Hi everyone and hope you're having a great week so far! Boy has it been a busy one here at JabunAudio and some incredible news to share with you in today's blog post! Before that, some quick updates: I'm been busy sorting out admin work for Jabun's upcoming 3rd album (which will be coming Spring 2021) and I'm super happy to announce that it's just been approved for worldwide distribution so the ball is finally rolling and clock ticking until the concrete release date! I still need to sort out the associated Patreon rewards and the Bandcamp page, but at least I know it'll be arriving to iTunes, Spotify, etc... on the desired date without any problems! With much of my to-do list complete earlier this week, I've also been busy writing more lyrics and recording demos for the upcoming next Better Than The Book album as well, which is going VERY well and ahead of schedule. Just one more first draft lyric sheet to finish off and a few rough horn parts to arrange, then it'll be time to go through these demos with a fine comb before recording everything for real! Exciting times ahead! Anyways, with those little updates all said, it's time to get onto the main news for this week and let's start with a HUGE one: Better Than The Book's first compilation album feature to save a beloved ska radio show!

Those of you who've been following Better Than The Book over the past few years have certainly heard of the amazing Ska Show with Beefy, based in Melbourne and proudly the 2nd most listened to Ska music podcast in the world! The show has played a tonne of Better Than The Book since my debut on there in 2019, but with all that's happened over the past year and finances running low, the future of the show is looking unfortunately uncertain...

But when things are looking dire, people come together, and so Beefy along with 60 ska/skapunk bands/artists from around the world (including myself) have put our heads and hearts together to release a 60 track fundraising compilation album to keep the show on the air! There'll even be one BTTB track on there! Which one? You'll have to wait and see! Pre-orders for the album are now open and the album releases this Saturday 30th January! Check it out on Bandcamp below, along the promotional art:

https://theskashowwithbeefy.bandcamp.com/releases

It's been an absolute honour to be part of this fundraising compilation, and if you're a lover of ska music and/or the show, then that's 60 tracks from around the world for as little as 12 Australian Dollars (not even £7), with the option to donate more if you wish. Let's keep the skanking going and save this great show and I'll be back next week when it's finally out!

Next on this week's blog post, another quick bit of cool news to share with you as my most recent collaborative single with Cyberdevil (as Jabun) "Away Fear" was featured in this week's The Tank Tribune's Tribune Phonograph playlist Vol. 28 on Newgrounds.com! Thanks so much for sharing even more of our music, and check out the full playlist below:

https://www.newgrounds.com/playlists/view/7a1628488d0ca66a3ea72f38928041d9

And read The Tank Tribune No. 28 below too:
https://thetanktribune.newgrounds.com/news/post/1139715

Finally for this week's news, it's the last Wednesday of the month which means it's time for some $5 and $10 Patreon rewards, and with last year's Jabun album out to the world (completing the current Jabun discography), it's time to go waaay back and explore some of my classic tracks as plain old Nick Standing!

This month it's my very first acoustic solo track: "Sonnet For A Spider Girl"! Released on Halloween 2012 (before even the very first Jabun track but not before the first Better Than The Book demo), this song is a love ballad for my greatest childhood fear! The lyrics are pretty self explanatory and as expected my production has improved a tonne since this was released (unlike my drawing or handwriting) so the mixing/mastering isn't to today's standard, but it's a trip down memory lane which always brings a smile to me, and I hope it does to you too! If you're an arachnophobic, I hope this changes your mind even if just a little! Listen to Sonnet For A Spider Girl on Bandcamp:

​https://nickstanding.bandcamp.com/track/sonnet-for-a-spider-girl

For the $10+ patrons, you've also got an exclusive sneak peek at this year's upcoming 3rd Jabun album to look forward to (set to release in spring) with a cover artwork reveal and story as well as a title reveal! 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 newly updated REWARD ARCHIVE it's never been easier to catch up with all those posts and music downloads you've missed too! I hope you enjoy them!

Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding
Discover the Reward Archive: https://www.patreon.com/posts/44575319

That's it for this month's rewards and Sonnet For A Spider Girl will be out for the $1+ patrons next Wednesday! Next month we'll be continuing with the Nick Standing song back catalogue with 2 shorter tracks, one of which I've already mentioned here and on Patreon, but until then, I hope you enjoy some old music from plain old Nick Standing!

And that about wraps things up for this blog post! Next time I'll be posting up the released link for the Save The Ska Show fundraising compilation album, as well as the $1+ Patreon rewards, and there'll be the monthly reflections and goals to go through as well at the very least! Until then, I hope you enjoy all the music, thanks for reading and as always thanks for supporting JabunAudio, Better Than The Book, Jabun, and my various projects and the things associated with them however you can; it really means a lot! Let's save this ska show and I look forward to sharing more news with you next week! All the best until then, and take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great month so far! Time's flying and it's been a medium-busy week over here sorting more admin stuff for Jabun's upcoming 3rd album, though with the slightly lighter schedule I've had some time to get back to Better Than The Book writing too which has been nice! Not a whole lot to report this week, but there's another nice press feature to share from Jabun so let's celebrate that!

It's always fun to get a get a feature, and on Monday Jabun's  "Home" (the 2014 single version) was featured in this week's @TheTankTribune's Tribune Phonograph playlist Vol. 27 on Newgrounds.com! Thanks so much to The Tank Tribune for sharing the music, and check out the full playlist below:

https://www.newgrounds.com/playlists/view/d3ea1a6bcf44529373a64faf187c6aa3

And read The Tank Tribune No. 27 below too:

https://thetanktribune.newgrounds.com/news/post/1138365

That really about wraps things up for this week! I'll be back next time to share some more Patreon rewards at the very least, and maybe some more exciting news will come to fruition in the mean time too! Until then, I hope you have a great few days ahead and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my various projects however you can! All the best and take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great week so far. It's been an intensely busy one here at JabunAudio, mostly sorting out and proof-listening to all the uploads for Jabun's upcoming 3rd album (all done now), as well as doing a variety of admin tasks too. Not much actual music making this week, but I did receive my new Korg Volca Modular synth in the post which has been intensely fun! A little more news to share with you this week as you can tell by the title but let's start with a little update on the new synth!

As many of you know I've been using the Korg Volca Keys for years, most notably in tracks such as Better Than The Book's Meteor Shower, or Jabun's Anxiety, and after so many years working with it, it's been amazing to add another Volca, the Volca Modular to my synth armoury! Based on the Buchla "west-coast" method of synthesis, it's taken a little while to get my head around compared to my experience with the more common "east-coast" style synths and with the highly flexible patch-ability of it, it's been hours of great fun exploring new synthesis methods and sounds over the past week (so much so that I'm almost through my 2nd set of batteries for it already; gotta pick up some more rechargeables). While I originally intended to use it for making light ambient soundscapes, I've actually found it easier for making intense and gritty sounds unlike anything I've been able to do up until now instead, a testament to the versatility of the unit despite its compact design. For those interested in something alien, but fun and a great bang for it's buck, I'd highly recommend one, with the warning that things might not always go how you expect them to when working with it (at least that's what I've found). Looking forward to using it in a new track soon(ish)!

Interestingly, on my first day playing with it though, I discovered a strange behaviour which seemed unintentional. After reporting it to Korg tech support, they've managed to reproduce my result on their end and confirmed that I've indeed found a bug (likely in the firmware) and so the information has been passed onto the Korg development team in Japan, which if you ask me is pretty darn cool! Hopefully there'll be a firmware update shortly but in any case I'll be having a tonne of fun with the synth in the meantime while a solution is found! Seems I've had a knack for finding bugs recently! I wonder if I'll end up with 2 of these as well!

Onto other updates for this week, some amazing news to share as Jabun's 15-4-20 album received a Front Page Award on Newgrounds.com, gathering over 2000 listens in the week since its upload! Thanks so much for the love folks, I think that's a record for me, and check out 15-4-20 on Newgrounds below:

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/993867

Hope you enjoy the music, and if you like it, pick up a copy on Bandcamp below:

https://jabun.bandcamp.com/album/15-4-20

Or grab it with the entire Jabun and Better Than The Book discographies + all past rewards for your tier when you become a supporter on Patreon for as little as $1 a month! More music to come soon!

Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding
See the past rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/44575319

That about wraps things up for this week! I've got a tonne of spreadsheets etc... to sort for Jabun's 3rd album release so it's looking to be an admin heavy week for me, though hopefully I'll have some time for more writing / jamming and there is another SUPER exciting project coming up which I should be revealing at the start of next month if all goes to plan! Until the next one (which may be next week or not, though there'll certainly be one on the 28th), I hope you have a great January to come and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my various projects in all the ways you can. Stay safe, take care, and all the best!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great start to 2021 so far (despite the UK being back on national lockdown...). It's been a busy week here getting back into the swing of things, setting up Patreon reward posts for the next few months as well as promoting the newly updated REWARD ARCHIVE (more on that in a moment), updating all the websites with the 2021 dates as well as some more admin, maintenance type work. Some exciting things to look forward to though, as following last week's ponderings for new gear, I've treated myself to a new synth (at a great price too): a Korg Volca Modular! Feel free to Google it if you're interested and hopefully it'll arrive by the time I post this, but I'm certainly excited to start learning the (rather alien to me) Buchla West Coast method of synthesis! No doubt this'll be a source of inspiration for new Jabun material to come! Onto the main news, it's going to be a long post this week with some new music uploads to share as well as lots of reflecting on monthly and yearly goals as has become tradition. Let's start with the final upload for Jabun's 15-4-20 album: the full album stream!

The final (for now) weekly new music upload is here and Jabun's full 15-4-20 album is now available for streaming on YouTube and Newgrounds! Check out and relax to the full 15-4-20 album below:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoNxP6aKAaE
Newgrounds: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/993867

Or check out the playlisted songs on the platform or your choice:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6tKVPNjy1_DhYHr_G4zBVb0B4U7XvXCr

Newgrounds: https://www.newgrounds.com/playlists/view/afd0c486bbd149e1ba77435e0d5ee8ae

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/04UWDI1dPv1eVO674eZy1w

And if you like what you hear, pick up the 15-4-20 album on bandcamp:

https://jabun.bandcamp.com/album/15-4-20

Or grab it with the entire Jabun and Better Than The Book discographies + all past rewards for your tier when you become a supporter on Patreon for as little as $1 a month! More music to come soon! Hope to see you there!
​
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding
See the past rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/44575319

And that wraps up the promo period and uploads for Jabun's 15-4-20 album! I hope you enjoy these ambient soundscapes for years to come and I'll be back shortly with the next batch of Jabun tracks in the spring! More details to come soon!

Speaking of Patreon I have a HUGE update to share with you this week as on January 1st I announced the second set of Patreon reward archive posts for all rewards covering from 4th October 2018 (when I started on Patreon) to 1st January 2021 for the convenience of Patreon supporters and new patrons!

These months' rewards cover the full discographies (as of 1st January 2021) for my ska punk / pop punk project Better Than The Book and electronic / cinematic / ambient project Jabun, as well as a few bonus tracks and covers, and the REWARD ARCHIVE is here for your convenience so you can pick up all these rewards (Mp3s, WAVs, artwork and more depending on your tier) in one place when you sign up. No need to search through all the posts manually: Just click the link to the REWARD ARCHIVE below (which will be pinned to the top of your feed when you sign up), select the archive for your tier, dig in and enjoy the music! Hope to see you in the comments! 

Become a patron for as little as $1 a month to access the REWARD ARCHIVE below and all new music as it's released:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/44580119/

And find out more and become a patron below:

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Music rewards include: 

Better Than The Book's full discography (as of 1st January 2021):

• One Small Step EP
• Heartbeats [The Knife] + GG [Good Game]
• Meteor Shower 2017 demo, MLGG + Stars Racing {Patreon exclusive}
• Two Years On album
• Two Years On [Instrumentals] album
• A selection of pre-BTTB demos {Patreon exclusive}
• Hopes and Dreams album + press photos, lyric sheets, and a behind the scenes studio photo and story
• Get A Haircut [Radio Edit] {Patreon exclusive}
• Hopes and Dreams [Radio Edit] {Patreon exclusive}
• Mark Your Wall & The Bigger Call, Maybe... {Patreon exclusive}
• Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] album

Jabun's full discography (as of 1st January 2021):

• Bergamot
• Diamond Eyes - Nine Fifteen Ft. Jess (Jabun Remix)
• 3rd September 1939
• Apollo
• Clare Jeffrey - 60 Days [Jabun Orchestral Mix]
• Distance
• Home
• Verlies Projekt - (Feels Like) Heaven [Jabun Hardcore Remix]
• The Ocean Above + Noir
• Jabun [Alternate Reality] - Warrior (Kesha METAL Cover) {Patreon exclusive}
• Daydream album
• 15-4-20 album

As well as:

• Erase Stuff (Mashup) {Patreon exclusive}
• Nick Standing - Nothing Else Matters (Metallica cover) {Patreon exclusive}

For those of you on the $10+ DEMOlition Pigeon tier, you'll also have access to all the work in progress, demos and behind the scenes monthly articles too including:

• A sneak peek at Better Than The Book's "(The Travelling To See Eva Song)"
• Journey into Better Than The Book's "Get A Haircut"
• Better Than The Book - One Small Step's artwork story + a new mix
• A deep dive into Better Than The Book's "Meteor Shower"
• More Better Than The Book artwork stories + another first(ish) draft mix from the new album
• Work in progress artwork for Better Than The Book's upcoming Hopes and Dreams album + a demo master for track 06 "Get A Haircut"
• An in depth look into the creation of Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album cover (+ demo alternatives)
• A behinds the scenes look into Better Than The Book's "The Hardest Part"
• A behinds the scenes look into Better Than The Book's "Artificial Ignorance"
• A behinds the scenes look into Better Than The Book's "And I Fear"
• A behinds the scenes look into Better Than The Book's "Brighton"
• A behinds the scenes look into Better Than The Book's "GG"
• A behinds the scenes look into Better Than The Book's "You've Got A Lot to Say"
• A behinds the scenes look into Better Than The Book's "Hopes and Dreams"
• 10 minutes of exclusive demos for upcoming Jabun tracks
• Another behind the scenes look at an exclusive Jabun demo
• Another behind the scenes look at an exclusive Jabun demo
• Another behind the scenes look at an exclusive Jabun demo
• Another behind the scenes look at an exclusive Jabun demo
• Another behind the scenes look at an exclusive Jabun demo
• A look into the artwork for the 2nd Jabun album
• A sneak peek demo at an upcoming cover song
• A behind the scenes breakdown of Jabun [Alternate Reality]'s Kesha Warrior metal cover
• An exclusive sneak peek at next year's 3rd Jabun album, demo + photo
• Another sneak peek demo from next year's 3rd Jabun album
• An exclusive first sneak peek demo from Better Than The Book's next album

More Better Than The Book will be coming soon(ish) as I'm busy writing the project's 3rd album, but the next few months will be focused on my "other" music as plain old Nick Standing, as well as Jabun's upcoming 3rd album which is due for release spring 2021! Until the next post and then, thanks so much for supporting Better Than The Book, Jabun and my various music projects on Patreon, and I hope you enjoy the music (and articles) above and to come!

Finally this week, it's time for some reflections on December and 2020 as a whole and to set some new goals for January and 2021. I think it goes without saying by this point that 2020 was not the year we all expected it to be, and with that came much disappointment, but let's look back at the goals I set myself at the start of last year and see how I did. Here's what was set:

1) Finish and release that cover song!
2) Finish or at least be in the final stages before releasing the 2nd Jabun album
3) Release the 3 mystery bonus projects I plan to release!
4) Play my first full band gig as Better Than The Book
5) Start work on a new BTTB EP/album?
6) Make a new and updated Patreon intro video
7) Invest in some new studio equipment and/or instruments      
8) Keep doing what I do, and keep getting better at it! 
9) Make 2020 the best financial year for JabunAudio yet!

Now, ya' know, considering the unexpected circumstances, I don't think things went that badly at all! Of course the main disappointment was not being able to play my first gig (or any gigs) as Better Than The Book, especially after all the hard work and investments at the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020, though I've been sure to keep up my practice throughout last year and apart from getting back in sync and practiced with the guys again, I'm feeling mostly ready for it when the time comes! Musically it's been a very successful and productive year 1) was revealed as Jabun [Alternate Reality]'s debut track Warrior (Ke$ha Metal cover), 2) although not the album I'd planned to release at the time was Jabun's 15-4-20, though my 3rd album as Jabun is already complete and ready for release in the spring (apart from admin work) and I'm STILL sitting on an additional 70+ minutes of demos as well! 3) Turned out to be the 3 silly mash-ups around April Fools and my 30th birthday "Mark Your Wall", "The Bigger Call, Maybe..." and "Erase Stuff", as well as Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] bonus album, and speaking of 5), apart from some lyric sheets to finish and of course properly recording and producing it all, I've got a decent amount of material for the next BTTB album on the back-burner for working on throughout 2021 as well! One thing I really didn't get around to was making an new Patreon intro video. By the time I had some free time (which wasn't a lot), it felt like it'd be irrelevant again, and so I figured I'd delay it until it felt right to do another, and just concentrate on actually making music for the moment. And speaking of making music, although not on the goals list or even my radar at the time, Cyberdevil's INK 19 mixtape, our collaboration "Away Fear", and my Metallica "Nothing Else Matters" cover for my Dad's 60th birthday were more grand additions to the music of 2020! Onto 7), not only did I get a cabinet for my at the time new Orange amp, but I also invested in the lovely Yamaha YC25D vintage combo organ (something I've wanted for decades) AND fixed it up to 100% working order again (not to mention making my own service manual and finally repairing my Moog too). I think 8) goes without saying as accomplished and my longest interview to date in October on Newgrounds is a good illustration of that. Finally although it could have been a complete disaster, 2020 understandably wasn't the best year financially for JabunAudio, but it wasn't the worst either (partially thanks to the SEISS grants from the government which have helped keep me afloat). It's been a bumpy ride for sure, but things are going better than expected given the circumstances. Overall, while 2020 was an awful year for socialising and gigging, the isolation made for some good productive time and inspiration and I'm sure there'll be plenty more music to show for it (not just from me).

With those reflections done, let's set some goals for 2021! With all the uncertainty of the future, these'll be tentative, but I'll see how I get on:

1) Keep doing what I do, and keep getting better at it!
2) Make 2021 the best financial year for JabunAudio yet! (I can only try)
3) Release Jabun's 3rd album
4) Finish writing and start recording Better Than The Book's next album
5) Play the first BTTB live gig (still hoping)
6) Release or at least finish recording another (4th) Jabun album?

With the Korg Volca Modular on the way, it'd be nice to invest in more gear, but there's no quota to meet for a 2021 goal and I've probably treated myself enough already. Goals 1) and 2) will always be so and I hope at the very least I'll still be able to do this in a year's time. Goal 3) is pretty much in the bag as everything just needs to be uploaded and the admin sorted ready for launch and promo. 5) I'd really like to do, though it's not really up to me anymore... we'll see how it goals. 4) I'm not even if I started now I'd be able to get the album out this year (Maybe if I'm extra inspired with the final bits of writing), though I don't want to rush it either, but I'd at least like to be well on the way recording-wise before 2021 is out. 6) I think it'd very much be possible to release another Jabun album in 2021 on top of the 3rd album, and there's still a lot of (IMO) great material from the writing sessions of 2019 and 2020 I'd like to compile and release. We'll see how it all goes with Jabun and BTTB and I'm sure one of them will be close to or have already launched another album before the year is out! Wish me luck and I hope you all have great 2021s to come!

Onto reflecting on December's goals, I didn't set many for the month but here they are:

1) Release Jabun's 2nd album "15-4-20" to the world!
2) Sort the next set of Patreon Reward Archive posts which'll go live at the start of January.

And not really much to say! Jabun's 15-4-20 was released and so were the new Patreon reward archives! Done! I've already done a considerable amount of the things I'd intended to do in January 2021 (Updating the Patreon page with the new reward archives, updating the websites, finishing the 15-4-20 promo period, and sorting the next few Patreon reward posts), so the rest of my goals are mainly focused around admin on Jabun's upcoming 3rd album:

1) Sort the Bandcamp, RouteNote and streaming uploads for Jabun's 3rd album (proof listening)
2) Make an announcement video for Jabun's 3rd album
3) Make a promo schedule for Jabun's 3rd album
4) Try to finish another 3+ 1st draft lyric sheets for Better Than The Book's next album

Goals 1) - 3) are essential to keeping the next Jabun release on track, and there'll be more to do on that next month as well. Goal 4) is more causal, though I'd like to make sure I keep working at the new Better Than The Book album while I'm busy with all this admin work. I'll also be keeping up with live practice, and I've even started practicing (roughly) some of the new demos too + I need to update some of my records for upcoming royalty payments, and serial numbers when the new synth arrives etc... It's looking to be a busy month overall, though with the new lockdown and ongoing isolation fatigue, I'll be making sure to keep tabs on my own mental and physical health too and doing my best to balance the hard work and play / relaxing time. Hope it's a good month ahead and hope you all have a good month to come as well!

And that wraps up this gargantuan start of the year blog post! It's going to be busy on my end I'm sure, but I also can't wait to get patching and experimenting on the new synth when it arrives and having some fun making music in a new way! Until the next post which may or may not be next week but will certainly be on January 28th at the latest, I hope you have a great start to 2021 and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Jabun, Better Than The Book, my projects and just me, Nick Standing, especially over the past crazy year. I look forward to bringing you new music soon! Take care and all the best for 2021!