October 2022 blog and Patreon post: Monthly updates including Sif Savery's Tales of Zale - Flickering Lights (which I did the audio mixing for), a feature celebrating Roland's 50th anniversary, BTTB horns finished + Another exclusive Jabun ambient live jam for the $10 patrons and more!

Hi everyone and hope you've been having a good September. It's been another busy month here, and I'm so stoked to finally be able to share this with you (the video below) so let's get straight to that!

Following last month's trailer and after a tonne of hard work from a plethora of people, I'm super pleased to finally be able to share with you Sif Savery's Tales of Zale - Flickering Lights, an animated short film! I've been working on the audio mixing (and some sound design) for this for a few months now, but when Sif says that we were working on it right up until the release time, she REALLY means it! I think I sent off the final cut of the audio about 6 hours before the release, and it was approved less than 5 hours before the premier too! Crazy work schedules, but I think you'll be able to appreciate how much went into it! A huge thanks to Sif for having me on the project again, and a big shoutout to Matthew (the composer) and Patrick (the foley artist / sound designer) who I've been working with closely over the last few months! Check out Tales of Zale - Flickering Lights!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DLbgOeE2_w

Also, Sif's got some cool merch on sale if you're interested too! The link's in the video description on YouTube, and I just had to pick up the production artbook as a memento. Go check it out!

Another cool little bit of news following from last month, in celebration of their 50th Anniversary, the music tech company Roland asked for people to send in their stories of how Roland products have enriched their musical journey, and this month they've published the story I sent in! The editing is a little janky, but it tells the story of how my twin (after already gifting me my trusty Tr-08 a Christmas or two prior) gifted me a vintage Tr-505 drum machine for my 29th birthday: my first piece of gear older than I am! The article also features links to music by Better Than The Book and Jabun and it's an honour to be featured on among the greats on the Roland site! Check out "Nick Standing -  Welcome to the Club" below:  

Roland & Me feature: https://articles.roland.com/roland-and-me/

As a token of their thanks for sending in a story (and it being picked), I also have an awesome 808 hat and 50th anniversary T-shirt waiting for me too! Thanks so much for all the inspiration and the fun gifts Roland!

Onto other updates for the month, after such a busy and important project, it finally felt like a good (and safe) time to replace the cable on my main studio headphones. I've been using these since before I was recording Two Years On waaay back in 2015 and they've been run over by chairs, caught on stands etc... so much that they were very much in need of dire repairing. All good now though and hopefully this new cable holds for a long time. Onto more musical updates, I'm super happy to announce that horns have finally been completed for the upcoming Better Than The Book album (and more). It's just some extra acoustic stuff (including cello) left to do hopefully in the coming month, then it's finally (hopefully) time to start laying down vocals! It's been a long time working on this, and there's still much more to do. Meanwhile I've been busy prepping some new stuff with World Beyond, as well as another Jabun EP coming soon, so it's not going to be too long until the next project reaches the end of the pipeline! Exciting and busy times ahead!

Finally as usual for the month, let's take some time to reflect on and set some goals! Here's what I set last time:

1) Finish Tales of Zale Episode 3
2) Finish the final Better Than The Book horn part
3) Replace the cable on my studio headphones (if possible)

And done, done, done! Not really much to comment on those! Horray! With that said, as mentioned above already I do have some plans for what I'd like to get done this month so let's see if I can do the following:

1) Finish the masters for the upcoming Jabun EP
2) Finish melodica parts for Better Than The Book
3) Finish cellos for Better Than The Book

As well as keeping on top of the usual admin stuff. It's going to be tricky depending on how much other stuff I have going on this month, but we'll see how it goes!

That about wraps things up for this time, unless you're a $10 patron in which case you have another exclusive Jabun live ambient synth jam to look forward to. I'm hoping next month will be a bit more relaxed and restful, but we shall see what it brings! Until then, I hope you have a great October to come and thanks as always for supporting my music however you can and especially on Patreon! Take care and all the best!

All Patreon supporters will recieve all past rewards for your tier when you sign up so check out the archives to see everything you can catch up on and hope to see you there!

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/71688981
$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/71688980
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

September 2022 blog and Patreon post: Monthly updates including a trailer for Sif Savery's Tales of Zale Episode 3 (which I'm doing sound for), a feature celerating Roland's 50th anniversary, more BTTB horn updates, An exclusive Jabun ambient live jam for the $10 patrons + setting and reflecting on more goals!!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a good summer! It's been turbo busy over here working on the amazing thing in the title so let's get on with the updates and get straight to that!

After much hard work from a tonne of talented people, the time has almost come and I'm super pleased to finally be able to announce that I'll be mixing audio again for the latest episode of Tales of Zale!

Check out the trailer and mark September 7th on your calendars because this is one you won't want to miss! A huge thanks to Sif Perlt Savery for having me on the team! It's been undoubtly the most challanging and ambitious animation I've been a part of to date! ​

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpXKM8wMdb0

Onto other updates, despite such a busy month, I still managed to get a full 3 more horn parts finished for the upcoming Better Than The Book projects (as well as playing around with some other stuff)! Just one more horn part to go, and it's SOOO close, but not quite done yet so I'll be aiming to finish that off in September!

Meanwhile and lastly for the news this time, the synth/music-tech company Roland is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and to celebrate they asked people to send in their stories of how Roland has changed and enriched their lives! Among the countless stories, it looks like they've chose not just mine but also my twin Eamon (who used to work for the company)'s stories to publish! Super cool! They're staggering the posts, so mine's not up just yet, but you can read the story of how Eamon got me my trusty Tr-08 drum machine for Christmas while working as the Roland rep in Andertons! They've even featured "Waves" from the Tides album on their blog too. That's pretty darn cool! I hope you enjoy the read and look forward to sharing with you my own drum machine related story (again another present from Eamon) when it's up!

Roland & Me feature: https://articles.roland.com/roland-and-me/

And finally for this month, some goal setting and reflecting as usual! Last time I set just the single goal to finish up those BTTB horn parts, and with 3 out of 4 complete, despite knowing how busy things would be with other things, I'm pretty pleased with progress! With that said, here are the (some probably obvious) goals I'll be setting this month!

1) Finish Tales of Zale Episode 3
2) Finish the final Better Than The Book horn part
3) Replace the cable on my studio headphones (if possible)

Those first 2 goals I'm sure will be doable, though I do aim to take it easier this month once Tales of Zale Episode 3 is out, it's been quite the busy adventure! That last goal is one I've been meaning to do for a while but kept putting off until this big project was done. I've had my main studio headphones since before Two Years On was recorded, and with the amount of times I've accidentally ran over the cable with my chair or caught it on things, it's a miracle it hasn't needed replacing sooner really! Some research to do, but they're nice headphones so if I can just replace the cable, that'll be the goal! Wish me luck and I hope you have a good month ahead too!

That about wraps up the post for this time. If you're a $10 patron you have a new exclusive Jabun live ambient modular synth jam to look forward to, but until next month I hope you have a great September to come and thanks as always for supporting my work however you can! Take care and enjoy the new episode of Tales of Zale on September 7th!

All Patreon supporters will recieve all past rewards for your tier when you sign up so check out the archives to see everything you can catch up on and hope to see you there!

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/70045307
$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/70045312
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Hi everyone and hope you've had a great July and stayed cool during this crazy hot weather! Since all my personal backcatalogue has been uploaded now, this'll be the first regular monthly blog post without any Patreon reward downloads (unless you're a $10 patron), but I'm thinking this area's looking a bit empty so let's see if I can muster up something else to share in the near future while you're waiting for the next big project release from Better Than The Book or Jabun (at least for the Patreon supporters)!

In the mean time it's onto monthly updates, and it's been an intensely busy few weeks spent on a super exciting mystery collaborative project I'm still not sure if I can talk about yet. Only a few months until release time though so there'll be something to share on that very soon (and it's one of the biggest projects I've worked on yet). Meanwhile, I managed to find some free time in between heaving mixing sessions to continue arranging horns for the upcoming Better Than The Book album projects, and so 3 more horn parts are finished and only 4 are left to go! Slow progress but progress nonetheless and I'm super pleased with the way it's sounding at least!

Meanwhile, Vlad from World Beyond has released an amazing "short (but not really)" animated music video for our work together on the Nobody Asked For This So I Did It album! The new video shares the lore behind World Beyond's fictional storytelling with a super nicely put together hybrid animation and really showcases Vlad's creativity in the visual arts, storytelling, and of course music! You'll hear me pounding along on bass and lead guitar as usual too. Check out the new music video below and hope you enjoy it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85eFuRQarY8

Finally for this post as usual, it's time to reflect on some goals and set some new ones for June! Here's what I set myself last time.

1) Finish promo for Tides
2) Fully service the Leslie mechanics
3) Service my Sterling bass
4) Rearrange the studio (a bit)
5) Design the grill for the Leslie

And overall apart from the final goal, I think things went very well! 1), 2) and 3) went reasonably smoothly and I even managed to rearrange the studio slighty to better fit everything in. The only goal I missed out on was 5) to design the grill for the Leslie. After realising how long it took to service and that I'd need to disassemble much of it to install the grill (which isn't super urgent anyway), I've decided to leave it for the moment and potentially tackle it closer to the next service or when I know I'll have the tools/space to build the grill. It might be a while, but it's sounding and working great at the moment so that's the main thing!

Onto goals to set for June, I think it's going to be a busy one and I'm not entirely sure (apart from some time away) what's going on, so I figured it best to keep things light for now:

1) Update the Patreon reward archives + general page
2) Finish all of the Better Than The Book Horns for the new album (x8)

I think that should keep me busy in my JabunAudio time and 2) may be a push in terms of getting all 8 tracks done, but I'll have to see how far I get and try my best! All the best with your own goals and let's get productive!

That about wraps things up for this time! With all the past rewards available to my Patreon supporters now and the busy times recently with Jabun's Tides album release, there will not be any Patreon reward posts next month, as I'll be updating the reward archives and general Patreon page. I will be posting an update with what my future plans are for Patreon, rewards and more though, as well as some usual monthly updates, and as you can probably appreciate, things are going to be a little different now that all my past discography is all out. Nevertheless I hope you're excited for new music to come and thanks as always for supporting my music on Patreon, and however you can! Enjoy the 520 EP and I'll see you next month for some updated Reward Archives, and discussions on what's coming next! Take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great start to May! Today's finally the day and I'm so excited to share with you my 4th album as Jabun, Tides!  Check it out and grab a copy now on Bandcamp (it's Bandcamp Friday today) where you can read all about it including the album's backstory, track details (including equipment used and recording dates), album credits, special thanks and more! I hope you enjoy it:

https://jabun.bandcamp.com/album/tides

And if you're able to make it, come join me for a live premier listening party for the WHOLE album over on YouTube tonight (Friday May 6th) at 8pm BST where you can ask questions, chat, and more while we listen to Tides in its entirety! Hope to see you there!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0GFfoq3FCs
​
Of course now that it's finally been released, all of my supporters on Patreon now have access to downloads for the full Tides album and artwork package as part of their May Patreon rewards! For the $10 patrons, you also have an exclusive unedited version of Inner Space to look forward to! If that sounds good to you, feel free to join me over on Patreon and remember you'll gain access to all past rewards for your tier too including my full backcatalog discography uploaded so far (including many Patreon exclusive downloads and bonus tracks) as soon as you sign up! Find out more below:

$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/64618395
$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/64618394
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

And a huge thanks goes to all patrons past and present who keep my music going each month with special mention to the current $10+ patrons: Nathan Puray, and Michael White! Thank you all so much for your help and support in making these dreams a reality! You folks are amazing!

Tides is a 70+ minute collection of 9 ambient and experimental live performances, together telling the tale of a fateful voyage at sea. The album begins by setting sail from The Beach at night and riding the rhythmic Waves, before being encountered by beckoning Sirens and lured into a terrible storm. Following The Storm, floating among the wreckage, you have nightmares of Ghosts, the other souls taken from the living world by the waters, but you survive only to wake up to despair, realising you are Lost At Sea. With no hope or strength left, you feel the Gravity of the situation, both figuratively and literally, as you’re pulled below the surface to meet the same fate. But with the sorrow comes a sense of acceptance, as below the waves you find a world much calmer than the one you endured among them. You sink peacefully to your final resting place, the deepest depths of the vast ocean: Mariana.

Each track from Tides was performed live and recorded as a single take during 2021 with only the lightest of further processing to bring the album together in mastering. Included in the album is a bonus track, Inner Space, which while initially recorded live was slowed down post recording and further processed in a similar way to the semi-live 15-4-20 album. It provides an ambient epilogue to the album, a modular synth soundscape representing the deep and vast Inner Space that is the ocean. The tracklist is as follows:

Jabun – Tides

01 The Beach
02 Waves
03 Sirens
04 The Storm
05 Ghosts
06 Lost At Sea
07 Gravity
08 Mariana
---
09 Inner Space (Bonus)

To my ears, Tides is undoubtedly my most experimental album yet, with much of it more like soundscapes than actual melodic music. Despite the extended length, I decided to include the full performance for every track, as a captured moment in time, rather than a premeditated composition on a studio album. Similarly, I wanted to keep editing to a minimum, with only minor adjustments, and the mastering really just to balance the tracks against each other (and my previous discography) and add a little bit of sheen. Whether you sit down to listen intently, have it on in the background while doing something else, or simply immerse yourself in the sounds, I hope you enjoy these uncut live ambient experimental performances, a collection of meditative moments from another strange year of restrictions and lockdowns.

Tides will be available for streaming on Newgrounds, YouTube, Spotify and more places very soon. You can also check out the Tides album teaser on SoundCloud. Happy listening and I hope you enjoy Tides!

SoundCloud Teaser: https://soundcloud.com/jabun/jabun-tides-soundcloud-teaser
HurpADervish YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/hurpadervish
Jabun YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/OfficialJabunMusic
​Newgrounds: https://jabun.newgrounds.com/audio/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6Ig1iozkpNv4mOGHJFny73

Onto monthly updates, it's been super busy these past few weeks preparing for today's album launch as well as being away for some birthday funtimes, the first spent with family since the lockdowns of 2020/21! Food was eaten (a bit too much probably) and gifts were given, and this year I received from my twin Eamon a Fender Mini '65 Twin amp (which is suprizingly loud and sounds great both in the room and for recording) and a limited Suzanne Ciani 7" vinyl (who was a huge inspiration writing and performing this latest album and I'll be seeing in concert next month)! I also received from Eva something I've wanted for ages, a real life vintage style label maker like I used (digitally) on Better Than The Book's Two Years On album cover! I've been having a little too much fun with that lately! 

On top of a busy week of celebration however, I was also busy woodworking for my homemade Leslie Speaker project, and after an INTENSE week of some of my proudest woodwork, it's pretty much done! All that needs doing it making a front panel, sorting some grills for the sound holes, and servicing the motor/mechanical system to optimum performance! Super pleased how it turned out and check it out below:

In the garage:

​In the rig:

And I must say it sounds MEGABOSS with both organ and guitar! It's really a dream come true to have one of these in my life again, and super cool that it's a homebuilt project this time. I don't have a video to share yet of the finished article, but if you're a supporter on Patreon, you have a quick clip of it before I built the outer cabinet (but after I'd mostly fixed up the electronics) to look forward to in your rewards for today! Enjoy! 
​
In other news this week, last year's Inktober Cyberdevil collaboration "No Cap Life" was featured on Newgrounds' Tank Tribune No.55 in their phonograph playlist! Thanks as always for sharing the music peeps and check out the full post below:

https://thetanktribune.newgrounds.com/news/post/1264762

And finally for this month's blog, let's take some time to reflect on last month's goals and set some new ones. Here's what was set for April:

1) Do my taxes
2) Renew the website, etc....
3) Finish preperations and launch pre-orders for Jabun's 4th album
4) Build the Leslie speaker into a functional cabinet

And it's pretty obvious this time that all of that was achieved well (I even got a bit of money back form the tax man too)! While I was planning on adding tolex to the Leslie later, after finishing it with clear varnish on the natural birch plywood, I think I'll likely keep it that way (I'm super pleased with those finger jointed corners)! Probably still worth putting some lights on the footswitch but I'm managing well at the moment, so we'll see! Something for another time, but it works at least! With that said, I've got a tonne of stuff I'd like to get done in May, so here's what I had planned:

1) Finish promo for Tides
2) Fully service the Leslie mechanics
3) Service my Sterling bass
4) Rearrange the studio (a bit)
5) Design the grill for the Leslie

No musical goals this month as I'll be taking a post-album-release production break, though I'm sure I'll do some casual fun stuff in the mean time. 1) should be straightforward. 2) will be a challenge of sorts but should put the Leslie in even better order for recording and running for years to come. It's pretty quiet mechanically at the moment (certainly compared to some I've heard on YouTube), but I think I can get it quieter and apparently things need to be oiled yearly so I best get in the habit of it! 3) my Sterling bass has drifted a bit over the years moving around the country and I think it's time for some TLC to get it a just a bit more comfortable to play, straightening the neck and re-setting the intonation and string heights for the best ballance of comfort, playability and musical accuracy. It's long overdue so hopefully I can get it playing nicely again soon. 4) is a bit of a nessesary evil to accomodate the new Leslie, but things could do with a tidy up, putting some spares on eBay, clearing out papers etc... A medium spring clean of sorts at this appropriate opportunity! Finally 5) should be straightforward though I think finding the parts / equipment to do it here may be difficult. Something to design now and figure out later I think. On top of all that there's some things to renew, more Patreon posts to set up etc... so I think its going to be a SUPER busy month ahead too! Hopefully not too busy but wish me luck and all the best with your goals too! 

That wraps things up for this time! I have just one more exclusive EP from my back catalogue to share with the patrons next month, one which has never been released ANYWHERE else, and then my uploaded back catalogue will finally (after many years on Patreon) be complete, so there'll be another public post at some point with the updated reward archives! Until then, I hope you have an amazing May to come and enjoy all the new music, and I hope to see you tonight at the Tides listening party on YouTube! Thanks as always for supporting my music however you can, all the best and take care!

Announcing Jabun's 4th album Tides, a live performed ambient journey + the pre-release single Mariana! Pre-orders are now open + lots of Patreon rewards are out to celebrate (Downloads and Early Access)!

​Hi everyone and hope you're having a great April so far! Would you believe that today marks exactly 1 year since the release of Generation Supernova and 2 years since the recording of 15-4-20, and so it seems like a great time to finally announce my next ambient and experimental Jabun album - Tides!

Tides is a 70+ minute collection of 9 ambient and experimental live performances, together telling the tale of a fateful voyage at sea. The album begins by setting sail from The Beach at night and riding the rhythmic Waves, before being encountered by beckoning Sirens and lured into a terrible storm. Following The Storm, floating among the wreckage, you have nightmares of Ghosts, the other souls taken from the living world by the waters, but you survive only to wake up to despair, realising you are Lost At Sea. With no hope or strength left, you feel the Gravity of the situation, both figuratively and literally, as you’re pulled below the surface to meet the same fate. But with the sorrow comes a sense of acceptance, as below the waves you find a world much calmer than the one you endured among them. You sink peacefully to your final resting place, the deepest depths of the vast ocean: Mariana.

Each track from Tides was performed live and recorded as a single take during 2021 with only the lightest of further processing to bring the album together in mastering. Included in the album is a bonus track, Inner Space, which while initially recorded live was slowed down post recording and further processed in a similar way to the semi-live 15-4-20 album. It provides an ambient epilogue to the album, a modular synth soundscape representing the deep and vast Inner Space that is the ocean. The tracklist is as follows:

Jabun – Tides
01 The Beach
02 Waves
03 Sirens
04 The Storm
05 Ghosts
06 Lost At Sea
07 Gravity
08 Mariana
---
09 Inner Space (Bonus)

To my ears, Tides is undoubtedly my most experimental album yet, with much of it more like soundscapes than actual melodic music. Despite the extended length, I decided to include the full performance for every track, as a captured moment in time, rather than a premeditated composition on a studio album. Similarly, I wanted to keep editing to a minimum, with only minor adjustments, and the mastering really just to balance the tracks against each other (and my previous discography) and add a little bit of sheen. Whether you sit down to listen intently, have it on in the background while doing something else, or simply immerse yourself in the sounds, I hope you enjoy these uncut live ambient experimental performances, a collection of meditative moments from another strange year of restrictions and lockdowns.

Tides releases in full on May 6th 2022 but today I'm launching pre-orders and the pre-release single Mariana on Bandcamp where you can read more about the album's backstory, track details (including equipment used and recording dates) and explore the full album credits and special thanks (You can also listen on YouTube and Newgrounds):

Pre-order Jabun's Tides album on Bandcamp:

https://jabun.bandcamp.com/album/tides

Listen to Mariana on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i58OvpTvS2A

Listen to Mariana on Newgrounds:
https://www.newgrounds.com/projects/audio/1853313/

Of course, all of my supporters on Patreon are receiving downloads for the album art and Mariana (Mp3) today, and if you're a $10 patron, you also have exclusive early access to the full Tides album and artwork package as well, right now 3 weeks before release time! If that sounds good to you, feel free to join me over on Patreon and remember you'll gain access to all past rewards for your tier too including my full backcatalog discography uploaded so far (including many Patreon exclusive downloads and bonus tracks) as soon as you sign up! Find out more below:

$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/64618391/
$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/64618389
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

And a huge thanks goes to all patrons past and present who keep my music going each month with special mention to the current $10+ patrons: Nathan Puray, and Michael White! Thank you all so much for your help and support in making these dreams a reality! You folks are amazing!
​
That about wraps things up for this post! The next post and set of Patreon rewards will coincide with the album release on May 6th which will include the usual monthly updates and $10 DEMOlition Pigeon reward too. I'll also be announcing a live premiered listening party for the Tides album if you want to come and join for chats and discussions on YouTube while listening to Tides to celebrate the release! Until then, I hope you enjoy the new music and have a great month ahead, and thanks as always for supporting my music however you can! Take care and all the best!

Hi everyone and hope you had a good March! As another month starts (no April Fool's jokes this time btw), another set of Patreon rewards arrives, and despite the main reward being another EP, it's going to be a stripped down rewards post this time as it's mostly the same as last time (sort-of). More updates to share too, though let's start with your reward EP!

This month I'm sharing with you the instrumental version of last month's EP, a 5 track collection of blink182 covers called "5 Tracks, 4 Years, 3 Piece Band, 2 Of Us, 1 Leap [Instrumentals]". It's an instrumental version of a present I gave to Eva on our 4th anniversary, and although there is much to say, it's pretty much a repeat of last month so feel free to read all about it in last month's post:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/62327941

The tracklist is as follows:

01 First Date [Instrumental]
02 M+M's [Instrumental]
03 Wasting Time [Instrumental]
04 Eva [Josie] [Instrumental]
05 All The Small Things [Instrumental]

All Patreon supporters will be receiving an exclusive download of the EP (including music and artwork) this month, and if you're a $10+ patron, you also have an exclusive sneak peek at the final artwork for Jabun's 4th album to look forward to! If that sounds good to you then join me on Patreon to read more and download the rewards below as well as check out all of this month's project updates in full. Remember you'll be receiving all past rewards for your tier too when you sign up so check out the archives to see everything you can catch up on and hope to see you there!

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/62327944
$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/62327945
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Onto this month's updates, I've been busy playing cello again for World Beyond as well as fixing up that Leslie rotary speaker I'm currently building, which is now fully working electronically and just needs to be put into a proper wooden box and finished (it's sounding amazing btw)! The BIG news for this month however is that that Jabun's 4th album is finally complete, and I've been super busy over the past few weeks preparing for its release, completing all the admin work, sorting out album streams and promo plans, uploading to stores etc... It's now only a few weeks until the album will be formally announced along with a prerelease single and pre-orders opening, and [NAME REDACTED] is set for release [DATE REDACTED]! The dates are concrete now so I've just got to make sure I can keep up with all the pre-release preparations! Wish me luck, it's going to be a busy month ahead!

Finally this week, it's time to set and reflect on some more goals! Here's what I set for March:

1) Finish master WAVs + Mp3s / Flacs for Jabuns new album
2) Get the Leslie Tremolo Unit fully working electronically and mechanically.

And a pretty successful month if I do say so myself as things went above and beyond these goals. Both were completed as previously mentioned, but I got SO much more sorted for Jabun's new album too! Worldwide distribution has now been approved on iTunes, Spotify, etc... and it's really just the YouTube and Newgrounds streams to sort and check, the Bandcamp page to finish, a little bit of promo artwork to make (website banners etc...), and the Patreon rewards to sort out. The Leslie's also doing well too, I really just need to go get the wood for it and start the construction work (it's mostly designed now too). With those goals set, and it being this time of year, here's what I'll be setting for next month:

1) Do my taxes
2) Renew the website, etc....
3) Finish preperations and launch pre-orders for Jabun's 4th album
4) Build the Leslie speaker into a functional cabinet

All those goals seem pretty self-explainatory, though it's going to be a challenge fitting it all in. For the Leslie, while I do hope to make it pretty with indicator LEDs on the footswitch and a tolex cover with a grillcloth front panel at some point, I'm only going to be aiming this month to get the structural and functional woodwork done. Aethetics and bonus bits can wait until later, but if there's time for it then that'll be fun too! Anyways, wish me luck. It's going to be a hectic month ahead and I hope you have a productive month too! 
​
And that about wraps things up for this post! More rewards will be coming sooner than usual to coincide with the announcment for the new album in a few weeks, so I hope you're looking forward to that and are excited to hear what I've been up to. Until then, thanks as always for supporting my projects, and all the best, take care and enjoy the music!

Hi everyone and hope you had a great February! It's the beginning of another month which means time for some more Patreon rewards and this time we're back to another old cover EP I gave as a present! Some more updates to share as usual including some new pieces of old gear I couldn't resist picking up, Cyberdevil’s new INK 20 Mixtape and more. Let's get started with that EP!
 
This month I'm sharing with you a 5 track EP of blink182 covers called "5 Tracks, 4 Years, 3 Piece Band, 2 Of Us, 1 Leap", a present I gave to Eva on our 4th anniversary! As with all my cover music I give as presents, this performance is free from any tuning or elasitic timing correction. The track list consists of 5 blink182 songs which are in some way romantic and reminded me of Eva and is as follows:
 
01 First Date
02 M+M's
03 Wasting Time
04 Eva [Josie]
05 All The Small Things
 
The cover of Josie has lots of the lyrics changed to be more personal to me and Eva too, hence the title change. It was all made for her, but I hope you enjoy it too!
 
All Patreon supporters will be receiving an exclusive download of the EP (including music and artwork) this month, and if you're a $10+ patron, you also have an exclusive artwork sneak peek and title / tracklist reveal from Jabun's 4th album to look forward to! If that sounds good to you then join me on Patreon to read more and download the rewards below as well as check out all of this month's project updates in full. Remember you'll be receiving all past rewards for your tier too when you sign up so check out the archives to see everything you can catch up on and hope to see you there!
 
$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/62327941
$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/62327942
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding
 
Next month's reward will almost certainly be the instrumental version of this EP, so look forward to that if you fancy singing along without my voice, or just don't want to hear me singing!
 
Onto the monthly updates, despite being effectively away for about half of the month with my twin Eamon coming to visit (fun times), there's still a lot of news to share! Firstly, after many months away from it, I've finally got back to some Better Than The Book practice in preparation for hopefully some live shows at some point (though at the moment I don't have an ETA) and vocal recording for the new album. Meanwhile, Jabun's upcoming album is almost finished audio-wise and I'm just waiting on some feedback from other ears before I make my final decisions and calling it done. The artwork on the other hand is now fully complete, so things are almost ready to prep for release!
 
In other news, it's been a while since I had a press feature of sorts so I was super happy this month to hear that Better Than The Book and Jabun's "1314" single was featured in The Tank Tribune's phonograph playlist on Newgrounds! Thanks so much for the feature and you can check out the full post here:
 
https://thetanktribune.newgrounds.com/news/post/1251065
 
Onto some exciting gear updates, I have 2(ish) things to share with you this month! Firstly, after telling myself I really don't need another BOSS Overdrive pedal, an opportunity came up which I just couldn't refuse, so I bet you can guess what I did! I got another BOSS Overdrive: The BOSS OD-2r Turbo Overdrive, and it sounds phenomenal! I ended up doing a small modification to it to fine tune and perfect the sound, and after that I was craving another mod/build project, and ANOTHER opportunity came up too! After not being able to find a suitable small rotary speaker to pair with my Yamaha Organ, someone in the next town over was selling an OEM Leslie Tremolo Unit (basically the inside of one with bare wires and no case) and for only £15 so I figured, I’d try and build one myself! If all goes to plan and I can get the innards of the unit working properly then I hope to be rocking a small Leslie 16/18 style cab in the near future! Very exciting! The above paragraph was a heavily abridged version of the story behind those 2 purchases, so if you want to hear more, you can read more in this month’s Patreon rewards!
 
Next on the news, it's been a long while in the making but I'm super happy to finally present to you huge a sort-of collaboration, Cyberdevil's INK20 Mixtape! INK20 is a remastered collection of Cyberdevil's Inktober 2020 challenge where he wrote, recorded and released a new rap song every day for the month of October! The INK20 mixtape features all 31 original tracks + 2 more bonus ones (all remastered) and is free to download from Cyberdevil's website. I was on remastering duties for this, and unlike INK19 or last year's Inktober, there aren't any beats from me this time. Check out a grand collection, read more about it, and grab a free download below! There are some real gems in this one!

​Hi everyone and hope you've had a great beginning of 2022! It's the start of another month and time for some more Patreon rewards and this time, I thought I'd continue with the Christmas EPs theme of the last few months to bring you something extra special: a brand new Patreon EXCLUSIVE EP "Mouth (Season's) Greetings"! This EP was given as a present to my twin Eamon for Christmas 2021 and has not been released in any form anywhere else yet! Lucky for you, he's given me permission to share it with the folks on Patreon and spread the joy! I cannot stress how incredibly stupid it is, and you might lose a few brain cells while listening (or even just looking at the artwork), but I thought I'd share it with you as a special treat! More monthly updates to share on top of this including the brand new 3 track vocal single from World Beyond "REVOLT", but let's get started with this exclusive EP!

"Mouth (Season's) Greetings" is a gapless 22+ minute mashup mixtape EP containing songs and skits, and sampling whatever I could get my hands on! Full disclosure, this EP was made for an audience of one person alone, Eamon Standing, so there will no doubt be in-jokes and stupidity which will fly over your head, but I'm sure you'll appreciate some of it. Although the EP is a single gapless file, it can be divided into 13 rough parts/tracks as follows:

01 Fall Out Soulja Boy
02 One Summer's Day Of '69 Dudes!
03 These Are The References That Will Pierce The Heavens!
04 Sk8er Father
05 Hello Kira
06 Tears for Fears Don't Fall
07 My Ordinary Dog
08 Hybrid Stigmata Theory
09 Where Is My Paranoid Teenage Dirtbag?
10 Rap Godzilla
11 Shoddy Craftsmanship
12 A Million Nights Begin To Shine
13 Epoohlogue

That should give you an idea of what kind of ride you're in for!

All Patreon supporters will be recieving an exclusive download of the EP (including music, artwork and a tracklist) this month, and if you're a $10+ patron, you also have another exclusive Jabun LIVE jam from the upcoming 4th Jabun album to look forward to! If that sounds good to you then join me on Patreon to read more and download the rewards below as well as check out all of this month's project updates in full. Remember you'll be recieving all past rewards for your tier too when you sign up so check out the archives to see everything you can catch up on and hope to see you there!

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/60760054
$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/60760053
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Onto monthly updates, it's been a pretty hectic time as I've been ill for a few weeks which has put the brakes on some projects. Not covid thankfully (according to the tests), but certainly not an appreciated break... Despite that, I have been back to working hard on Jabun's 4th album, with the tracks mostly mastered and the artwork well on the way too. Hoping to have those complete by the end of this month, but some scheduled time away might delay that again. 

Onto the BIG news for this month, World Beyond's brand new 3 track vocal single "REVOLT" was finally released on February 2nd (a reason for this slightly belated post)! The tracklisting is "Nobody is Safe", "Revolt" and "From Chaos" and Vlad has a tonne to say about it along with a teaser over on the World Beyond blog:

https://www.worldbeyond.net/2022/01/world-beyond-revolt-new-vocal-single.html

While I lent my ears to all 3 tracks, I'm only playing lead guitar, bass and screaming vocals for "Revolt" itself, but man oh man you've gotta check out Vlad's voice! Why hasn't he been singing sooner?! A massive congrats to both him and Maritza (who provided the choir vocals) for an amazing new release! Check out the lyric video for Revolt over on YouTube where you'll find all the links to stream and buy the full single in the description:

​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIijLYKAyKI

And super cool to see another long term collaborator David Klein II doing the 3D modelling for the video too! Great stuff, David!

For those who are planning to grab the new single on Bandcamp, it's also Bandcamp Friday again which means the artists get a bigger cut of the sales than usual. Check out REVOLT over on Bandcamp and thanks for supporting World Beyond and my collaborative projects!

https://worldbeyond.bandcamp.com/album/revolt

And there's STILL more collaborative stuff in the works with both World Beyond and more, so keep an eye out for more updates with that next time!

Finally this week, I think it's time to set some more goals! While I didn't set up any formal public ones for last month, I think it was a reasonably successful one considering the illness and time away, but let's see if I can make these goals for February:

1) Finish the artwork for Jabun's 4th album
2) Finish the master WAVs for Jabun's 4th album
3) Set aside ISRCs for Jabun's 4th album (no need to register yet, just get things set up in my own records)
4) Get back to practicing for Better Than The Book LIVE stuff!

It's looking to be another busy month with collaboration as well as some time away, so we'll see how this all goes but the first 3 goals would be super useful for getting this new Jabun album out in the first half of this year. Goal 4) has a 2 part purpose, firstly getting back to preparing for LIVE shows if the restrictions stay at ease, but also warming up my vocals again for recording for the upcoming 3rd full length album soon. I've got a fair few other things to do, but we'll see how I get on. Wish me luck and I hope you all have a productive month too! 

That about wraps things up for this month's post! Next time I think we'll be back to cover EP presents but we'll see what takes my fancy when I get around to sorting out the post later! Until then, I hope you have a great February to come, enjoy the musical silliness and thanks as always for supporting my music! All the best and take care!