Hi everyone and hope you're having a splendid final week to July (man the year is flying by)! It's been a mostly busy one here at JabunAudio getting back to good health, finishing off another mix for next year's 3rd Jabun album (just one mix left to go now), and playing more organ and guitar as usual, with a bit more of an experimental vibe this week! A fair bit of news and things to share in this post with Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] album beginning its weekly upload of videos last Friday, as well as a new set of Patreon rewards for the $5+ patrons! Let's get to it and start with that!

So first of all, yesterday was once again the final Wednesday of the month which means another set of reward posts for the $5 and $10 patrons are out, and after a little break for Better Than The Book's new Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] bonus album, we're back to the 2016 Jabun back-catalogue of tracks again with "The Ocean Above" and "Noir"!

"The Ocean Above" was another track made from my temporary coffee table studio in Herne Bay and was commissioned by a good friend of mine, David Klein II, for background music for his YouTube channel while I was working on Jabun's Daydream album. Chiptune and chill, this track really brings me back to that summer of 2016 living by the sea with a limited set-up. In the background you can even hear field recordings of the sea at Herne Bay behind my favoured 808 drums and nostalgic synths. Great memories!

"Noir" on the other hand would have been the first track I produced as Jabun from my very first dedicated studio room (featured in the track artwork) in Margate, about 45 minutes down the coast! Margate was of course where I finished my debut album as Jabun - Daydream too. I do very much miss those days living by the sea! Short and sweet, Noir was created for a soundtrack / sound design competition with the hopes of winning some very nice Adam Audio monitors to add to my set-up. Alas, I did not emerge victorious, but it was a fun piece to compose, so I thought I'd share it here! Without further wait, I hope you enjoy the music!

Listen to "The Ocean Above" on Bandcamp: 
https://jabun.bandcamp.com/track/the-ocean-above

Listen to "Noir" on the Jabun Music Website: 
https://jabunmusic.weebly.com/noir.html

For the $10+ patrons, you've also got an exclusive demo from a mystery upcoming metal cover to look forward to! 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! With the REWARD ARCHIVE tag it's never been easier to catch up with all those posts and music downloads you've missed too! I hope you enjoy them :) 

Grab the $10 rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/37814830/
Grab the $5 rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/37815021/
Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

That's it for these rewards, and next month we'll either be completing the current Jabun discography with the 2017 debut album Daydream or perhaps revealing that mystery metal cover song! We shall see, but until then, I hope you have an excellent time whatever you're up to and thanks as always for supporting Better Than the Book, Jabun and my various projects on Patreon! Mp3s and art for this week's rewards will be out for the $1 patrons next week so look forward to it!

Next and finally this for this post, the weekly new music uploads have started and Better Than The Book's The Hardest Part [Instrumental] is now streaming on YouTube, Newgrounds and SoundCloud! New tracks from the Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] bonus album will be uploaded each Friday until the end of September! Check out The Hardest Part [Instrumental] below:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NiyKNswijM
Newgrounds: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/951416
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/bttb_uk/the-hardest-part-instrumental

And if you like what you hear, pick up Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] on bandcamp along with the rest of the BTTB discography:
https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/album/hopes-and-dreams-instrumentals

Or grab it here when you become a Patron for as little as $1 a month!
https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

That about wraps things up for this week! Next time I'll be posting up another track from BTTB's Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals], sharing the $1 Patreon rewards for August, as well as setting and reflecting on the usual monthly goals, and I'm sure there'll be more to talk about to come too! Until then, I hope you have a great end to July / start to August, enjoy the music and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my various projects. All the best, stay safe, and take care!

Hi everyone and hope you've had a great few weeks since the last post! It's been a busy and hectic time here with a lovely post-lockdown (but socially distanced) visit to see family / friends in my hometown a few weekends ago, a moderate muscle strained turned week of mild constant agony from an allergic reaction to medication (thankfully I'm on the road to recovery now, but physical exercise and BTTB stage practice are off the table at the moment...), the release of Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] bonus album, as well as finally finishing the master audio for Jabun's upcoming 2nd album / ambient exploration! Lots of updates to share with you today so let's get started!

First of all this week, a happy 1 year anniversary to Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album, and what a year it's been! With a whopping 9/10 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 ever imagined when I first launched it! A huge thanks to everyone who helped make all this happen with a huge shout out 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!

And to celebrate as you already know, last Sunday I finally released the Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] bonus album on Bandcamp too! Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals], much like I did for Two Years On, is 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! Check it out on Bandcamp to explore the full album credits, have a listen, and pick up a copy:​

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

Of course, my supporters on Patreon don't need to go to Bandcamp to grab a copy! Pick up the full Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] bonus album for as little as $1 when you become a supporter on Patreon today! Remember too that you're not just getting this album 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!

Become a patron & find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding
Grab the mp3s & Art: https://www.patreon.com/posts/37814855
Grab the mp3s, Art & WAVs: https://www.patreon.com/posts/37814852

The next set of rewards will be on the first Wednesday of August as usual (final Wednesday of July for the $5+ patrons) and we'll be back to the Jabun back catalogue for the final tracks of 2016! Until then I hope you enjoy all the new(ish) music and thanks as always for supporting Better Than The Book, Jabun and my various projects here on Patreon! 

Unfortunately I've been experiencing some problems / delays with the distributor I use for my main global distribution, so it might be a little while until the album appears on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and all the other major digital distribution services. I will however be uploading the rest of the album, a track a week starting tomorrow to YouTube, Newgrounds, and SoundCloud, and you can of course continue to listen to the tracks on Bandcamp in the mean time! Enjoy! 

Next and lastly in the news for this week, after a few months sitting on it while I sorted the Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] album, last week I finally finished, mastered and exported, the audio for the upcoming 2nd Jabun album! The artwork has been finished for some time too which means that the album as a product is well and truly complete! Now just comes the task of sorting out all the admin work and uploading to distributors before I can launch the pre-release and make the big announcement. With the promo period for BTTB's new album ending by the start of October, I'll likely be announcing / launching pre-orders the album properly in November ready to release in December before the end of the year! In the mean time, I have another Jabun album to continue production on which I hope to release in Spring 2021, and there's still another double-album's worth of Jabun material to work on after that (and I'm very much itching to get back to some BTTB writing too)! Lots of music to come, and I'll be trying to pace myself with the releases but it certainly looks to be an exciting year or so to come! More info and updates soon!

And that about wraps things up for this blog post! I'll likely be back to working on the 3rd Jabun album while promoting BTTB's new bonus album and sorting the admin work for Jabun's 2nd album next week, along with some organ practice, and hopefully some Better Than The Book practice if I'm well and healed up enough for it. We shall see but I've no doubt it'll be a busy week to come nonetheless! Until the next post, I hope you enjoy all the new music and have a great week and thanks as always for supporting Jabun, Better Than The Book, JabunAudio and my various projects! Stay safe and sensible, and take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great week so far! The blog post is a bit earlier than usual as I'm away tomorrow, but it's been a pretty busy and exciting week here at JabunAudio since the last one! Before we get onto the main news for this week, on Monday I finally finished another mystery metal cover song (including the artwork) and have been back to work doing the final tweaks on the upcoming 2nd Jabun album too, which feels great! Still aiming to have both these projects out before the end of the year, with that mystery cover probably releasing at the start of September, and the album towards the end of the year. All in all, a lot to look forward to, and there's still Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] bonus album coming out in less than 2 weeks too (on July 19th)! Exciting times! With those updates said, let's get onto the main news for this week!

So some amazing news to share with you today as on Monday Better Than The Book was featured on the Welcome to PRR show on PunkRockRadio.ca with not 1 or 2, but 3 tracks! Along with the usual favourites of "Artificial Ignorance" and "(The Travelling To See Eva Song)", "GG" also made its radio debut which means that as of Monday's show, a whopping 9/10 tracks from the Hopes and Dreams album have now been featured on the radio somewhere around the world! Amazing, and it's still not quite a year since the album came out! A huge thanks to Paco for getting in touch and having me on the show and if you missed it, the show will be repeated on Wednesday (this afternoon) and Friday this week at 12pm ET (5pm BST) before the tracks are added to the 24/7 mix between shows on the station. Tune in via the website below:

https://www.punkrockradio.ca/

That's about it for this week's news! Not sure if I'll be posting next week (though I'll definitely be back for the following one), but I hope to be mostly busy with the upcoming Jabun album in the mean time doing the final tweaks to the audio! Until next time, hope you have a great time and thanks as always for supporting Better Than The Book, Jabun, JabunAudio, and my various projects! Take care and stay safe and looking forward to sharing lots of new music with you soon!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great start to July! It's been a reasonably busy week here at JabunAudio sorting out Patreon rewards and various things for the main piece of news this week (more on that in a moment) as well as getting back to Better Than The Book vocal/guitar practice and playing a tonne of organ and keyboards as has become the norm recently! With the UK lockdown due to be easing greatly at the start of next week, it looks like things are getting a little bit brighter for the future, but we'll have to see how it all goes. Anyways, let's get straight onto the main news for this week, a brand new track!

So first of all in the news today I'm super excited to share with you a special bonus track in celebration of my dad's 60th birthday last week: a cover of Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters"! Some quick backstory: this track was a request (and challenge) by my dad as a 60th birthday present for him. He asked simply for me to record my own version of Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" and do whatever I want with it production-wise. With that said, I started on this about a month ago recording in my free time when I could, and after presenting it to him last week, he's kindly let me share it on YouTube as well as give it away as an exclusive download to my supporters on Patreon! The cover features vocals, acoustic guitar, the doubleneck electric guitar I built with him in my teen years, as well as cello, my first time recording with it since 2015 and Better Than The Book's Two Years On album! As with all the musical presents I've given in the past, this cover is also free of tuning correction and "elastic audio" timing correction. In James Hetfields words: "Couldn't be much more from the heart"! Without further wait, I present to you my version of "Nothing Else Matters"! Listen via the YouTube player below and grab the downloads when you become a supporter on Patreon (links below the video)! I hope you enjoy it:

​Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding
$1 rewards (Mp3, Art): https://www.patreon.com/posts/38637501/
$5 rewards (Mp3, WAV, Art): https://www.patreon.com/posts/38637502/

And remember that you'll be getting access to not just this track, but all past rewards for your tier too including the complete Better Than The Book discography, a tonne of Jabun, and a whole lot more when you sign up! As a reminder too, the next rewards will be out on July 19th when Better Than The Book's "Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals]" bonus album is launched, but until then, thanks for supporting my projects on Patreon and I hope to see you in the community!

And speaking of supporting my projects, in support of musicians impacted by the coronavirus, Bandcamp is waiving its revenue share fees on the first Friday of the month from midnight to midnight PDT (that's this week)! That means that if you purchase anything from Bandcamp today, the artists you support (including myself) will get more of the sales revenue than usual since Bandcamp doesn't take its cut, and you'll be able to support the music you love more directly than ever on the platform!
 
If you've been thinking of picking up Better Than The Book's "Hopes and Dreams", pre-ordering the new bonus album, or grabbing Jabun's "Daydream" or one of my other tracks or albums, now's the best time to do so! Feel free to check out the Better Than The Book and Jabun Bandcamp pages below and thanks again for supporting my music in any way you can:

Better Than The Book
https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/
 
Jabun
https://jabun.bandcamp.com/
 
Nick Standing (< The sillier old stuff)
https://nickstanding.bandcamp.com/

Finally this week, it's the beginning of another month which means it's time to reflect on some goals and set some new ones as usual. Here's what was set for June:

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 *

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
* Low priority

Of course, I also had a tonne of personal things including the just released "Nothing Else Matters" cover on my goals list for last month. Nevertheless it was a reasonably successful month with the remaining goals. 1) is all sorted, as is number 2) which takes a lot of my plate for what will be a busy launch in less than 3 week's time! 3) was ok considering I was on full vocal rest for the best part of a week and was recovering from a damaged voice for a few weeks after. I think I've managed to keep most of the tracks to the same standard as they were at the beginning of last month, with some improvements and some stage pazzaz added too (though not quite as much as I'd hoped). Goal 4) and the subset of goals included have been on pause for the whole month, but I look forward to getting back to at least some of them in the coming weeks! With those reflected on, let's set some goals for July!

1) Release the Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] album and start the post-launch promo campaign
2) Keep up with BTTB guitar/vocal practice and learn THE guitar stage jump as I've planned
3) Sort artwork & mp3s, for the upcoming mystery cover song
4) Finish final audio + sort mp3s for upcoming 2nd Jabun album
5) Finish initial mixing for the following Jabun album *

* Low priority

That should be plenty for me to get on with this month and I've still a couple of personal goals to do too, so no doubt it'll be busy away from these goals as well. If I can get started on the admin for projects related to goals 3) & 4) that'd be cool too, but no rush. With regards 2) I've already been practicing some ambitious stage presence for the BTTB live show but it's not quite there yet. My aim is to get that one bit of stage pazzaz 100% by the end of the month, while keeping on top of my practice, but we'll see how it all goes! Wish me luck I guess and feel free to post your own goals in the comments so we can keep each other accountable! It's looking to be a busy month!

And that about wraps things up for this post! I imagine things'll be busy but maybe not worth reporting on over the next 2 weeks until the big album launch on July 19th, so there might be a short break from the blog in the coming weeks. It'll definitely be back on July 23rd if not before though and I'll have plenty to get on with in the mean time I'm sure! Until then, I hope you have a great July and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Jabun, Better Than The Book and my various projects! Stay safe and sensible and take care!