As mentioned last week, I'm back for the weekend in my home town of Burgess Hill and typing from my old chair in the original JabunAudio headquarters! Great to be back, and let's get started with this week's news:

Not a lot to report this week, though it's been a busy one spent composing and recording for Level 3 of A P O T H E O S I S which is going super smoothly! Should hopefully have the music for level 3 finished by the beginning of November and out to show you all! I won't spoil anything, but it of course features my signature distorted bass guitar (back by popular demand!), and this time I'm letting my inner baroque/classical musician and trance fan out  to play in what I can only describe as one of the most epic compositions I've ever made! Nothing less for the final world before fighting the gods. If you can't quite wait until next week, be sure to download the demo of A P O T H E O S I S which features all the other music so far (It's super addictive and crazy fun), and check out the most recent addition to the A P O T H E O S I S soundtrack, Level 2, below! Get ready to fight some monsters!
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Next and finally this week, it's THAT time of year again, and I'm super stoked to announce that I'll be doing another short Hip-hop collaboration with Bob Axell AKA Cyberdevil which should be out by the end of November! This one's unrelated to the Jabun album in the works, and more of a spur of the moment thing, but it'll no doubt something fun nonetheless! I'll keep you all informed with progress on this, and be sure to look out for more from Cyberdevil in the near future! In the mean time, I'll leave you with our most recent collaboration, "Head Above Water" from the Better Than The Book album, Two Years On! Enjoy!

​That's it for this week! Next week's set to be putting the final touches on Level 3 of A P O T H E O S I S  (Just a few compositional tweaks and the mixing/mastering to do), and perhaps getting started on that collaboration with Cyberdevil! I've still got the Jabun album to put in the works too, and certainly the idea jams have been highly fruitful in the past week. Hope to get back to that in a more focused manner soon! Anyways, hope you all have a great week, take care, and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my collaborations. See you next Friday!

It's certainly been an exciting week since the last update and I have some BIG news to share with you all. No delays, let's get straight into it!

So firstly this week, I am pleased to announce that last weekend I started work on the first instrumental Jabun album / EP! It's been long overdue and I'm so excited to be working more concentrated on the Jabun project again. One of my goals for this year was to release something from Jabun, and with the "(Feels Like) Heaven" remix, and "The Ocean Above" I feel I've accomplished that, but I'd like to push the boat out even more and write and release a full length album or EP too! It's still partially in the planning stage and not all the details have been figured out, but I can tell you some things about the album already:
          Firstly, it's going to be strictly instrumental, though I will leave the door open to vocal interpretations of the songs later. Secondly, it's going to be mostly electronic with some orchestral / acoustic elements but on the whole I'm going for an organic, and chill vibe. Thirdly, since the album has no lyrics, I'm very aware that I DON'T want any track just to be some beat you can bob your head along to; I want each track to represent and evoke a very deep emotion or feeling. Because of this, I know and am prewarning you that this album will not be to everyone's taste. It's going to be a little more experimental, it's going to be a little more adventurous, and it's certainly going to be different! I hope though that for those of you it does resonate with, you appreciate that in this album, I'm not trying to be in any specific genre, I'm not trying to recreate a style, I'm simply digging deep DEEP within myself and creating sounds / tonalities which convey something words could not alone. THAT is my goal for this album: to be able to move people without words, and with only the simplest of sounds.
           Progress on the album so far: Last weekend I composed one new track by the working title of "Palindrome", which just needs a final mix and master later, cleaned up an older idea which has been sitting around for a little while, but I'm very pleased with, and started on one more new track too. By popular demand and a Twitter vote too, the new album / EP will include remasters of my old singles "Distance" and "Home" which fit the same themes and vibe I'd like to convey with my new work (chill, emotional, deep). Feel free to listen to them below for a taste of what's to come! I'm not sure exactly how many tracks the album will be or how long, but I'm aiming currently for around 10 tracks and definitely 30+ minutes of music. Whether I manage to get that done before the end of the year will be a little more tricky to answer, but we shall see! Anyway, I hope you're intrigued, excited and wanting to know more, and I shall leave you this week with a photo from the end of Day 1, and links to listen to "Distance" and "Home" for a taste of what's to come! I'll keep you updated on progress as and when and certainly, get ready to chill out and (mostly) relax!

 
Next this week, on Monday it was World Mental Health Awareness Day, and for those of you who know me well, you'll know I've had my fair share of demons in the past (not quite as much now thankfully), and it's been evident in the lyrical content of my music since the very beginning of BTTB. I feel very strongly about this topic, as it's not only effected me, but also friends of mine in the past too, and I know that while it can be a difficult topic to bring up, it something we all have to talk about to be able to break down the stigmas. I won't go on a full length discussion on it here, but I urge you, if you do have something on your mind, please talk to someone, don't bottle it and make sure you get the help you need. I'll just leave it with a quote from something I wrote on the Better Than The Book Facebook page, and I hope it inspires you to know, that you can bring out change in your own life and other people's and that you are not alone: 

"Remember, it's ok not to be ok, that you are never alone (someone's is going through or has been through what you have), and that there's always someone to talk to. I use my music as catharsis for my own demons, worries, self-doubt, anxieties etc..., with the aim being to show people that they aren't alone, to help inspire and to help motivate, as well as to get people moshing and put a smile on their faces :)
          "Don't let your demons control you. Own them and turn them into something which will inspire change in the world. You are in control. Fear may be the gunner in your back seat, but you are driving. Be better than what that little voice says is written for you. Even when your heart is racing a hundred miles an hour and your path might not be so clear, don't let that stop you. Live for just this moment. Find and chase your dreams. Don't let anyone or anything hold you back, even when you feel so small trying to stand above the crowd, don't let your fears and doubts control you. Keep holding on even if just barely and keep your head above water. Success isn't about where you get to, it's how you go about getting there, so just enjoy each single moment while it lasts. And when it feels like your just staring into headlights, just overwhelmed, remember THIS IS YOUR LIFE, and you have the power to keep on running. It all starts with one small step.
        "That's my 2 cents for today, and that's what it means to be me."

Finally this week, I want to say a huge thanks to everyone who's supported Better Than The Book, and to announce that we just surpassed 100 followers on Twitter! As a celebration, I'm letting people ask me anything until the end of the weekend, so please, if there's something you'd like to know about BTTB or me personally, then send in your questions, here, or on the BTTB Facebook Page or on Twitter! Looking forward to your questions and thanks again to everyone who's helped support Better Than The Book over the years in reaching this goal! Next stop 1000!

That's about it for this week. I'm back to Burgess Hill again next weekend, and it'll likely be the last time before Christmas, so I'm going to have to make the most of it. Hoping to do some more work on the Jabun album this coming week, as well as more reaching out and connecting with people as my notes from the MusicLaunchSummit suggested. Certainly exciting times on the horizon and I'll keep you updated as usual on all the goings on! Hope you all have a fine and dandy next week, and thanks as always for supporting Jabun, JabunAudio, Better Than The Book, and all my other audio endeavors! Take care!

It's been a super exciting and jam-packed week since I arrived back in Herne Bay on Monday and there's lots of amazing stuff to share! Most of my time has been spent attending the final lectures of MusicLaunchSummit which has been an amazing experience, and now I've 29 pages (double-sided) of notes to go through and learn from. It's a little overwhelming the amount of information I have at my fingertips to take in, but for now I'm concentrating on just a few things, which I've already planted the seeds for, and we'll see how everything goes from there! A MASSIVE thanks to Steve Palfreyman for organising the whole thing, and of course to all the speakers too who took the time to share their knowledge! I'm sure all their shared experience will be a great pointer in the right direction to take JabunAudio even further! Well, I guess that means it's back to normal work this coming week (gotta go find it first!). I have an AMAZING announcement as the main headline for this weeks news post, and it's been a while in the making so I shall delay no further. Let's get to it!

The main headline this week:

Better Than The Book has been interviewed by an independent web blog!  

It's been a few months in the making due to busy schedules, summer holidays (the warped tour), and other factors but it's been a super fun project to work on and I've been dying to share this since we first started working on it! The blog is called "Live a Little Bit Louder", created by Megan who conducted the interview with me. Over the course of 9 questions, you'll get an in-depth view into the songwriting and production process behind "Two Years On", some background about me as a musician, hints at what's next for Better Than The Book, and some fun questions where you might see me struggle with some impulsive acronyms! Really hope you enjoy this FIRST EVER backstage look into BTTB, and thanks so much to Megan for reaching out, organising this and just being a super fun person to work with throughout the process! Check out Better Than The Book on Live A Little Bit Louder below:

Better Than The Book Interview - Live A Little Bit Louder!  

And in case you've yet to hear the album which a lot of that interview is about, feel free to have a listen while you read to "Two Years On", Better Than The Book's debut full-length album:

​Next and lastly on the news for this week, October has come and the results of the "(Feels Like) Heaven" remix contest are out! Unfortunately no prizes this time (Dang!), but now that the contest is over, I have permission to release the Jabun remix myself as a free download, so everyone wins! Feel free to grab a FREE DOWNLOAD of "(Feels Like) Heaven [Jabun Hardcore Remix] from SoundCloud and share it with as many people as you'd like! It's FREE!
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That's it for this week! I hope you enjoy the BTTB interview and hey, if you're an blogger who'd like to interview me about anything, or even if you're anyone who wants to chat, feel free to leave a comment or send me an email and I'll be happy to! What's in store for next week? Well if I remember correctly, SOMEONE said that one of their targets for 2016 was to release a Jabun EP or Album by the end of the year... 3 months left. Chop Chop! Hint Hint! (I'll keep you updated). I'll also be working on putting some of these strategies learned from MusicLaunchSummit into action too so we'll see how that goes. By the way, one thing I've been meaning to put right for a while is to be more active on Twitter so feel free to give me a follow on @HurpADervish or @BTTB_UK and if you tweet to me, I'll follow you back! Hope to see you there and hope you all have a good week until the next update! Enjoy the music, take care, and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and all my projects! Peace!