Some interesting news indeed this week, not much but big things!

Firstly, due to circumstances outside of my control, the 6 track EP "From The Ground Up" which I produced for Lights, Camera, Attraction! (a pop punk band for which I used to play bass) is no longer available for purchase from Bandcamp. After some swift negotiating however, I have been given permission to distribute the EP freely and non-commercially, so you may now download it free of charge from all of the streaming sources on the web. Apologies to people who have already purchased the EP from Bandcamp. In honesty, I'm not too thrilled about the turn of events either, but I'd like people to be able to listen and download the tracks even if they aren't commercially available anymore. If you've not yet heard the From The Ground Up EP, you can listen via the SoundCloud player below. I hope you enjoy it.

>>> DOWNLOAD THE FULL EP HERE <<<

Back to Better Than The Book, it's been an exciting and progress filled week in the writing department, with a little extra recording done too. I added some acoustic guitars and finished drums for one of last weeks tracks which I think is sounding great at the moment! The main news for this week however was for a surprise that it sounds about time to reveal (but it's not the big surprise (incase you were wondering ;P)).

Long story short: I've had a song idea for well over a year now, which has been under the working title "HiphopPunk" since its conception as an MPC groove shortly after the One Small Step EP. Well! Waaay back when I first started working with Bob Axell AKA Cyberdevil in late 2013, I showed him this short groove and received a great response. Now after almost 2 years, HiphopPunk has been rewritten as a fully fledged Better Than The Book track, and Bob Axell will be lending his vocals for a guest rap verse for it! The idea has been in planning since before I started work on the album, but this week, after finishing a rough instrumental a few weeks back, I received the first draft of Bob's verse and it is GLORIOUS! A couple of tweaks to do and I've still some writing on my end to do too, but I think this is going to be one kickass and contrasting track in the album. Really looking forward to scratching samples and Hiphopping for this! Here's the MPC groove which got it all kicked off from waaaay back when:

Anyway, that's all I'll be saying for this week, but there's been some other things going on this week which are pointing towards a VERY exciting end to June / start to July too! I'll expand on that next week ;P Until then, thanks for supporting JabunAudio and take care!

The news post is a little early this week as Saturday looks to be a little busy. Not a lot to share, but lets get started.

Firstly, a couple of updates on the Better Than The Book Album. I recorded Bass and Electric Guitars for 2 more tracks this week, which brings the total to 8/9 tracks recorded for. I still need to sort drums for those tracks though and there's a little acoustic guitar passage to record in one of them too, but it's progressing well! No further progress on lyrics unfortunately, but 5 tracks are ready for vocal recording, and I've plenty of other stuff to do before lyrics become urgent. We shall see how things go! 

Next, "Mountains of Gold" by World Beyond, for which I'm playing guitar, was featured in another mini-documentary video. You can check it out below if you wish. It's got an eagle statue, so that's always cool :D

That's about all I can share for this week. There is some other stuff in the works, but I'll hold my tongue for the moment. Next week looks to be busyish, but we shall see! Perhaps some vocal recording if things go well? Anyways, take care and as usual, thanks for supporting JabunAudio. See you next week!

Strange but busy week these past few days... and my luck could still do with a little improvement.

The new Better Than The Book Album is progressing well, though slower than hoped due to some bad luck as well as poor decision making on my part DX On the plus side, I learn a few valuable lessons though:

1. Spilling tea on your laptop is ill advised and will kill a few hours cleaning it up...
   
2. Don't count on not having hay-fever for a few weeks meaning it won't come back on vocal recording day...
3. If you're happy with a 3 year old performance, don't try to recreate it... you'll waste a day being frustrated and not managing to capture the original vibe. If it sounds good and reasonable, leave it!

So updates on progress: A step backwards in lyrical progress as I've changed my mind about one of the songs. Stepping forward 6/9 of the songs have guitars and bass recorded, with 5 of those having their drums sorted too. Hope to get started on vocals for some of the more complete songs soon!

In other news, the "From The Ground Up" EP by Lights, Camera, Attraction! is no longer available for purchase on decision of the band, and I've got to sort out stuff with that... a possible alternative is that I'll be able to give it out for free later though which is ok. Looking forward to getting the admin all done and sorted soon. Not particularly thrilled...

That's everything for this week. Hope to get more recorded next week. Until then, take care and  thanks for supporting JabunAudio and Better Than The Book.

After an awesome weekend away filled with much inspiration, fun and writing lyrics on the train, I was back to the studio this week straight into recording the new Better Than The Book Album! Lots of updates to give this morning before I get back to it for the rest of the day! Much to tell :D

Firstly a little update on writing progress. Currently 7/9 of the songs are lyrically finished, with one only needing a verse and a half, and the other just 2 verses left (+ ???). Not much left to do, and I can start the instrumentals in the mean time, but I should get onto that soon. Still a lot of the instrumental stuff to polish too, but the rough gist of things is done. It's going well.

Onto this week's RECORDING PROGRESS: Guitars, Bass and Drums have been tracked for 4/9 tracks so far (minus a guitar solo) + some of the little extra things like keys etc... I'll either go onto record vocals for those tracks next, or I'll go for the next track of instrumental work. We shall see! When the recording stage is finished very much depends on when I finish off the lyrics, but I think it's well on target for a release before the end of the year. Gotta keep up the pace!

Finally! Since recording has started, it feels like a good time to make an album title announcement! Funny story, right after I made the announcement that I'd be announcing the album title today, I had a chat with my brother and mentioned the name to him. His reply was; "Oh, I thought it was called ... ", and I was like: "Whoa! That's so much better!", to which he replied "Thought it was obvious...". I'm glad I had that talk before today. Cheers Bro! XD

SO!!! The 2nd Better Than The Book Album will not be named after track 3 as previously planned, and will be titled instead after one of the first lyrics I can up with for it, which sums up what the album is all about:

Better Than The Book - "Two Years On"

It follows from the "One Small Step EP" too :D

That's it for this week. I was debating announcing a partial track list too, though I'll save it for another time ;P. Back to recording for the rest of the working day! I wonder what fruit will be harvested in this session :D

Hope you're all stoked for the new album and as always thank you for supporting my projects and JabunAudio. Until next Saturday, take care :D