Hi everyone and hope you're having a great week so far! It's been a busy one over here at JabunAudio carrying on with more promotional prep work for the upcoming Better Than The Book - Hopes and Dreams album, and I think things are just about almost done now in terms of all the preparation for the album launch! All the videos and streaming links have been made uploaded and proofed with all the right descriptions etc..., all the Patreon reward posts for up until and including the big launch on July 19th have been written and scheduled, and I should hopefully have all the newsletters written and scheduled and social media posts drafted out by the end of the week! Horray! I've also been busy this week taking part in some exciting interviews about Better Than The Book and the upcoming Hopes and Dreams album too, so let's get to the main news this week: that!

​A coincidence of sorts considering last week's Spanish Fun Station 4 Kids news, but Better Than The Book has been featured multiple times this week for various interviews with Spanish alternative music site Breathing The Core! With less than a month to go now until the album launch on July 19th, things are certainly getting busy and exciting with these press features! The first interview was a detailed and fun one about Better Than The Book as a project, where the name comes from, its influences, stage fright and many more questions, so I hope you enjoy the read and learn something new about BTTB today! Read the full interview below:

http://www.breathingthecore.com/2019/06/interviews-better-than-book.html

After that its onto a Track By Track for the Hopes and Dreams album where I go into detail about some of the meanings, references and inspirations behind each of the 10 tracks on the upcoming album (a semi-spoiler warning here if you want to be completely fresh when listening for the first time):

http://www.breathingthecore.com/2019/06/track-by-tracks-better-than-book-hopes.html

Following up with a Behind The Artwork for the Hopes and Dreams album's cover art:

http://www.breathingthecore.com/2019/06/behind-artworks-better-than-book-hopes.html

And finishing up by sharing the band biography which appears in the press releases for the album, and was written in collaboration with PR manager for the album Meg Langley. A huge thanks to Meg for all the hard work and help getting the message out!

http://www.breathingthecore.com/2019/06/band-biographies-better-than-book.html

To top things off, Better Than The Book also now has its own dedicated section on Breathing The Core's website, as well as being added to their list of bands! That's pretty darn cool if you ask me, and feel free to catch up with all the past interviews / features on that special page below:
 
http://www.breathingthecore.com/search/label/Better%20Than%20The%20Book

A huge thanks to Breathing The Core for featuring Better Than Than The Book so many times this week and I hope you enjoy reading about the project in a whole new level of detail!

That's about it for this week's blog post! On top of that final prep work for the album release on the 19th, I've actually got another interview to get to later this week, so no doubt things'll be busy until next time with some of that, and if not, I'd like to take some leisurely time to play some double neck guitar and pursue a little bit of fun recording in the weekend if I can! There's still plenty of post-release promo work I can start on too, so definitely no shortage of work on my to do list at the moment! Until the next post though, I hope you enjoy reading all about Better Than The Book and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my various projects! Have a great week, take care and see you in the next one!

​Hi everyone and hope you're all having a great week so far! It's been a fairly busy but at the same time leisurely week over here, mainly carrying on with various preparations for the upcoming Better Than The Book - Hopes and Dreams album's release in less than a month's time (4 weeks tomorrow)! I've also started on a new leisurely recording project which will likely be out towards the final quarter of the year, and have been really getting back to into my more experimental guitar playing which has me super invigorated this week! I'm finally feeling that same pushing-my-own-limits vibe I've not felt so strongly since my late teen years which feels amazing! Looking forward to recording more guitar soon! Other than that and some video editing and post / newsletter writing, there really isn't much else to tell from my own work this week, but I do have something special to share with you today from Fun Station 4 Kids so let's get to that!

So after many years and almost 13 million views on YouTube, my very first audio post-production job, Fun Station 4 Kids' "Three Little Raptors and the Big Bad Red" has finally crossed the language barrier and received an official Spanish dub, and it sounds amazing! I wasn't involved with this version of the video at all, though the original holds very special memories for me and it's so cool to see the characters expanding into another language for non-English speakers and their children to enjoy. More dubs on the way? I've no idea as of yet, but maybe we'll see a Russian or Mandarin speaking T-Rex in the future? We'll have to wait and see! Whether you're a fluent Spanish speaker or not, I hope you enjoy "Los Tres Velocirraptores"!

And that about wraps this post up for today. I imagine this coming week will be very much similar to the last, busy but not too busy with various preperations. I can sense that calm before the storm coming again before the next single release 2 weeks tomorrow, and the subsequent album release in 4 weeks time. Hope you're as excited as I am for it and until the next post, I hope you have a great week and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my various music projects. Take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great week so far! It's been a reasonably busy one here at JabunAudio with the release of the 2nd single from the upcoming Better Than The Book - Hopes and Dreams album, "Artificial Ignorance", as well as sorting out Patreon rewards for this month and the next! On the leisurely side of things though, there's been lots of cool trailers coming out from e3 which I've been keeping an eye on, and I've also started sowing the seeds for a couple of new smallish projects for after the BTTB album release which I hope to both be out by the end of the year (we shall see how it goes)! Still busy times at the moment though so let's get onto the big news for this week, the new Better Than The Book single!

Firstly this week, I hope you're as excited as I am for some more Better Than The Book ska punk as the 2nd single from the upcoming Hopes and Dreams album, "Artificial Ignorance", was released on Friday accompanied again by an animated visualizer courtesy of the one and only Vladimir Kuznetsov of World Beyond! Many thanks Vlad! Check out the song via the video link below, and I hope you enjoy the return of horns, walking basslines, organ and skankin' guitars in "Artificial Ignorance"!

Pre-orders for the Hopes and Dreams album are open on the Better Than The Book bandcamp page, so head over to Bandcamp to pick up a download of "Artificial Ignorance", the lead single "Meteor Shower" and pre-order the Hopes and Dreams album:

https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/album/hopes-and-dreams

Onto the next piece of news, with the new single out, another set of Patreon rewards has just been released too! This month the $1+ patrons will receive an mp3 download of the new single "Artificial Ignorance", $2+ patrons will additionally receive the lossless CD quality WAV file for the track, $5+ patrons will receive the ENTIRE Hopes and Dreams album (artwork, mp3s and WAVs) right now, over a month before the public release on July 19th, as well as press photos for the album launch campaign and lyric sheets, and $10+ patrons will receive all that + an in depth look into the making of the new single "Artificial Ignorance", as well as a special thanks in the album credits for Hopes and Dreams!

Not only that, but when you sign up, you'll gain access to the entire history of rewards for your tier including the complete Better Than The Book discography (Including the One Small Step EP and Two Years On albums), last month's new single "Meteor Shower" + many Patreon exclusive bonus tracks and more! There's never been a better time to subscribe to Patreon than today! 

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

The 3rd and final single from the upcoming Hopes and Dreams album (as well as the associated set of Patreon rewards) will be coming on July 5th, 2 weeks before the full album launch on July 19th! More ska punk coming soon and I hope you enjoy the new music!

Finally this week, something a little fun! With 2 singles out now from the upcoming Hopes and Dreams album, I thought it'd be cool to get people's thoughts on the music so far and find out which of the 2 tracks they liked the best, and so I've set up a poll on the Better Than The Book Facebook page to do just that! Cast your votes below and I wonder which track, "Meteor Shower" or "Artificial Ignorance" will reign supreme:

Vote here: https://www.facebook.com/BetterThanTheBookUK/posts/2199666313482965

​And that about wraps things up for this post! I'm currently busy preparing for the next single release in just over 3 weeks time, which means sorting Patreon rewards, newsletters, press releases etc... so I imagine much of this coming week will be spent working hard on that as well as the subsequent preparations for the album release on July 19th. Busy times! Until the next post though, I hope you have a great week and enjoy the new music and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and Better Than The Book whether here on the blog or on Patreon! See you in the next one and take care!

Hi everyone and I hope you've been having a fantastic and exciting week so far! After a relaxing weekend away playing an obscene amount of video games and seeing the new Godzilla: King of the Monsters film which was phenomenal (maybe even better than Avengers: Endgame IMO), it's been back to intensely busy times making the final preparations and sorting out Patreon rewards for tomorrow's big launch of the new Better Than The Book single "Artificial Ignorance", as well as taking part in some press interviews about the upcoming album! Exciting! A few cool things + the usual beginning of the month reflections to share this time, so let's start with tomorrow's launch!

First of all this week, I hope you're as excited as I am for the latest and 2nd single from Better Than The Book's upcoming Hopes and Dreams album, and it's back to horns, organ, walking basslines and skankin' guitars for this next ska punk banger "Artificial Ignorance"! Mark your calendars for 6pm BST on Friday 7th June and join me tomorrow at the premier via the video link below. I hope you enjoy it! For all the patrons too, you'll be getting an MP3 / WAV download of the track and more depending on your subscription tier as soon as the track goes live on Friday! More details to come on Patreon tomorrow and brace yourselves for some more life lessons and ska punk fun with "Artificial Ignorance"!

The ​Hopes and Dreams album is available for pre-order on Bandcamp:
https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/album/hopes-and-dreams

But if you can't wait to hear it in its entirety, then sign up to the $5+ tier on Patreon to get the entire BTTB discography as well as the new album in full before the public release on July 19th. Enjoy!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding/​

Next this week, I have another animation to share with you from Fun Station 4 Kids, and this time Smarty Moose returns in his 2nd episode to explain how a car engine works! Once again I'm doing the background music for this one and I hope you enjoy this fun and super informative educational piece, and maybe even learn something new! Let's here it for Smarty Moose!

​Lastly this week, let's finish off with the usual monthly reflections and set some new goals for June. Here were the goals for May:

1) Finish editing and send off press photos
2) Make a detailed promo plan from May until September and finish preparations for the single release on May 10th
3) Sort all streaming uploads for the new album (YouTube, SoundCloud, Newgrounds, etc...)
4) Upload the JabunAudio catalogue to AdRev (less urgent)

And it's mostly done! Horray! The only slightly not done bit was that while I've uploaded all the streams for Newgrounds I can't seem to test the "full album" stream for some reason. That's due to be made public mid September though so it's no rush and I'll count the goal as done. Overall, and on top of all the other busy things that have been going on this past month, I'd say it's been quite the success! Onto goals for June, let's set:

1) Sort the launch/teaser video for when the album drops on July 19th
2) Decide on and sort the $5+ Patreon reward for July 5th (when the 3rd single is released)
3) Start on a new leisurely recording project

Of course there'll definitely be more busy things to do this month so after last month's strain I thought it best to tone it back a little for June (especially since July is going to be even busier). 1) I want to make a short announcement video on YouTube to launch the album on the day, so hopefully that shouldn't be too difficult or time consuming. 2) I still need to decide on what to give as the $5+ reward on Patreon for when the 3rd single goes out, but hopefully that should be simple to sort out once I've decided what to do, and 3) since the album has been technically finished since mid April, I've been very itching to get back to some music making, so whether it's a new original piece, a cover, or a simple beat/jam, I'd like to start on some new recording material at some point this month. Lots of ideas to possibly choose so I'm sure it won't be difficult to get started, though I don't recon I'll finish anything until after the album is out at the very earliest. Wish me luck and feel free to let me know your own goals in the comments so we can keep each other accountable! All the best!

And that about wraps things up for this post. Tomorrow's going to be an exciting evening and hope you enjoy "Artificial Ignorance" when it goes live! The following week is looking to be busy with promo stuff for the new single(s) too as well as press interviews and other things, but I'll aim to get started on those 3 goals above when I can. Until the next one, I hope you have a great week and enjoy the new music and animations and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Better Than The Book and my various projects! Take care!