Hi everyone and hope you're having a great June so far! It's been a few weeks since the last post, and I've been very busy on my end sorting things for the main headline this week (which we'll get to in a second), as well as working on and finishing up some personal projects, and playing a tonne of organ! Apart from that, not a whole lot to report at the moment, though I messed up my voice significantly a few weeks back so BTTB vocal practice has been light at the moment while I recover... Gotta take it slow and steady I think. Anyways, onto the main news for this week and it's a some big stuff from Better Than The Book! Let's get started!

So on Friday last week (June 19th) Better Than The Book announced and launched for pre-order its "Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals]" bonus album to be released on July 19th 2020 in celebration of 1 year of "Hopes and Dreams" and everything the album achieved!

With 8/10 tracks featured on the radio worldwide from the USA to UK to Australia including on idobi Radio, BBC Introducing, and The Ska Show with Beefy (the number 2 ska music show in the world), dozens of web blog and zine features, and the subsequent formation of the Better Than The Book LIVE band, "Hopes and Dreams" was my most successful album to date and made a mark I couldn't have even imagined when I first launched it! A huge thanks to everyone who helped make all this happen with a huge shoutout to Meg, the album's PR extraordinaire, Beefy and Melita for their continued radio support and great vibes, the BTTB live band's Eamon, Sam and Andy for their boundless enthusiasm to take these tunes to the stage, and of course to the patrons who keep my music going with special mention to Nathan, David, and Michael! Thank you all so much!

"Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals]", much like I did for "Two Years On" will be a complete off-vocal version of the album for you to sing along to, make silly mash-ups, or simply listen to when you want some BTTB but without any vocals! I hope you enjoy it and I look forward to sharing it with you at 10am (BST) on July 19th 2020!

Check out "Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals]" on Bandcamp to explore the full album credits, listen to / pick-up the pre-release single "Artificial Ignorance [Instrumental]" (the clear the fan favourite from "Hopes and Dreams"), and pre-order the album now:

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

Of course with such a big announcement comes rewards for my supporters on Patreon and there are a whole lot of rewards to check out this week:

$1 rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/37814853
$5 rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/37814852
$10 rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/37814797

For the $1+ patrons, you're getting all that publicly launched good stuff right now: downloads of the full resolution album artwork and the pre-release single "Artificial Ignorance [Instrumental]" (mp3)! I hope you enjoy them!

For the $5 & $10 patrons, you'll be getting the entire full album right now a month before it goes out to the public, with the $10+ patrons getting an exclusive first look at the final album artwork for the upcoming 2nd Jabun album too!

If that sounds good to you, then become a patron to grab those rewards below! Remember that you're not just getting these things when you sign up, you'll also be gaining access to all past rewards for you tier too including the full Better Than The Book discography, a tonne of Jabun, many Patreon exclusive downloads and a whole lot more! Hope to see you in the community!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Finally some awesome news to share with you this week as on Monday Better Than The Book made its debut on Canadian radio on "Le Big Bro Show" on PunkRockRadio.ca with not one, but 2 tracks in the show: "(The Travelling To See Eva Song)" followed by "The Hardest Part"! Thanks so much to Le Big Bro Show for having me on and sharing the music, and I'm told there's a big possibility for more radio play to come from PunkRockRadio! Have a listen to the replay of the show below, and I hope your French is more fluent than mine! Enjoy:

And that about wraps up all the news for this post! Next time I'm sure we'll be reflecting on the usual monthly goals (time's flying past recently...), and I'm sure there'll be a little bit of extra news to share too. We'll just have to wait and see, but until then, I hope you have a great final week of June and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Jabun, Better Than The Book and my various projects! Stay safe and take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a good week so far despite the continued coronavirus lock down and horrendous news in the media. It's been a tough time following what's been going on this week and hearing about such injustice that still goes on in the world from people who are supposed to be protecting the community regardless of their race, beliefs, gender, orientation, etc... I've made a statement on my various social media platforms about it which you can read here, but I certainly hope that change comes about from these horrible times. 

In terms of what's been going on in my own life, it's been another week prepping for the new Better Than The Book bonus album coming out in July as well as doing a bit of mystery recording, and of course practicing and getting to know my new Yamaha combo organ better (lots of fun experiments have been had)! There's not a whole lot to report this week, just another set of Patreon rewards + the usual setting and reflecting of monthly goals, so let's get to it:

First of all, yesterday was the first Wednesday of the month which means another set of $1 Patreon rewards​ has just been sent out! After a few months' break we're finally back to the Jabun back-catalogue of tracks too, and this time we're starting on the 2016 discography with another remix track: "Verlies Projekt - (Feels Like) Heaven [Jabun Hardcore Remix]"! Read more and become a supporter on Patreon to grab the rewards below and I hope you enjoy the music:

Read more: https://www.patreon.com/posts/36611526
Get the $1 reward: https://www.patreon.com/posts/36611524
Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding​

Finally this week, it's the beginning of another month and so time to reflect on last month's goals and set some new ones for June. Here's what I set for May:

1) Learn the 17 BTTB songs from last month (effectively 4 more to finish + polishing the rest)
2) Sort artwork, mp3s (etc...) and admin work for mystery cover song (ready for release)
3) Finish final audio + sort mp3s (etc...) and admin work for next Jabun album (ready for release)
4) Finish initial mixing the following Jabun album ready for final tweaks and mastering
5) Fix my Moog synth

Well... as I mentioned in the previous post, I messed up in a number of ways when setting these goals rendering goals 2), 3) actually impossible to finish, and 4) being at a much lower priority than I'd planned for with much more urgent project requiring my attention... As such, nothing much has happened with goals 2 & 3, and 4 was only about half finished before I realised my priorities dilemma... On the other hand, goal 1) was a great success with all 17 BTTB songs under my belt at least to a passable level for taking to the next full-band practice! After taking the plunge and ordering some parts 5) was an amazing success too with my Moog synth playing better than it has done in years thanks to some replaced parts and a long overdue service! Not a complete loss this month! I've also been very busy prepping this upcoming Better Than The Book bonus album which it set to release in July, so that's taken up much of my time too. Overall not a wasted month, though I really should have set smarter goals in hindsight. Lesson learned for next time!

And speaking of next time, with a lot coming up in the next few months, here's what I'll be setting for June's goals!

1) Sort and schedule Patreon rewards posts for the next 2 months
2) Finish the admin work and announce the upcoming Better Than The Book bonus album (ready for release in July)
3) Keep up the BTTB practice and polish + add some stage pazzaz to the 17 tracks so far! *
4) Goals 2), 3) & 4) from last month with the exception of any admin work *

*Low priority

2 main goals for the month which have to be done + some more relaxed / casual ones to make sure I'm making progress towards the future. I've also a fair few personal goals too some of which are higher priority than those low priority goals, so we'll see how I get on. Whether or not I manage to get everything done on this list, I'm sure it'll be an incredibly busy month to come (for better or worse). In any case, wish me luck and feel free to comment with your own goals below! 

And that about wraps things up for this post. More things to sort out for that album release + some more personal recording, some organ practice, and BTTB practice to do next week! It's looking to be very busy for the foreseeable future with the potential to get even busier too. We'll see how it goes and depending on what's going on I'll hopefully see you next week for another blog post, maybe not if there's not enough to report. Until the next one, stay safe, I hope you have a good week whatever you're up to and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Jabun, Better Than The Book and my various music projects. All the best and take care!