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!

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!

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:

​
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!

Hi everyone! It's certainly been a while since the last post, which I think was 3 weeks ago (2 weeks of no posts), but time sure flies especially in this days-all-merge-into-one norm we've found ourselves in! It's been a jam packed few weeks though and I've a tonne of exciting updates to share. Let's get to it!

First of all, a correction / nullification... shortly after the last blog post in which I posted my usual goals for the month, I realised 2 things: Number one, I'd forgotten about some MUCH more urgent projects to finish which already have set release dates; and number two, without knowing exactly when I plan to release those new Jabun projects, it's actually impossible for me to finish the admin work for them... As such, due to the urgent nature of other projects I'm putting the upcoming Jabun album(s) (which are near to completion) on hold for the moment so I can focus on finishing the more urgent projects. Sorry about that!

But what's this all for? What could be more urgent than Jabun? Well there is the matter of a certain Better Than The Book bonus album to be released in July, and I forgot just how much work, both proof listening and admin, it takes to get that sorted, not to mention the lead times for distribution and the wait times for registration services such as PPL and PRS to update their database. As such, a HUGE chunk of the last few weeks has been dedicated to getting that sorted, and I'm happy to say, the product is now 100% finished and the registration admin work is done! All I've got to do now is sort out the distribution and get the audio uploaded to stores and then it'll be time to announce it! Expect another early bird $5+ Patreon reward coming very soon!

Next, a small update but an exciting one for me personally nonetheless! After many months of sticky keys and crackly pots, I took the plunge, ordered some replacement parts and finally fixed my Moog Werkstatt-01 synth, and it plays better now than it has done for years! Great to have it in 100% working order again, and I look forward to using that in future Jabun projects!

And speaking of gear, after finally selling an amp I've been holding for a few months (and making a nice profit on it), this week I happened upon a bargain which I've been looking and longing for for YEARS and couldn't resist sinking all that new found cash into (a bit of a 30th Birthday present to myself). The keen eared among you know how much I love the sound of organ in both Better Than The Book and Jabun (where appropriate), especially that gritty combo organ sound that can be heard in tracks such as "The Grind" and the solo in "(The Travelling To See Eva Song)" (though of course I love a good Hammond sound too). Up until now, with the exception of "Free of Routine" from my early years in Crow's Wing (where I used a 70s Yamaha Electone organ which sadly and regrettably I couldn't keep), I've only been able to use computer emulations to get that beautiful sound, but as of Tuesday, I finally have an organ of my own again, and WHAT AN ORGAN! Keeping with my Yamaha roots, I was super fortunate to find a Yamaha YC-25D combo organ on eBay! Unlike the Electone of my teen years, this one is designed for travel and stage use and even packs up into its own suitcase (which weights a tonne but is super neat), though of course you need a separate amplifier! The sound palette is lovely, closely approximating Hammond, Vox and Farfisa sounds as well as of course Yamaha's own lovely organ sounds, and with the right effects some reasonable pipe-organ esq sounds too. First made in 1972 it's a beast of engineering and as sturdy as a tank! Unfortunately there are 2 slight faults with it at the moment (not too bad considering it's coming up to 50 years old), but these only become noticeable under very specific circumstances and are nothing that makes the organ unplayable or any less fun at the moment. When I can (no rush) I'll likely take it to a specialist to "unlock the DLC", as unlike the Moog I think I'll hand this one to the professionals! I guess I'll be saving up for that and a rotary speaker next! Maybe some bass pedals? Check out the Yamaha YC-25D below (gotta love the colour)!

I'll need to do some reORGANising of the studio layout this week to best accommodate this new member of the JabunAudio family! Looking forward to the many hours of fun it'll bring!

​Next, I've received some very exciting messages recently with some potentially interesting connections, collaborations and client work coming up, but I'll have to save details for if they get set in stone. Interesting times nonetheless! I'll keep you posted.

And finally this week, it's certainly been a while since the last one, but yesterday was once again the final Wednesday of the month which means another set of Patreon reward posts are out for the $5 and $10 patrons! After a few months' break we're finally back to the Jabun back-catalogue of tracks, and this time we're starting on the 2016 discography with another remix track: "Verlies Projekt - (Feels Like) Heaven [Jabun Hardcore Remix]"!  

$5 rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/36611523
$10 rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/36611529​

This one was a fun remix for a competition back in September 2016, just after I'd moved out of my parent's place but before I had a dedicated studio room set up. My "studio" at the time was an IKEA coffee table in the living room / kitchen with my laptop, some Logitech speakers and Sennheiser headphones, and a couple of synths and my MPC, and it was an interestingly limited time for making music to say the least! Anyway, along came a remix competition and it sounded like fun so I thought, let's try something completely different to my usual sound: a hardcore remix! After ironing out some crazy mixing anomalies I didn't expect due to my less than ideal listening environment, I'm super pleased with the way this one turned out, and I hope you enjoy something fun and different from me this month! Listen on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrFhWqrLoLY 

For the $10 patrons, you've got another exclusive demo from Jabun's upcoming albums to look forward to as well as an article on the composition/production process for it! Become a $10 patron to access that article and many more 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 new 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 :) 

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

​That's it for this month's rewards! Next time is looking to be something (sort-of) new again from Better Than The Book, and possibly a little earlier than usual too for the $5+ patrons! We shall see how the timing goes!

And that about wraps things up for this week! I've got some sorting out to do in the studio to accommodate this new organ, and I'm sure there'll be more admin and audio work to keep me busy next week too! Until the next post, I hope you have a great time whatever you're up to and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my various music projects! Stay safe and take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great week so far despite the new(ish) normality! Another one on lock down over here at JabunAudio, though I've been taking it a bit easier this week with a much needed break so there's not a whole lot new to report this week. I had a fun 505 day celebration jamming on my own vintage TR-505 drum machine, and have been busy with some artwork things for upcoming Jabun projects, but that's been about the extent of my productive updates. Back to audio and other things this coming week, though I'll be pacing myself for a while I think. Onto the news for this post, some things to celebrate before we move onto the usual monthly reflections. Let's get started!

First of all, on Monday I celebrated the 3rd anniversary of my debut album as Jabun - Daydream which was released May 4th 2017! Crazy to think that was 3 years and 2 studios ago and so much has happened since then! With its fair share of internet media and video games features, I think Daydream did well for itself as my first full length release as Jabun and it certainly seems time to follow it up a new album (or more) later this year! Lots more Jabun in the pipeline to come but if you've yet to check out Daydream, listen to it and pick it up on Bandcamp and all the usual places. I hope you enjoy it:

Next and finally this week, it's the beginning of another month so it's time to reflect on targets and goals for April and set some new ones for May! Here's what I set for myself last time:

1) Complete my tax return
2) Renew the JabunAudio website
3) Get the audio 100% complete for the upcoming cover song 
4) Learn the 17 BTTB songs that currently have live band arrangements
5) Write 120+ minutes of Jabun demos (total)

And a pretty successful month it has been! 1), 2) and 3) were completed with not much else to say! 4) made reasonable progress though was slowed especially in the last week or so due to hay fever and certain working from home considerations. Overall by the last time I practiced which was a week(ish) ago I could sing and play through all 17 tracks with some simplifications as needed. 13 of them I would say I was happy to gig, the other 4 not quite but nearly there for one of them. A good effort given the circumstances I think but a bit more work to do in the coming month for sure! 5) was blown out of the water with a whopping 148+ minutes demoed in total by even a few weeks ago! With so much new material, I've decided to put writing on hold for a while and focus on the next 2 albums which are shaping up very nicely! Overall, happy with the progress though I'd like to have got more done with regards rehearsing those BTTB tracks (not that I know when we'll be able to take it to the stage anymore...). Onto some goals for May, let's set some new ones!

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

Now I don't expect to get everything on this list done 100%, but the more the better for progress! 1) Is sort of low priority until I know when BTTB can gig again, but I'd like to get it done for my own benefit and enjoyment. 2) & 3) I'd like to get things all sorted, though there may be some lead time on the admin work being completed. The audio is so close to finishing on the Jabun album too with the final artwork already sorted this week. 4) 1 track done, 3 left to go with regards the mixing on the following Jabun album and it's not far off for 2/3 of those other tracks. Just gotta go and do it I suppose! 5) I actually had this on my personal (not published) list for last month and while I thought I had fixed it, the problem seems to be intermittent again as of last week so I'm going to have to but the bullet and replace some components... Basically the top key is sometimes sticking, or double triggering, or not triggering at all so needs replacing. Less annoying but also a problem is that the cutoff pot of the filter is a bit scratchy and ought to be replaced. It's been like that for a while but if I'm going to fix the Moog I might as well try to fix all of it! Trying to source the parts has been difficult though so we'll see. Fixing the key is priority, cutoff pot is bonus. Aiming to have it all fixed up and in perfect working order (still works for sequencer play with the problems, but ideally no problems is better) by the end of the month depending on how long it takes to get the 2 replacement parts. We shall have to see! All in all some busy times ahead with those goals so wish me luck! Feel free to share your goals in the comments below too and we can keep each other accountable!

And that about wraps things up for this week's blog post. Client work's been a bit dry over here since the lock down started, so I'll be keeping busy with my own projects in the mean time and from the list above, I'm sure there'll be plenty to get on with. We'll see how much there is to report next week but until then, I hope you have a great week and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Jabun, Better Than The Book, and my various projects! Stay safe as always and see you in the next one! Take care!