Hi everyone and hope you're having a great start to October! September really flew past and the past week has been an especially busy one at JabunAudio sorting various things. As of last Friday my local area has been placed into lockdown again due to high COVID cases which puts a few spanners in the works of future plans (more on that in a bit), but other than work related to that, I've been busy writing and developing more new Better Than The Book demos, promoting Patreon rewards and new music, and setting more goals for the coming month! No direct updates on the Yamaha organ repair to report, though unfortunately my hopeful source in the UK for that final obsolete IC has fallen through. I've since located a more promising source in the US though, so fingers crossed he's able to help! Anyways, there's a whole lot of things to report on this week so let's get started with the latest set of Patreon rewards!
Yesterday was the final Wednesday of the month which means I've just sent out more $5 and $10 Patreon rewards and this time we've reached the final piece in Jabun's discography (so far), Jabun's 2017 debut full-length album Daydream! After releasing Distance and Home in 2013 and 2014 respectively (which would be remastered for the Daydream album in 2017), I started formally working on the album which would become Daydream in summer 2016. After the high energy ska punk adventure that was Better Than The Book's Two Years On (released February 2016) and having just moved away from my parents to the seaside town of Herne Bay with Eva, I was ready to explore some experimental and chill vibes as Jabun once again from that makeshift IKEA coffee table studio which I've mentioned in past posts. Shortly before the move I'd bought myself a Yamaha Reface CP mobile keyboard which is basically a truckload of vintage electric pianos and effects in a 3 octave portable package and would be the most valuable player in much of my Jabun music to come! Along with my mpc1000, sm58 microphone and a few synths, I put together a lot of that album throughout the rest of the year, firstly from the floor of our Herne Bay flat, then later from my first purpose organised studio room in Margate. A photo of the Margate beach at sunset would become the cover for the album which was released on May 4th 2017, a heartwarming, chill journey which would be featured in many online zines / blogs, on YouTube music channels, and even a game on Newgrounds (along with some Newgrounds awards)! It's an album I hold close to heart and brings me back to those days living by the sea! Included in the reward download packages are the full 10 track 43+ minute album (Mp3s and WAVs), album art and alternative album art, and a picture from day 1 of recording, my equipment spread out on the floor after recording track 07 Palindrome! I hope you enjoy Daydream! Tracklist: 01 Dreaming (Parts I - III) 02 Morning 03 The Grind 04 Distance 05 Daydream -------- 06 Anxiety 07 Palindrome 08 Home 09 Evening 10 Dreaming (Parts IV - VI) Listen to Daydream on Bandcamp:
https://jabun.bandcamp.com/album/daydream
For the $10+ patrons, you've also got an exclusive sneak peek at next year's 3rd Jabun album to look forward to! Become a $10 patron to access that and many more rewards now, and remember that you'll gain access to all historic rewards and posts for your Patreon tier too when you become a supporter including the full Better Than The Book and Jabun discographies and much more! With the REWARD ARCHIVE tag it's never been easier to catch up with all those posts and music downloads you've missed too! I hope you enjoy them! $5 rewards : https://www.patreon.com/posts/40080123/ $10 rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/40080119/ Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding That's it for this month's $5+ rewards, and the equivalent rewards will be out next Wednesday for the $1 patrons! With Daydream finally out to the patrons, that's the entire Jabun discography available on Patreon now! As such I'll be taking a short break to finalise things ready to announce Jabun's 2nd album in November, and you can bet that there'll be a tonne of Patreon rewards to celebrate that! Until then, I hope you enjoy all the music and thanks as always for supporting Jabun, Better Than The Book and my various projects on Patreon! I can't wait to show you Jabun's brand new 2nd album next time! Look forward to it! Next on the news this week, after many months of promo for Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] bonus album, we finally arrive to the last post of the series, and today's is just a quick one to say that Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] (Full Album) is now streaming on YouTube and Newgrounds! Check out the streams below:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGDy94xGu_E
Newgrounds: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/966966 I've also curated playlists of all the individual tracks from Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] on YouTube, Newgrounds and SoundCloud too, so if you've missed any of the tracks, feel free to listen to them online via the playlists below, or on Spotify: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLblIGQa1OFi6NGA101mVS4jdsOTi55Bjb Newgrounds: https://www.newgrounds.com/playlists/view/2d399b083d2369a5b1f5fbf7a1e8b2cb SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/bttb_uk/sets/hopes-and-dreams-instrumentals-album Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4GUCmKQoIk3bNWGiXDGkrp And if you like what you hear, pick up Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] on bandcamp along with the rest of the BTTB discography: https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/album/hopes-and-dreams-instrumentals Or grab it along with last month's exclusive download for Jabun [Alternate Reality]'s Warrior when you become a supporter on Patreon for as little as $1! More $1 rewards coming next Wednesday! Find out more below: https://www.patreon.com/posts/40080256 That's it for this final promo post for Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals]! I hope you've enjoyed listening to all the music over these past few months and I look forward to bringing you more Better Than The Book as soon as I can! As you've already heard, I've been back to writing recently, so hopefully I'll have more to report in the ska punk department next year! Looking forward to it! And speaking of Bandcamp, in support of musicians impacted by the coronavirus, Bandcamp is once again waiving its revenue share fees on the first Friday of the month from midnight to midnight PDT (that's tomorrow)! That means that if you purchase anything from Bandcamp this Friday 2nd of October, the artists you support (including myself) will get more of the sales revenue than usual since Bandcamp doesn't take its cut, and you'll be able to support the music you love more directly than ever on the platform! If you've been thinking of picking up Better Than The Book's "Hopes and Dreams" or grabbing Jabun's "Daydream" or one of my other tracks or albums, now's the best time to do so! Feel free to check out the Better Than The Book and Jabun Bandcamp pages below and thanks again for supporting my music in any way you can: Better Than The Book https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/ Jabun https://jabun.bandcamp.com/ Nick Standing (< The sillier old stuff) https://nickstanding.bandcamp.com/ Next this week, some less fun but necessary updates. Due to the ongoing coronavirus situation, band members being heavily restricted due to local lockdowns (including myself as of Friday), and general concerns with regards public performance at this time, Better Than The Book will no longer be attending the upcoming gig with Sweet Jonny at The Cave in Addlestone (UK) on November 7th. Additionally, we will be postponing booking any further gigs indefinitely until the live music performance industry is up and running safely again. Apologies for any disappointment, though the safety and comfort of our audience and the members of the BTTB live band are my top priority, and we all hope to be entertaining you again soon with some well needed and upbeat skapunk when the time is right and safe for it. I'll be working hard in the mean time, practicing the tunes and writing/recording some new ones, and I look forward to bringing an even better live show to you as soon as possible! Thanks as always for your support! Finally this week, it's time for the usual reflecting on monthly goals and setting some new ones! Here's what was set for September: 1) Sort the Bandcamp page and online streams / distribution for Jabun's 2nd album 2) Make and sort a teaser announcement video for the above album 3) Sort Patreon rewards associated with the above album (for November and December rewards) 4) Finish the promo plans for Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] and Warrior 5) Get a first draft master sorted for Jabun's 3rd album, and sent out for feedback 6) Set up a project folder for the upcoming Better Than The Book album and complete another 3 demos (I also wanted to make sure I keep up with the Better Than The Book live practice too) And overall I think it was a great month for goal accomplishments! 1) is done with the note that I'm still waiting on a response for my worldwide distributor for approval. 2), 3) & 4) are done with no problems. 5) is done and I'm just waiting to hear back from people, and 6) is done with 4 new Better Than The Book demos completed + a few of the previous ones polished more. I've also kept up with my BTTB live practice though it seems it'll be a while now until that gets put to good use unfortunately. On top of that I also did a whole lot of work restoring and fixing the vintage Yamaha organ, gaining back 2/8 dead notes and all the flute ranks as well as putting together much of a makeshift service manual! Still a little bit left to go, but it's a big win so far! With that all said, let's set some new goals for October! 1) Finish the master audio for Jabun's 3rd album 2) Create at least a first draft for the cover art for Jabun's 3rd album 3) Write 3 more Better Than The Book demos or until the demos reach 39 minutes total 4) Finish first draft lyrics for 5 of the Better Than The Book demos 5) Fix the organ 100% 6) Finish the makeshift service manual for the organ 7) Fix my mpc1000 8) Update the Patreon page And of course I'd like to keep up with Better Than The Book live practice too. An ambitious set of goals for this month though with ~6 weeks off of promo work until Jabun's 2nd album is announced mid November, I should have some extra time on my hands! 1) should be doable, though is dependent on when people get back to me with the feedback, and whether any major changes are needed. 2) should hopefully be ok though is more of an extra low-priority goal just to keep things moving forward. 3) might be tricky, though we'll see how it goes. I'd like to keep the album below 40 minutes, and reckon there's space for 2 or 3 more songs there, so I'd like to get 2 more done, but a 3rd I'm not so fussed about. 4) Should be a medium challenge as I've completed 1 so far, which means 4 left to finish, but some are pretty close. 5) is very much dependent on if and when I'm able to get that final part, but fingers crossed everything goes as planned. 6) should be doable as the main technical drawings are done, it's mainly title, contents and descriptions to do. 7) seemed like a good idea while I'm in a fixing things mood. Nothings too wrong with it, but after many years of use a few of the buttons are sticking and need replacing. Should be a simple fix to make the workflow a lot less frustrating than it has been in the past few months! Finally 8) should be just a day's work. It's just some minor updates for when the full Jabun discography is available on Patreon next Wednesday. I still intend to do a proper relaunch with a new video in the near future, but it can wait until next year I think. Lots to do and I want to try and keep busy while I'm trapped in lockdown for the foreseeable future, so hopefully it'll be an admin/promo-lite and productive month of maintenance and creativity! Sounds good to me, wish me luck and all the best with your own goals! That about wraps things up for this blog post! More $1 rewards to come next week so I'll be reporting on that at the very least, and hopefully there'll be some more repair and writing related updates to share as well. Still waiting on some other exciting news to report in the pipeline too so hopefully that'll be out at some point next month too. Until the next one I hope you have a great start to October, keep warm, stay safe and sensible, enjoy the music, and thanks as always for supporting Jabun, Better Than The Book, JabunAudio and my various projects! Take care!
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