Hi everyone and hope you're having a great final week of August! It's been a super busy but reasonably fun one here at JabunAudio, with still much admin work going on for this year's Jabun album, as well as Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] bonus album, but also some much needed creative and technical studio time! I'm super pleased to announce that as of this week, the 4 mixes for next year's Jabun album are complete and just need some mastering + all the usual checks (getting there)! Not only that, but I've also finally started writing and demoing ideas for what will be the next Better Than The Book album or EP! It's looking to be a bit of a different flavour, but a step in the logical direction(s)! 2 rough demos cut so far, and lots more ideas to work through! I imagine I'll start recording these properly at some point next year with a late 2021 -> mid 2022 release date, though we'll see how it all goes! Great to be back to it! Anyways, more new music to share with you this week + a celebration for World Beyond! Let's get to it!

Firstly, Better Than The Book's Get A Haircut [Instrumental] is now streaming on YouTube, Newgrounds and SoundCloud! As you probably already know by now, new tracks from the Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] bonus album will be uploaded each Friday until the end of September! Check out Get A Haircut [Instrumental] below:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvHBS84lBmg
Newgrounds: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/958398
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/bttb_uk/get-a-haircut-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 when you become a supporter on Patreon for as little as $1 a month! Early access rewards for Jabun [Alternate Reality]'s Warrior (Kesha metal cover) are out for the $5+ patrons! Find out more below and grab it before it's released next week: 

https://www.patreon.com/posts/40080253
​
Next and finally for this post, last Saturday marked 5 years of the World Beyond YouTube Channel and after a year and half of music videos from the 2018 album "Nobody Asked For This So I Did It" (for which I played a tonne of guitar and bass), we finally reach the last track and video for the project, "Rewind Machine"! 
​
In case you don't know, World Beyond is a cinematic music project lead by a good friend of mine Vladimir Kuznetsov and a project I've been a part of since 2013, mostly lending my ears, guitar and bass, but also the occasional other instrument (such as cello) and writing. Find out more about World Beyond in the video description on YouTube!

Rewind Machine is one of my favourite tracks of the album and this video is an amazing conclusion / bonus ending to what has been a fantastic album project to be a part of! You'll see some behind the scenes stills from our recording sessions 2 years ago, some gear showcase and more, and look carefully enough and you might find a hidden download key for the album on Bandcamp too (there's 3 to spot throughout the video so grab them fast before someone else does)! I hope you enjoy Rewind Machine and look forward to working on more tunes with World Beyond soon! Cheer Vlad, here's to 5 years of the channel, and wishing you many more successes with World Beyond in the years to come!

And that about wraps things up for this week! More BTTB writing and demoing for me I think before things kick off with more goals next month and we'll see what other things happen in the mean time. Next week Jabun [Alternate Reality]'s Warrior is finally released (with some Patreon rewards too) so there'll be some promo work to do for that, and I'll have another BTTB instrumental to share with you, as well as the usual monthly goal setting and reflecting. It's looking to be a big one! Until then, I hope you have a great end of August, enjoy all the new(ish) 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 been having a great week since the last post! I've been away for most of it celebrating a wonderful 7 years with Eva, but the time I have spent in the studio this week has mainly been admin work for the upcoming Jabun album, as well as sorting the global distribution for Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] album (almost there I think...). I did get a little bit of time to do some mixing for next year's Jabun album too, but there sure is a lot of admin still to get through so that's been taking center stage at the moment. Other than that, not much else to report, but this week I have the next track from the Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] bonus album to share with you + the link to a long awaited music video from World Beyond so you can tune in for the premier on Saturday! Let's get started!

So firstly this week, just a quick announcement to say that Better Than The Book's Brighton [Instrumental] is now streaming on YouTube, Newgrounds and SoundCloud! As you probably already know by now, new tracks from the Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] bonus album will be uploaded each Friday until the end of September! Check out Brighton [Instrumental] below:

​YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5yF8k7Jzqc
Newgrounds: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/956600
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/bttb_uk/brighton-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 when you become a supporter on Patreon for as little as $1 a month! More early access rewards were out last week for the $5+ patrons! Find out more below:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/40080253

Next and lastly this week, some super cool news! After a year and half of music videos from World Beyond's 2018 "Nobody Asked For This So I Did It" album (for which I played a tonne of guitar and bass), we finally reach the last track and video for the project, "Rewind Machine", which will be premiering on YouTube on Saturday 22nd at 1pm BST! This is one of my favourite tracks of the album and is an amazing conclusion/bonus ending to what has been a fantastic project to be a part of! You'll see some behind the scenes stills from our recording sessions 2 years ago, some gear showcase and more, and look carefully enough and you might find a hidden download key for the album on Bandcamp too (there's 3 to spot throughout the video)! I hope you enjoy Rewind Machine when it's released on Saturday and look forward to working on more tunes with World Beyond soon!

And that about wraps things up for this blog post! More admin work to sort this coming week, and hopefully some more mixing, but until next time, I hope you have a great week and enjoy the new music and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Jabun, Better Than The Book, World Beyond and my various music projects! Stay safe and take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great week! It's been a super busy one here at JabunAudio and I've got a jam packed news post to share with you this time with some new music, press features and important updates! Before we get onto all that main news though, a belated Happy 808 Day to you all in celebration of 40 years of my favourite analogue drum machine: the Roland TR-808! I've already said a lot about this fine drum machine in years past so I won't repeat myself here, but although I didn't manage to get a video recorded this year, I did have a fantastic and fun jam session on my own TR-08 reissue in the weekend! It's also been a fun time this week experimenting with my other music gear when I've had the chance, especially my organ and homemade guitar pedals, running various things through other things with some crazy and cool results! I also took the time to sort through my Better Than The Book ideas folder and do a "stock check" on the various ideas and snippets I'd like to focus on for when I get started on the next album / EP. I've really been itching to get back to some BTTB writing / demo recording, but with another Jabun album still to finish mixing / producing, a LOT more Jabun demos waiting on the back burner, and a tonne of admin and promo work to do for various releases, it might be a little while until I get around to it. Enough of the chit chat though, lots more news to go through this week so let's get started with the big one!

So first of all this week, I have HUGE announcement to make from a brand new Jabun side project! 

The name of this new side project is “Jabun [Alternate Reality]” and truth be told, I’m not 100% sure what I want to do with it yet, but I sure am excited to announce it! Jabun [Alternate Reality] came about because there are things I’d like to release under the Jabun name which aren’t the chill or cinematic soundscapes you know me for, but are instead almost the complete opposite: METAL! I’ve been a metal fan and musician since my early teen years and it’s something that’s close to my heart but I certainly don’t feel fits under my usual Jabun or Better Than The Book banners which are more experimental/electronic/chill and ska punk respectively.

I have plans to release more metal / metal inspired original music in the future, but to kickstart this project, I’m releasing a cover of Kesha’s “Warrior”, which being a mainstream pop song, gives a nice extra meaning to that “Alternate Reality” metal version I’m excited to announce today! Check out the artwork below:

I’ve had this metal / metal core cover idea going through my head ever since I first heard Kesha’s Warrior years ago, and after seeing Killswitch Engage with Iron Maiden on August 11th 2018 and completing Better Than The Book’s 2nd full-length album in July 19th, I thought it was finally time to get this thing recorded! With some delays including moving house/studios, illness and more (not to mention this crazy 2020), I’m super happy to finally be able to share this first track as Jabun [Alternate Reality], the new not-so-chill side of Jabun!

Jabun [Alternate Reality] - Warrior will be released for streaming on YouTube to the public on Wednesday September 2nd at 9am BST, and will be an exclusive download for my supporters on Patreon only!

And to celebrate this huge announcement there's a tonne of Patreon rewards out for the $5+ patrons this week! $5 & $10 Patrons, you’re getting the full download package (Mp3, WAVs & artwork) immediately, and will be able to listen to the track 3 weeks ahead of the rest of the world! Become a $5+ patron to grab Jabun [Alternate Reality] – Warrior today:

$5 rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/40080252/  

All original songwriting credits go to Kesha Sebert, Lukasz Gottwald, Max Martin, Pebe Sebert and Henry Walter with the original performance recorded by Kesha, and an extra special thanks to Vlad for lending his metal experienced ears during the mixing and mastering process! Couldn’t have sounded this good without your help!

Arranged, performed and produced by Nick Standing
Recorded, mixed and mastered at JabunAudio by Nick Standing
Track artwork by Nick Standing

For the $10 patrons we’re also taking a deep dive into the creation of Warrior with some WIP demos and a behind the scenes article! 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!  

$10 rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/40080246/ 
Find out more:  https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding  

That's it for this month's $5+ rewards, and Jabun [Alternate Reality]'s Warrior will be released to the $1 patrons when it goes live on YouTube on September 2nd at 9am BST! Next time in the Patreon rewards we’ll be back to complete Jabun’s current discography with the 2017 album Daydream, and until the next one, I hope you enjoy the brand new music and thanks as always for supporting Jabun, Better Than The Book and my various projects on Patreon!

​And speaking of Patreon, I've another important update and some great news to share about the platform itself. If you've been considering supporting my music projects on Patreon, you can now pledge in the currency of your choice: Euros (€), British Pounds (£) or U.S. Dollars ($)! If you're a resident of the UK, EU or U.S., this can help prevent you from paying extra conversion fees from your bank or card when pledging in a currency that’s not your own. Nice!

To keep things consistent with past reward posts, I'll continue to label reward posts in terms of U.S Dollars ($1, $5 & $10 tiers), but I hope you enjoy the music wherever you're listening from!
 
Get the full Better Than The Book discography, a tonne of Jabun, as well as many Patreon exclusive bonus tracks and more for as little as $1 when you sign up today! Hope to see you there and enjoy the music!
 
https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding
 
And for more information about the newly accepted currencies, check out this Patreon post below:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/40194369

Next this week, some more new music to share as Better Than The Book's Meteor Shower [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 Meteor Shower [Instrumental] below:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS0YCmoojG4
Newgrounds: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/954874
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/bttb_uk/meteor-shower-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 on Patreon when you become a patron for as little as $1 a month!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Carrying on with the topic of BTTB's Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] bonus album, some more great news to share with you this week as Better Than The Book was back on The Ska Show with Beefy with "(The Travelling To See Eva Song) [Instrumental]"! Thanks so much to Beefy for featuring the new track on this special lockdown home edition of the show and for the amazing shout out, and super happy to hear people are enjoying the new Instrumentals album!

Check out the show below for a great hour of ska / ska punk, and BTTB's on at ~49:45 followed by the shoutout:

https://www.facebook.com/TheSkaShowwithBeefy/posts/3243662752388774?__tn__=-R

And for the full playlist, check out:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/the-ska-show-with-beefy-on-southern-fm/playlist-6th-august-2020-pt1/10164027850725054/?__tn__=-R

Finally this week, another bit of cool news to share as Better Than The Book's "(The Travelling To See Eva Song)" was featured in last Sunday's the The Tank Tribune / Sunday Phonograph playlist no. 008 on Newgrounds! A huge thanks to TTT editor @The-Great-One for sharing the music and check out the full post below:

https://thetantribune.newgrounds.com/news/post/1110373

And that about wraps things up for this week's jam packed blog post! I imagine next week will be a bit quieter, but there'll be the next track from Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] bonus album to share with you at the very least! Until next time, I hope you enjoy all the new music and features and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Jabun, Better Than The Book, and my various projects! All the best and take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great start to August! It's been a busy week on my end, mostly taking advantage of the eased lockdown for another socially distanced visit to friends and family in my hometown for my mum's 60th birthday, but also juggling a tonne of admin work ready for more new music to be released in the coming months, as well as taking care of the usual start of the month backing-up / maintenance tasks. Just a couple of things to report this week as you can tell by the title so let's get to it!

First of all, yesterday was the first Wednesday of the month which means another set of reward posts for my $1 supporters on Patreon are out: Jabun's The Ocean Above and Noir (Art + Mp3s for last week's $5 rewards)! Read more and grab the rewards below:

$1 rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/37815025/
Read more: https://www.patreon.com/posts/37815024/
Become a Patron: ​https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Next, more new music to share as Better Than The Book's And I Fear [Instrumental] is now streaming on YouTube, SoundCloud and Newgrounds! New tracks from the Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] bonus album will be uploaded each Friday until the end of September! Check out And I Fear [Instrumental] below:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4gS10gIZAM
Newgrounds: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/953152
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/bttb_uk/and-i-fear-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 when you become a Patron for as little as $1 a month! 

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

​Finally this week, it's the beginning of another month so let's look back at the usual monthly goals and set some new ones! Here's what I set 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

And overall a pretty good result I'd say! 1), 3) & 4) were completed with no problem which means there'll be a lot of new music to share very soon! Despite the low priority, I made a tonne of good progress with goal 5) too with 3/4 initial mixes finished for the album (just 1 more left to do)! The only goal I really fell down on this month was 2). A physical injury at the start of July followed by an allergic reaction to the remedy made any physical tasks a real pain for the majority of the month, but thankfully I'm almost fully recovered now. Unsurprisingly I'm a little rusty with BTTB practice at the moment, though I'll be aiming to get back to polishing things up again in the coming weeks! With that said, let's set some new goals for August:

1) Sort Patreon rewards for the next 2 months
2) Keep up with BTTB guitar/vocal practice and learn THE guitar stage jump as I've planned
3) Finish preparations for releasing the mystery cover song and announcement it (ready for a September release)
4) Finish the admin work and make a promo plan for Jabun's 2nd album
5) Finished mixes and set up mastering for Jabun's 3rd album
6) Sort the global distribution problem for Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals]

Mostly self explanatory I think and hopefully it should all be doable, though there is A LOT to do. Just 1 more mix to finish for 5) so that shouldn't be too bad. 6) is going to be tricky as that's very much up to my distributor sorting things out and not making errors again... I'd certainly like it to be sorted soon though. On top of these goals, I have a couple of personal ones too, and with Hopes and Dreams over 1 year old now, I'm really itching again to get back to some Better Than The Book writing / composition, so I'd like to at least go through my big folder of ideas and start making plans for the next BTTB album / EP! I can't imagine that being released until 2022 but nice to start planning! Anyways, wish me luck and feel free to share your own goals in the comments! Best of luck to you all!

And that about wraps things up for this week! More new music to share from the Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] bonus album next week at the very least, and I'm sure I'll be busy with admin things until then but hope to get a bit more musical work done too! Until next time, I hope you enjoy all the new music and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Jabun, Better Than The Book, and my various projects! Stay safe, take care, and have a great week!