A mixed update: Better Than The Book's debut gig on April 11th has been indefinitely postponed due to COVID19, a full LIVE & LOUD play-through video of "And I Fear" + $5 early access Patreon rewards to 3 exclusive bonus tracks to be released in April!

Hi everyone and hope you're staying safe and healthy in these rapidly changing and uncertain times. It's been a mixed week here at JabunAudio as you'll find out in a moment, with much to celebrate and some things to be disappointing about too. On the bright side of smaller updates, I've been back to my usual Jabun experimental music making which has been incredibly fun and exciting this week pushing my limits and the current folder of demos to over 62 minutes in total now! Still many more ideas I'd like to explore before settling down to properly record and mix an album (or more), but it's a refreshing time to make music at the moment.

The rest of my week has been dedicated to almost constant social media work with various announcements and updates to give, but I think things will be slowing down soon (out of my control) which is good for my mental health at least (I think). I think I need a break from the current world... it's dire out there (and looking through the window of social media / the news / internet...). Onto the main news for this week, let's get the not so fun stuff out of the way before getting into the better updates. Here we go!

First of all this week, it is with mixed emotions that I must report less than a week after I excitedly announced it, that Better Than The Book's debut gig on April 11th in Haywards Heath (Sussex, UK) has been indefinitely postponed by the event organisers due to COVID19 concerns.

Given the current times, I fully support their decision for the safety and comfort of the attendees, staff and entertainers for the evening, though of course it saddens me that it'll be longer until we can hit the stage.

I'll be sure to share updates as and when I receive them and hopefully we'll be able to make the future rescheduled date when it comes around. Keep up to date on the events page for the time being:

https://www.facebook.com/events/892633854540874/  

And until then and always, stay safe, be kind to each other, and keep on skankin'! 

Next this week, another LIVE & LOUD full song play-through video to share with you today from Better Than The Book's first full band rehearsal back in December! This time we're moving onto the Hopes and Dreams album for "And I Fear" and as with the last track, this would have been literally the 2nd time we'd have played this together (the first being a few minutes before). Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8OgLGLfms0
​
Line-up:
Nick Standing: Composer, guitar + lead vocals
Eamon Standing: Harmonica + backing vocals
Sam Brown: Bass + backing vocals
Andy Forman: Drums

"And I Fear" and the rest of the Hopes and Dreams album are available on all major digital distributors as well as the Better Than The Book Bandcamp page:

https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/

Or of course you can pick them up if you haven't already when you become a supporter on Patreon, complete with the full Better Than The Book discography and more when you sign up! With the project going live (though with the current state of things it could be a while), we could use all the support we can get to push it as far as possible, and another set of $5 early access rewards was just posted on Monday too (more on that in a moment) so come join the community:

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Just one more of these videos to come next week before we move onto something different! Subscribe to the BTTB YouTube channel to get them fresh off the press, and I'll see you next week for another one! 

Finally this week, some early access $5 Patreon rewards have just been sent out and an updated rewards schedule for March / April / May has been made! You may be thinking, wait... it's not the final Wednesday of the month and indeed you're right, but it's time once again to mix up the Patreon rewards schedule for some new music which means the $5 & $10 patrons have just been granted extra early access to not 1, not 2, but 3 Patreon exclusive bonus tracks! 

Become a $5+ patron for instant access to all those tracks on top of all historic rewards for your tier:
Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding
Get these rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/34612358

I'll not be saying what the tracks are here yet (that's for the $5+ patrons to know), but with a new batch of tracks completed comes a diversion from the usual first and last Wednesday of the month Patreon reward schedule, so here's an update on what's to come over the next few months!

Firstly with this new $5 reward out which covers March and April's rewards there will be no new $5 rewards in April, only new $1 and $10 rewards as follows.

First Wednesday of April:
$1 patrons will receive the 1st of the Better Than The Book bonus tracks
$10 patrons will receive another demo & article from the upcoming Jabun album (delayed March reward)

Friday April 24th:
$1 patrons will receive the 2nd of the Better Than The Book bonus tracks + another bonus track (early May reward)
$10 patrons will receive another demo & article from the upcoming Jabun album (early April reward)

There will also be no extra $1 reward in May since it was given at the end of April.

You may be wondering why April 24th, and that's because the reason for these bonus tracks is that it's my 30th birthday! They're nothing too special (or extra special depending on how you view it) but all 3 tracks will be exclusive downloads only for patrons (though they will be available for streaming on YouTube as well)! I hope you enjoy something slightly different and fun to start my 3rd decade of living and look forward to seeing what I'll create in the next decade to come!

With that schedule lined up, it should be back to the usual schedule and the Jabun back catalogue for the end of May with $5 & $10 rewards on May 27th and $1 rewards on June 3rd. There are still however 2 new and bonus pieces of music currently in the works with the aim of releasing this summer, so I'll keep you updated on any changes to the schedule! It's certainly set to be an exciting few months!

Become a $5+ patron to be among the first to listen to these 3 new bonus tracks and grab all previous rewards for your tier when you sign up including the full Better Than The Book discography!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

And that about wraps things up for this week's news. Crazy times around the world at the moment so please do take care of one another and try to keep busy with fun things. I'm not sure what the future holds at the moment, but I'll be continuing to make music and provide services as JabunAudio for as long as I can (though there will be some Easter downtime as usual). Next week I think will be a very different week to this one, though you can be sure there'll be the final BTTB live video (for the moment) to share at least! Until then, I hope you have as good a week as you can, stay safe and healthy, and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Better Than The Book, Jabun and my various projects. Keep calm and take care!