It's been a busy week doing some final prep for this weekend (more on that later) and working on promotional things. Not a lot to report, but still some things I'd like to share. Lets get right to it!

​Firstly, it's less than 3 days until the London to Brighton 54 mile Bike Ride, which I'll be cycling this year in order to raise money for the British Heart Foundation. Legs are toned, carbs have been eaten, and after an intense early day of cycling in the pouring rain on Sunday, I'm feeling just about ready to tackle the challenge! It's gonna be tough, but it's all for a good cause! Speaking of which, there's still some time left to donate if you can and the cause could still do with your generosity. Since last week's announcement, people have raised £30 of my £100 goal! Thanks so much to everyone who's helped so far, and lets work hard to get some more pennies in the bucket for Sunday! You can make a donation on the web via the following link: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/NickStanding Thanks as always for the support, I'll be warming up my muscles for Sunday!

Next on this week's news, Bob Axell has finally been added to the JabunAudio Partners List, and it's been well overdue! I've known Bob since 2013 when we worked on our nu metal collaboration "Cyberdevil's Back" after meeting through Newgrounds, and it's been a trilling collaborative ride ever since! This independent lyricist, rapper and writer, carries a positive attitude and an infectious passion for all things creative.​ Leaving civilized life to traverse the northern ​​​wilds of Sweden every summer, Bob spends his time writing, rhyming, and designing websites, occasionally delving into photography, animation, and film as well. ​​With an affinity for nature and food, and a yearning to change the world, he strives to be acclaimed as both an artist and author. Our most recent collaboration was “Head Above Water” from the 2016 Better Than The Book album “Two Years On”, and I highly recommend you check him out on his official website, personal blog and lyrical service. Hope to be collaborating with you soon Bob, and for a dose of Nostalgia and nu metal, have a listen to our first track together:
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There's not actually a lot left to report this week. Better Than The Book has a new streaming location at HearThis if you're interested, but other than that, it's been pretty quiet or busy with other maintenance / background things.  There'll be no update next week (though I may make a small Facebook post) either becaaaause... I'm going to NORWAY! It'll be my first holiday abroad since I started JabunAudio so I'm very much looking forward to it! Not only that, but as if my legs haven't taken enough punishment already this month, I'll be going on an expedition with a huge chunk of my family to climb the tallest mountain in Northern Europe! Should be fun, and I've no idea what to expect, but I'll be back at the end of the month to report!

That's it for this week. Hope you all have a good time until we next meet, and please if you can, head over to the British Heart Foundation to show your generosity. See y'all in two week, hope you have a good one, and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio. Take care!

It's been a fair few weeks since the last JabunAudio update and a splendid few weeks it has been! Briefly recapping the Facebook mini-update, the beginning of the first week was mainly spent ill and dosed up on honey&lemon and paracetamol, while the 2nd half of that week was spent learning some new skills and completing a lecture course on modern drum production. Exciting and inspirational times! After that I had a wonderful week up in Manchester mainly chilling and seeing the sites again for my wonderful girlfriend Eva's Birthday, before coming back down to Sussex for an intense week of catching up, cycling (more on that later) and pulling ALL the stops out to promote both JabunAudio and BTTB. Some exciting news to get through so lets get started!

First on the list this week, Better Than The Book and Jabun were featured in a Web Magazine article, given a 5 star review and a "HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ARTIST" recommendation! Super exciting times! The article is titled "The Best Adventures of Musicians" for which lots of bands and artists were interviewed on the topic. It's an honour to be selected for the article and be able to share my stories. If you're interested in reading the article yourself, feel free to head over to BESTOF.MUSICSOUND.ROCKS. Jabun is the first entry after the intro, so you should have no trouble finding it. Enjoy!

And while we're on the topic of Better Than The Book, this week I finally got round to giving BTTB its own SoundCloud Profile. Lots of great and positive comments about the music have been coming through with over 100 plays in just the first 24 hours (from an initially zero followers profile). It's amazing to be compared to the tunes of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and other bands I've grown up with and love. I really hope that the new marketing tactics I've been implementing will allow more people to listen to and enjoy BTTB as much as I've enjoyed creating it. As usual feel free to follow, share, like comment and spread the word, and I hope you enjoy listening.

Next this week, while I was away in Manchester I got a lovely little surprise message from Vlad of World Beyond saying that one of the pieces we worked on together "Whatever We Were Before" (for which I played Cello) was featured in an animated credits sequence, so as soon as I got back, I cued up the video to watch and was amazed at the animation craftsmanship! Again, a real honour to be part of these projects! Check out Vlad's own World Beyond Blog Entry on the topic and I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did. Check it out below:  
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Back to Manchester and my holiday for a second, I had a wonderful and mind-blowing late birthday present from my lovely girlfriend Eva which I just had to share on this weeks blog! A lot of you who know me personally and/or follow my personal Twitter, YouTube or Facebook will know my distinguished profile picture/avatar: The magnificently drawn, Sir Pigeon. Remember my previous birthday where Eva organised lots of my online friends to draw their very own portraits of me and/or Sir Pigeon? That was an amazing present! Well this year Eva upped her game even more and found a company which turns drawings into plushies! My mind was blown when I unwrapped this: The magnificently drawn, Sir Pigeon: NOW IN 3D!!! The attention to detail is incredible, from the monocle and waistcoat, to the intentionally wavy stitching to emulate my sub-par penciling skills! I love it so much and I had no idea about it at all! Thanks so much Eva, you're amazing and I love you soo much! 

Finally this week in terms of news, I've another off topic announcement which is related to charity work! A lot of people who know me well know I enjoy a good cycle ride, and so in less than 2 weeks time (June 19th to be exact), I'll be cycling 54 miles in the London to Brighton Bike Ride to raise money for the British Heart Foundation. This isn't the first long ride I've undertaken for charity, as back in 2010 I cycled from London to Paris over 5 days for the Help The Heroes charity (independently organised). Needless to say though, it's been a while and it's not going to be easy. Last weekend I practiced with the 40 mile Burgess Hill Annual bike ride, which was tough (and hilly) but reasonable. Hoping to get some more training in before the big day too. Anyways it's all for a good cause and if you'd like to share your spare change I have a fundraising page set up for donations. Check it out here. Wish me and the team luck and thanks so much for the support :D

That's all there is for this week. It's been rather hectic recently, but I hope to be back to exciting normality soon and busting out some new music. Some interesting stuff lined up for next week hopefully so we'll see how it goes. Until next week I hope you enjoy yourselves and any good weather you're given and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my audio projects. Take care!

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