearts Racing Backwards
12 - Plot Holes (Alternative Version)
13 - Hold Me Tight (Non-Acoustic)
14 - Side Character In My Own Life (Acoustic)

+ Additional Radio Edits for Tracks 07, 08, 09 & 10 (Digital Only)

Written, performed and produced by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Recorded, mixed and mastered at JabunAudio by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Artwork, images and photography by Nick Standing [Jabun]
No generative A.I. tools were used in the creation of this album.

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great start to Summer! It's been an incredibly busy month and only set to get busier for the next few weeks too! With Better Than The Book's Side Character In My Own Life album coming next Friday 13th June (in less than 2 weeks), I'll be holding off for $10 DEMOlition Pigeon Patreon rewards this time, but hope to be back to it soon! There is MUCH to share in this post so let's get straight to it!

First of all as I'm sure you're well aware, on May 23rd Better Than The Book released the 3rd and final pre-release single Bump In The Night from the upcoming Side Character In My Own Life album and wooooweee did it go down well! Not only has it racked up over 4500 listens on Newgrounds alone (on top of a front page award and Takeover Tuesday feature), but the single was also featured on BBC Introducing: The South's radio show too! Thanks so much for the support everyone and you can catch up with the BBC Introducing replay for the next month over on BBC Sounds (I'm on towards the end, but there are some great tracks throughout the show as usual):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002cxxy

Bump In The Night was also featured on The Punk Site's news feed and on Retweeter Radio! Thanks for sharing the new music peeps!

May 25, 2025 - Better Than The Book's Bump In The Night single and CD/Vinyl announcement featured on ThePunkSite.com
May 25, 2025 - Better Than The Book's Bump In The Night (Radio Edit) added to The Retweeter Hits Radio Rotation

And flipping back to the previous single and title track Side Character In My Own Life, that track received its first international radio play in Australia on the #1 ska show in the world: Beefy's Ska Club (formally The Ska Show with Beefy)! The show is available to listen again as a podcast and what a heck of a show it was! I think it's the best shoutout I've ever been given on a radio show! Thanks so much to Beefy for sharing the music and all the kind words and I hope you love the album when it comes next week!

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/beefys-ska-club-17th-may-2025-pod-2-ep-613/id1510126760?i=1000708862516

Also In case you hadn't heard, Side Character In My Own Life is now available to pre-order on CD and Vinyl on ElasticStage too and you can read more about the album and listen to and download the pre-release singles over on Bandcamp. Check it out!

https://elasticstage.com/betterthanthebookuk

https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/album/side-character-in-my-own-life

Finally for BTTB news, I'm pleased to announce that after a little trouble clearing a public domain sample, the album has been fully approved for worldwide digital distribution too and will be available on iTunes, Spotify, Tidal and all those places come Friday 13th as well! Woot woot!

Onto some non-BTTB news, it's been a very busy month in other areas as I've been away on a few trips as well as fixing up some stuff around the studio! Starting with the trip, on May 11th I had the amazing and unforgettable opportunity to see one of my favourite bands ELLEGARDEN play their first European gig EVER! For those who don't know, ELLEGARDEN is a Japanese pop-punk band who started around the turn of the millennium but went on an almost 10 year hiatus before returning just before the pandemic hit. I never thought I'd have an opportunity to see them, but as soon as I found out they were going to be playing in London (alongside local heroes FEEDER) I just had to make sure I could go! I've been using these guys as mixing reference material since the One Small Step EP, and learnt so much from listening to their records! It was an amazing night and I hope they come back again soon! While I was in the pits only a few meters from the front, some other gig goers got some great footage of most of the concert from the balcony (you can even spot me in the crowd if you know who to look for XD)! Check it out below and if you every get the chance, go see them for one hell of a party!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4oqBMGy2FBglFJttux9g_fGcbltZwDGb

Next on the news for this month, some studio updates! While I was down for the gig I went to visit my long time mentor of sorts Martin, and as tends to happen I ended up leaving with a piece of his studio, this time an old Yamaha 8 channel mixing desk from the 80s! I've been looking for a mixer for a long time, so I was super excited when he offered it! After a clean, some re-soldering of connections and a hefty drench of electrical cleaning solution, it's working great, and I'll integrating into the studio along with Martin's old patch bay very soon! Thanks so much, Martin! Alongside fixing up the mixer, I also finally got around to putting grills on my homemade Leslie rotary speaker and got it put back together and serviced! There's a new YouTube video all about it which I'll get back to in a second. Finally in the studio updates, my main guitar amp for the last 18 years was acting up again and I really thought it was gone for good this time but again, I managed to resurrect it and it seems to be doing much better than even before now! Phew! While I was at it I figured I'd service the bass and organ amps too which were working but not quite as well as they could have been... A can of electrical contact cleaner sure does wonders!

Finally for this month, some more YouTube videos to share! This is the first time in 2 years that I've not been recording 2 videos a week so this time it's just 2 videos to share this month but I hope you enjoy them nonetheless! Check out the updated video below:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWEmqIhrNPvQTBoOjZdKLgL4ecTvLz6sm

And here's a list of the latest additions:

• Choppy Glissando and Ghost Notes Organ Practice
• Leslie got grills!

That about wraps things up for this time! It's just 10 days until Better Than The Book's Side Character In My Own Life album finally releases (I can hardly believe it), so I'm going to be working my butt off to prepare all the promo for that, and trying to get some rest where I can in the mean time. More interesting projects are coming on the horizon now though so it won't be long until there's more music to come! Until then, thanks as always for supporting my work however you can and I'll see you next week for the big album launch! Take care!

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/128920974
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding​

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great spring so far (and not battling hayfever hard like I am)! It's been a heckin' super busy month since the last post (only set to get busier) and there's tonnes of news to share so let's get straight to it!

First of all in the big news, the CD test pressing for Better Than The Book's Side Character In My Own Life album arrived in the post from the distributor and looks and sounds BEAUTIFUL! 2 weeks before their estimated delivery date too! There are a couple of minor unexpected quirks, like CD text not showing up, or being cropped strangely depending on the specific CD Player (as well as the CD not working in my super old player from '86 which isn't entirely unexpected), but the printing looks great and the CD plays smooth and gapless (in players which support gapless playback) so that's veeeery nice! After multiple tests on various systems, I can say that this CD release has been APPROVED! If you're a supporter on Patreon (free or paid), then you've got a sneak peek of what the CD release looks like right now (see links at the end of this post)!

On another note, the test print for the 12" vinyl version was sent off for and apparently is now due to arrive TOMORROW, 4 weeks before their estimated delivery date! Fingers crossed that everything looks and plays great on that version too and if so it'll be time to solidify that release date, prep that final single (and full album) release and get ready for some much overdue ska punk mayhem! Not long now! Get excited!

Speaking of Ska Punk Mayhem, the title track of the new album got its radio debut by being featured on Button Down Radio's Ska Time show episode 14! The show was celebrating the London International Ska festival as well as showcasing a pick of the new ska tracks from around the world so it was a big honour to be part of it. Check out their post about it below:

https://www.facebook.com/buttondownradio5446/posts/pfbid02RxuGgBWKo7hL9qSsFhXdSQkikKhpdEuYctjUxgH5ubiwVZrffFCHYz5qrCkwCh6Gl

And you can catch up with the full radio show over on Mixcloud! There's some great organ work in this one. Fantastic stuff and thanks again to the Ska Time show for spinning the track!

https://www.mixcloud.com/CuttersChoiceRadio/ska-time-w-button-down-radio-ep14/

Next on the news, it was my birthday last week and on April 24th 2025, my twin Eamon (TallismanRogue) released the Sonic The Hedgehog X Better Than The Book - Endless Hopes and One-way Dreams Mashup EP to celebrate! It's incredible! Thanks and love you so much, Mon! I highly encourage you to check it out below. Gotta go fast!

​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QAg8Mu49JQ

Keeping in with the birthday theme, as a present to myself, I'm back to some wood/metalwork to FINALLY (after 3 years?) finish my homemade Leslie speaker by adding some grills! For the past 3 years, it's been all to easy to stick you hand/foot into the rotating drum while it's spinning, but now that'll be safely behind a few millimeters of perforated steel mesh. SAFE! As it currently stands, the 2 sides and top have been fitted with a permanent grill each while the front panel grill is complete (apart from possibly a custom badge on the front) and easily clips on and off for maintenance and if you want an open grill for stage presence. All that's left to do is sort out the grounding for electrical safety, give the mechanics their annual service and oiling, and put it back together and calibrate again! Hoping to have that done by this time next month with any luck and I'll be sure to put up a video of the completed project when it's done!

And on the topic of videos, after 2 full uninterrupted years of 2 videos a week on YouTube (that's over 200 in total now), I've decided to step away from regular scheduled YouTube content to focus on music creation (and releasing this upcoming album). April 2025 marks the last full month of videos and while there has already been one video released in May, for the first time in a LONG time, I don't have any new videos scheduled currently. That said there are a few more I have planned, and there's a WHOLE lot of new music to come very soon too. Check out the updated playlist below:

​https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWEmqIhrNPvQTBoOjZdKLgL4ecTvLz6sm

And here's a list of the latest additions:

• New Studio Part 5: Shelves up and Art
• Volca Modular Keyboard Transposing Sequencer Tutorials, Tricks and Tips
• Korg EM-1 Keyboard Transposing Sequencer Tutorials, Tricks and Tips
• Korg ESX Arpeggiator Tutorials, Tricks and Tips
• Acoustic Guitar strumming in AGCFAD Tuning
• Homemade Superfuzz and Ashdown Bass Sub harmonic effect on Guitar
• 2 Years on YouTube + 35th Birthday
• New Studio Part 6: Acoustics Sorted + Acoustic Ceiling Tiles

Lastly for the news this month, after many years for the first time ever, there are currently no $10 patrons, and so I will not be posting a $10 extra reward this month. If the situation's the same for a while I may decide to change things up regarding Patreon rewards, but there are more urgent things to attend to currently so I'll be playing things by ear. To all the Patreon supporters past and present though, I'd like to say a HUGE thank you to you all for all your support over the years. I hope you're still enjoying the music and content ramblings and hope you're as excited as I am for all the new music still to come!

That about wraps things up for this month. With a vinyl test coming tomorrow, unless something's drastically wrong I should hopefully have a concrete release date for the Side Character In My Own Life album and maybe that final pre-release single to share with you (as well as other stuff) next time. Until then, thanks as always for supporting me and my musical endeavours however you can and I'm super looking forward to sharing what's to come very soon! Take care and all the best!

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/126129247
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding