Hi everyone and hope you're having a great time whatever you're up to this week! It's been pretty busy over here sorting out everything for the new Better Than The Book single (more on that in a moment) as well as the upcoming Hopes and Dreams album which releases a week tomorrow! I'm currently away from the studio as I post this, but there's still lots to share in this blog post so let's get straight to the big news for the week, Better Than The Book's new single, "(The Travelling To See Eva Song)"!

The time has come once again and the 3rd and final pre-release single from the upcoming Hopes and Dreams album, "(The Travelling To See Eva Song)", has just been released accompanied once again by an animated visualizer courtesy of the one and only Vladimir Kuznetsov of World Beyond! Cheers again Vlad! Check out the song via the video link below, and I hope you enjoy this lighthearted track about distance, love, and National Rail, featuring BTTB's first organ solo! I'm sure this must be Better Than The Book's most lighthearted and ska track to date! Fun times!

Pre-orders for the Hopes and Dreams album are open on the Better Than The Book bandcamp page, so head over to Bandcamp to pick up a download of "(The Travelling To See Eva Song)", the 2nd single "Artificial Ignorance", and lead single "Meteor Shower", and pre-order the Hopes and Dreams album today:

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

Or get even more value when you become a monthly subscriber on Patreon! With the new single released, I've just put out another load of Patreon rewards and this time patrons will receive: 

$1+ tier - Mp3 downloads of all 3 pre-release singles from the upcoming Hopes and Dreams album.

$2+ tier - Mp3 and WAV downloads of all 3 pre-release singles from the upcoming Hopes and Dreams album. 

$5+ tier - The ENTIRE Hopes and Dreams album (artwork, mp3s and WAVs) right now, 2 weeks before the public release on July 19th, as well as press photos for the album launch campaign, lyric sheets, and a behind the scenes photo and story from the album's production too!  

$10+ tier - All the above rewards + an in depth look into the making of track 03 from the upcoming album, "And I Fear"! This is also the last chance to get your name / alias included in the special thanks section of the Hopes and Dreams album credits on Bandcamp (as I'll be setting the credits in stone when the album goes out on the 19th) so if that's something you're interested in, act now before the album goes out and I'll add you to the list! 

Not only that, but when you sign up, you'll gain access to the entire history of rewards for your tier including the complete Better Than The Book discography (including the One Small Step EP and Two Years On album) + many Patreon exclusive bonus tracks and more! There's never been a better time to subscribe to Patreon than today! 

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Next this week, some excellent news as the previous single from the Hopes and Dreams album "Artificial Ignorance" has been featured on the front page of Newgrounds.com! If hometowns were websites then NG would surely be mine and thanks so much to NG for the feature! Check out the Newgrounds upload of the track below and feel free to leave a review and rating if you're a fellow Newgrounds user! I look forward to reading your comments!

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/866797

And moving onto the next single, more cool news as "(The Travelling To See Eva Song)" has been featured on HappyMetalGeek.com​! Thanks so much for the feature HMG and nice choice on the picture of me at Nicko McBrain's Drum One​ in Nicko's kit (drummer of Iron Maiden)! That was a fun day!

https://happymetalgeek.com/news-better-than-the-book-releases-the-travelling-to-see-eva-song-from-forthcoming-album-hopes-and-dreams/

And finally this week, I have something special to share with you from Fun Station 4 Kids, an 18 minute compilation of all the Dinosaur Fairy Tales the channel as told so far! I didn't actually do any editing for this one, though it features many animations I've worked on. I shan't spoil which animations are in here, you'll have to check it out for yourself, but I hope you enjoy this compilation of stories from T-Rex and the other prehistoric critters!

Hello everyone and I hope you've been having a great week so far! It's been fairly busy over here at JabunAudio sorting various things out, but I've managed for the most part to get all the preparation for the upcoming single and album releases sorted which has given me some time to pursue new and fun recording projects and take things a little easier than I have been which is nice! Everything's just about ready for tomorrow's launch, so let's start this week's news with that!

So first and foremost this week, some more exciting news today from Better Than The Book as the 3rd and final pre-release single from the upcoming Hopes and Dreams album "(The Travelling To See Eva Song)" will be released 6PM (BST) tomorrow! Join the premier on YouTube via the link below and get ready for some skankin' good times with this one; it's undoubtedly the most upbeat and ska track on the record (maybe even in the entire BTTB discography)! For all the Patreon subscribers too, you'll be getting an MP3 / WAV download of the track and more depending on your subscription tier as soon as the track goes live on Friday! More details to come on Patreon tomorrow and I hope you enjoy "(The Travelling To See Eva Song)"!

Check out the other 2 singles "Meteor Shower" and "Artificial Ignorance" and/or pre-order the album on Bandcamp:

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

Or if you can't wait to hear it in its entirety, then sign up to the $5+ tier on Patreon to get the entire BTTB discography as well as the new album in full before the public release on July 19th now. Enjoy!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding/​

Next and finally this week, it's the beginning of another month so let's finish off with the usual monthly reflections and set some new goals for July. Here were the goals for June:

1) Sort the launch/teaser video for when the album drops on July 19th
2) Decide on and sort the $5+ Patreon reward for July 5th (when the 3rd single is released)
3) Start on a new leisurely recording project

And it all looks pretty successful to me! 1) and 2) are done with not much to comment on, and I finished the first full length demo for a new leisurely recording project on Sunday so I'd count that as done too! Still a lot of work left to do on that track and with everything going on it'll likely not be out for a few months, but I hope you enjoy it when the time finally comes! Onto some new goals for July, with the Hopes and Dreams album just around the corner, as well as being away for a week and a few other things, July is looking to be an intensely busy month, so I've just 2 goals to set this time:

1) Release Hopes and Dreams and keep on top of all the promo / press work
2) Try to relax and do some leisurely playing and music projects as much as possible but with no specific targets

I have a whole bucket load of non-musical stuff to do on my to-do list this month, and with the album launch I figured this month is going to be a super busy one so I thought I'd try to take things easy with the goal setting this time. The release date is set in stone for the Hopes and Dreams album so no backing down now, but I think I've prepared as much as I can beforehand to make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible, so fingers crossed it all works out great. With regards goal 2), if I can get some more stuff done for leisurely recording projects, then that'd be great, but I'm not going to put too much pressure this time and just focus on relaxing, gathering ideas, playing instruments and having fun. We'll see how it all goes! Wish me luck and feel free to let me know your own goals in the comments so we can keep each other accountable! All the best!

And that about wraps things up for this post. Tomorrow's going to be an exciting evening and I hope you enjoy "(The Travelling To See Eva Song)" when it goes live on YouTube! I'm actually away (but still partially working) for most of next week and the following one, so I'll be aiming to get as much stuff done beforehand as possible, and keeping up with everything I need to while I'm away too, ready for the album launch 2 weeks tomorrow. It's looking to be a very busy time! Until the next post, I hope you have a great week whatever you're up to, enjoy the new music and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Better Than The Book and my various projects. Have fun and take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great week so far! It's been a busy one over here at JabunAudio carrying on with more promotional prep work for the upcoming Better Than The Book - Hopes and Dreams album, and I think things are just about almost done now in terms of all the preparation for the album launch! All the videos and streaming links have been made uploaded and proofed with all the right descriptions etc..., all the Patreon reward posts for up until and including the big launch on July 19th have been written and scheduled, and I should hopefully have all the newsletters written and scheduled and social media posts drafted out by the end of the week! Horray! I've also been busy this week taking part in some exciting interviews about Better Than The Book and the upcoming Hopes and Dreams album too, so let's get to the main news this week: that!

​A coincidence of sorts considering last week's Spanish Fun Station 4 Kids news, but Better Than The Book has been featured multiple times this week for various interviews with Spanish alternative music site Breathing The Core! With less than a month to go now until the album launch on July 19th, things are certainly getting busy and exciting with these press features! The first interview was a detailed and fun one about Better Than The Book as a project, where the name comes from, its influences, stage fright and many more questions, so I hope you enjoy the read and learn something new about BTTB today! Read the full interview below:

http://www.breathingthecore.com/2019/06/interviews-better-than-book.html

After that its onto a Track By Track for the Hopes and Dreams album where I go into detail about some of the meanings, references and inspirations behind each of the 10 tracks on the upcoming album (a semi-spoiler warning here if you want to be completely fresh when listening for the first time):

http://www.breathingthecore.com/2019/06/track-by-tracks-better-than-book-hopes.html

Following up with a Behind The Artwork for the Hopes and Dreams album's cover art:

http://www.breathingthecore.com/2019/06/behind-artworks-better-than-book-hopes.html

And finishing up by sharing the band biography which appears in the press releases for the album, and was written in collaboration with PR manager for the album Meg Langley. A huge thanks to Meg for all the hard work and help getting the message out!

http://www.breathingthecore.com/2019/06/band-biographies-better-than-book.html

To top things off, Better Than The Book also now has its own dedicated section on Breathing The Core's website, as well as being added to their list of bands! That's pretty darn cool if you ask me, and feel free to catch up with all the past interviews / features on that special page below:
 
http://www.breathingthecore.com/search/label/Better%20Than%20The%20Book

A huge thanks to Breathing The Core for featuring Better Than Than The Book so many times this week and I hope you enjoy reading about the project in a whole new level of detail!

That's about it for this week's blog post! On top of that final prep work for the album release on the 19th, I've actually got another interview to get to later this week, so no doubt things'll be busy until next time with some of that, and if not, I'd like to take some leisurely time to play some double neck guitar and pursue a little bit of fun recording in the weekend if I can! There's still plenty of post-release promo work I can start on too, so definitely no shortage of work on my to do list at the moment! Until the next post though, I hope you enjoy reading all about Better Than The Book and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my various projects! Have a great week, take care and see you in the next one!

​Hi everyone and hope you're all having a great week so far! It's been a fairly busy but at the same time leisurely week over here, mainly carrying on with various preparations for the upcoming Better Than The Book - Hopes and Dreams album's release in less than a month's time (4 weeks tomorrow)! I've also started on a new leisurely recording project which will likely be out towards the final quarter of the year, and have been really getting back to into my more experimental guitar playing which has me super invigorated this week! I'm finally feeling that same pushing-my-own-limits vibe I've not felt so strongly since my late teen years which feels amazing! Looking forward to recording more guitar soon! Other than that and some video editing and post / newsletter writing, there really isn't much else to tell from my own work this week, but I do have something special to share with you today from Fun Station 4 Kids so let's get to that!

So after many years and almost 13 million views on YouTube, my very first audio post-production job, Fun Station 4 Kids' "Three Little Raptors and the Big Bad Red" has finally crossed the language barrier and received an official Spanish dub, and it sounds amazing! I wasn't involved with this version of the video at all, though the original holds very special memories for me and it's so cool to see the characters expanding into another language for non-English speakers and their children to enjoy. More dubs on the way? I've no idea as of yet, but maybe we'll see a Russian or Mandarin speaking T-Rex in the future? We'll have to wait and see! Whether you're a fluent Spanish speaker or not, I hope you enjoy "Los Tres Velocirraptores"!

And that about wraps this post up for today. I imagine this coming week will be very much similar to the last, busy but not too busy with various preperations. I can sense that calm before the storm coming again before the next single release 2 weeks tomorrow, and the subsequent album release in 4 weeks time. Hope you're as excited as I am for it and until the next post, I hope you have a great week and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my various music projects. Take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great week so far! It's been a reasonably busy one here at JabunAudio with the release of the 2nd single from the upcoming Better Than The Book - Hopes and Dreams album, "Artificial Ignorance", as well as sorting out Patreon rewards for this month and the next! On the leisurely side of things though, there's been lots of cool trailers coming out from e3 which I've been keeping an eye on, and I've also started sowing the seeds for a couple of new smallish projects for after the BTTB album release which I hope to both be out by the end of the year (we shall see how it goes)! Still busy times at the moment though so let's get onto the big news for this week, the new Better Than The Book single!

Firstly this week, I hope you're as excited as I am for some more Better Than The Book ska punk as the 2nd single from the upcoming Hopes and Dreams album, "Artificial Ignorance", was released on Friday accompanied again by an animated visualizer courtesy of the one and only Vladimir Kuznetsov of World Beyond! Many thanks Vlad! Check out the song via the video link below, and I hope you enjoy the return of horns, walking basslines, organ and skankin' guitars in "Artificial Ignorance"!

Pre-orders for the Hopes and Dreams album are open on the Better Than The Book bandcamp page, so head over to Bandcamp to pick up a download of "Artificial Ignorance", the lead single "Meteor Shower" and pre-order the Hopes and Dreams album:

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

Onto the next piece of news, with the new single out, another set of Patreon rewards has just been released too! This month the $1+ patrons will receive an mp3 download of the new single "Artificial Ignorance", $2+ patrons will additionally receive the lossless CD quality WAV file for the track, $5+ patrons will receive the ENTIRE Hopes and Dreams album (artwork, mp3s and WAVs) right now, over a month before the public release on July 19th, as well as press photos for the album launch campaign and lyric sheets, and $10+ patrons will receive all that + an in depth look into the making of the new single "Artificial Ignorance", as well as a special thanks in the album credits for Hopes and Dreams!

Not only that, but when you sign up, you'll gain access to the entire history of rewards for your tier including the complete Better Than The Book discography (Including the One Small Step EP and Two Years On albums), last month's new single "Meteor Shower" + many Patreon exclusive bonus tracks and more! There's never been a better time to subscribe to Patreon than today! 

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

The 3rd and final single from the upcoming Hopes and Dreams album (as well as the associated set of Patreon rewards) will be coming on July 5th, 2 weeks before the full album launch on July 19th! More ska punk coming soon and I hope you enjoy the new music!

Finally this week, something a little fun! With 2 singles out now from the upcoming Hopes and Dreams album, I thought it'd be cool to get people's thoughts on the music so far and find out which of the 2 tracks they liked the best, and so I've set up a poll on the Better Than The Book Facebook page to do just that! Cast your votes below and I wonder which track, "Meteor Shower" or "Artificial Ignorance" will reign supreme:

Vote here: https://www.facebook.com/BetterThanTheBookUK/posts/2199666313482965

​And that about wraps things up for this post! I'm currently busy preparing for the next single release in just over 3 weeks time, which means sorting Patreon rewards, newsletters, press releases etc... so I imagine much of this coming week will be spent working hard on that as well as the subsequent preparations for the album release on July 19th. Busy times! Until the next post though, I hope you have a great week and enjoy the new music and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and Better Than The Book whether here on the blog or on Patreon! See you in the next one and take care!

Hi everyone and I hope you've been having a fantastic and exciting week so far! After a relaxing weekend away playing an obscene amount of video games and seeing the new Godzilla: King of the Monsters film which was phenomenal (maybe even better than Avengers: Endgame IMO), it's been back to intensely busy times making the final preparations and sorting out Patreon rewards for tomorrow's big launch of the new Better Than The Book single "Artificial Ignorance", as well as taking part in some press interviews about the upcoming album! Exciting! A few cool things + the usual beginning of the month reflections to share this time, so let's start with tomorrow's launch!

First of all this week, I hope you're as excited as I am for the latest and 2nd single from Better Than The Book's upcoming Hopes and Dreams album, and it's back to horns, organ, walking basslines and skankin' guitars for this next ska punk banger "Artificial Ignorance"! Mark your calendars for 6pm BST on Friday 7th June and join me tomorrow at the premier via the video link below. I hope you enjoy it! For all the patrons too, you'll be getting an MP3 / WAV download of the track and more depending on your subscription tier as soon as the track goes live on Friday! More details to come on Patreon tomorrow and brace yourselves for some more life lessons and ska punk fun with "Artificial Ignorance"!

The ​Hopes and Dreams album is available for pre-order on Bandcamp:
https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/album/hopes-and-dreams

But if you can't wait to hear it in its entirety, then sign up to the $5+ tier on Patreon to get the entire BTTB discography as well as the new album in full before the public release on July 19th. Enjoy!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding/​

Next this week, I have another animation to share with you from Fun Station 4 Kids, and this time Smarty Moose returns in his 2nd episode to explain how a car engine works! Once again I'm doing the background music for this one and I hope you enjoy this fun and super informative educational piece, and maybe even learn something new! Let's here it for Smarty Moose!

​Lastly this week, let's finish off with the usual monthly reflections and set some new goals for June. Here were the goals for May:

1) Finish editing and send off press photos
2) Make a detailed promo plan from May until September and finish preparations for the single release on May 10th
3) Sort all streaming uploads for the new album (YouTube, SoundCloud, Newgrounds, etc...)
4) Upload the JabunAudio catalogue to AdRev (less urgent)

And it's mostly done! Horray! The only slightly not done bit was that while I've uploaded all the streams for Newgrounds I can't seem to test the "full album" stream for some reason. That's due to be made public mid September though so it's no rush and I'll count the goal as done. Overall, and on top of all the other busy things that have been going on this past month, I'd say it's been quite the success! Onto goals for June, let's set:

1) Sort the launch/teaser video for when the album drops on July 19th
2) Decide on and sort the $5+ Patreon reward for July 5th (when the 3rd single is released)
3) Start on a new leisurely recording project

Of course there'll definitely be more busy things to do this month so after last month's strain I thought it best to tone it back a little for June (especially since July is going to be even busier). 1) I want to make a short announcement video on YouTube to launch the album on the day, so hopefully that shouldn't be too difficult or time consuming. 2) I still need to decide on what to give as the $5+ reward on Patreon for when the 3rd single goes out, but hopefully that should be simple to sort out once I've decided what to do, and 3) since the album has been technically finished since mid April, I've been very itching to get back to some music making, so whether it's a new original piece, a cover, or a simple beat/jam, I'd like to start on some new recording material at some point this month. Lots of ideas to possibly choose so I'm sure it won't be difficult to get started, though I don't recon I'll finish anything until after the album is out at the very earliest. Wish me luck and feel free to let me know your own goals in the comments so we can keep each other accountable! All the best!

And that about wraps things up for this post. Tomorrow's going to be an exciting evening and hope you enjoy "Artificial Ignorance" when it goes live! The following week is looking to be busy with promo stuff for the new single(s) too as well as press interviews and other things, but I'll aim to get started on those 3 goals above when I can. Until the next one, I hope you have a great week and enjoy the new music and animations and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Better Than The Book and my various projects! Take care! 

Hi everyone and I hope you've been having a great week so far! For the first time in a LONG time it's actually been a reasonably chill week here at JabunAudio, not to say that there hasn't been a lot of work to do, but with the extended bank holiday weekend (not that I didn't do any work over it), and with my computer mostly occupied rendering, downloading and uploading various videos for the new album streams on YouTube, I've been taking it a bit easier than usual making the most of time away, catching up on some well earned guitar, synths and other instruments jamming time, as well as playing some video games and doing some leisurely watching whilst preparing some Patreon rewards and more for next Friday's (June 7th) launch of the 2nd single from the Better Than The Book  - Hopes and Dreams album. Still a fair bit to sort out, and I think this coming week is going to be a busy one, but it's nice to appreciate the calm before the storm in this week just gone. I know I'll be missing it soon enough!

And that's really all there is to report for this week! It's the first blog post of the month next time so I'll be at least doing the usual beginning of month goal setting and reflections, but I'm sure there'll be lots of busy things to take care of in preparation for the next single too. Until then, I hope you have a great and hopefully relaxing week whatever you're up to and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Better Than The Book and my various projects. See you in the next one and take care!  

Hi everyone and hope you've been having a great time since the last post. It's been intensely busy over here this week sorting out video uploads for the upcoming Better Than The Book - Hopes and Dreams album (amongst other things), and in case you missed it last week, check out the lyric video for the lead single Meteor Shower (courtesy of World Beyond's Vladimir Kuznetsov) below:

And remember that the Hopes and Dreams album is available now for pre-order on Bandcamp (​betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/album/hopes-and-dreams). In case you can't wait though, you can get early access and hear/download the full album now when you sign up for $5 or more on the Nick Standing Patreon Page (​www.patreon.com/NickStanding), and remember that you'll get the entire BTTB discography when you sign up too. Neat!

Onto new things and more news this week, today I have another animation to share with you from Fun Station 4 Kids, and while I'm not mixing this one like I usually do, I did compose all the background music for it! Enjoy this short educational lesson from a brand new character Smarty Moose about how a locomotive works, and I hope you learn something new! 

That about wraps things up for this post. It's set to be more busy times in the coming week sorting the various video uploads as well as other preparations for the next single which releases 2 weeks tomorrow. Time sure is flying past! Until the next post though, I hope you have a great week filled with good times and thanks as always for supporting Better Than The Book, JabunAudio and my various projects. Enjoy the new video and take care! 

Hello everyone and hope you've all been having a great week since the last post! It has been an intensely busy week over here at JabunAudio as you can probably tell from the title of this post, so let's get straight to it with this week's big news!

Firstly and headlining this week, after tonnes of hard work and preparation, the lead single from the new Better Than The Book - Hopes and Dreams album , "Meteor Shower", has finally been released accompanied by a stunning lyric video courtesy of my great friend and musical collaborator, Vladimir Kuznetsov of World Beyond! Cheers Vlad! Check out the video below and prepare yourselves; this is BTTB's heaviest and most experimental track to date! I hope you enjoy "Meteor Shower"!

Head over to Bandcamp to pick up a download of Meteor Shower and pre-order the Hopes and Dreams album now:

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

Or get even more when you become a monthly subscriber on Patreon! This month, the $1+ patrons will receive an mp3 download of Meteor Shower + the album art, $2+ patrons will additionally receive the lossless CD quality WAV file for Meteor Shower, $5+ patrons will receive the ENTIRE Hopes and Dreams album (artwork, mp3s and WAVs) right now, over 2 months before the public release, as well as press photos for the album launch campaign, and $10+ patrons will receive all that + an in-depth look into the making of track 01 of the album "The Hardest Part", as well as a special thanks in the album credits for Hopes and Dreams!

Not only that, but when you sign up, you'll gain access to the entire history of rewards for your tier including the complete Better Than The Book discography (including the One Small Step EP and Two Years On albums) + many Patreon exclusive bonus tracks and more! There's never been a better time to subscribe to Patreon than today!

www.patreon.com/NickStanding

With the first single now released for the new album I also think it's finally time to reveal the schedule of what's to come, another two single releases, the album release + all the associated rewards on Patreon:

When the lead single is released and album pre-orders open (May 10th):
- $1 / $2 patrons will receive the lead single Meteor Shower
- $5+ patrons will get the full Hopes and Dreams album + press photos
- $10+ patrons will receive a WIP+Demos package for "The Hardest Part"  

When the 2nd single is released (June 7th):
- $1 / $2 patrons will receive the 2nd single
- $5+ patrons will get something else to share
- $10+ patrons will receive another WIP+Demos package

When the 3rd single is released (July 5th):
- $1 / $2 patrons will receive the 3rd single  
- $5+ patrons will get something else to share  
- $10+ patrons will receive another WIP+Demos package  

When the full album is released (July 19th):
- $1 / $2 patrons will receive the full album + all $5 tier extras shared

After that I'll be taking a little break before we go back to our usual Wednesday schedule sharing the Jabun music back-catalog starting for the $5+ patrons on August 28th, and the following Wednesday (September 4th) for the $1 / $2 patrons. It's certainly going to be a busy and fun few months! I hope you're excited as I am :)

Next this week, I thought it'd be cool to share some of the press that Meteor Shower has already received since its release less than a week ago including some kind words from my good friend and musical collaborator Vladimir Kuznetsov (as well as the various fans on the World Beyond YouTube Channel). Check out the various press features below:

May 10, 2019 - Vladimir Kuznetsov of World Beyond on Meteor Shower and the Hopes and Dreams album (Pre-release insight)
​May 13, 2019 - Meteor Shower lyric video featured on the World Beyond YouTube Channel (+ a nice write-up)
​May 13, 2019 - Better Than The Book's Meteor Shower lyric video featured on ThePunkSite.com

Next for this blog post, Mental Health Awareness Week has come around on the calendar once again, and as is the BTTB tradition, and also being aware that I've been very much overworking myself lately, I wrote a post about the importance of taking breaks even if it's away from something you're passionate about. You can read on the BTTB Facebook page, but I'll also post it up here too. I hope you find it insightful:

"It's Mental Health Awareness Week and despite the new album coming very soon filled with lyrics to inspire people to be true to themselves and follow their dreams, I'm very aware that I have been working WAY too hard recently and should take a proper break.
          "It's a great thing when you're passionate about what you do, as I sure am, but you've got to pace yourself and take care of yourself along the way to be able to keep that passionate fire burning. Don't burn yourself out for your dreams; keep tabs on how you're feeling and know your own signs that you're going at it too hard. If you're not feeling it, take a break; play some guitar, watch some cartoons, play some video games, brew a tea, just get away from work. Come back fresh later and you'll work better. A relaxed and balanced mind makes for better judgement and decision making which is essential for making your own path to your dreams. Sure, every decision you make may not be a good one, but at least you'll have made it out of balanced thought and not external stresses.
          "Time for lunch, a break, and to slow things down a bit until the next single release. 'It's not a sprint; it's a marathon. Just keep moving forward, another day, another step.'"

And in the spirit of taking breaks, following last week's 505 Day celebrations, I had another synth jam to get away from the BTTB admin and press work for the album which you can watch below! It's just a quick camera audio video, but it was great fun to take a break and get on the synths again. I hope you enjoy the little clip:

 
And for those of you interested, the equipment used was:
Korg Volca Keys (Melodies) and SQ-1 (Triggering the Moog) 
Roland Tr-08 (Drums)
Moog Werkstatt-01 [Modded] (Bass line)

Finally this week I have another amazing animation to share with you from Fun Station 4 Kids, a dinosaur remix of my favourite childhood fairy-tale: The Three Billy Goats Gruff! Unfortunately, I'm not doing the sound mixing for this one, but it still includes my track "See Ya Later" as the credits music. Nevertheless, the animation is as stunning as ever and I hope you enjoy T-Rex's latest adventure with some new 3 horned acquaintances! Presenting. The Thee Triceratops Gruff:

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great week since the last post! It's been a super busy one over here getting everything prepared for the launch of the lead single from the new Better Than The Book - Hopes and Dreams album, "Meteor Shower", (more on that in a moment) as well as celebrating some other special things throughout the week too! Lots of things to share this time so let's get started!

Let's start with news of what's to come. After much hard work and preparation, I'm super excited to finally announce that the lead single from the upcoming Better Than The Book - Hopes and Dreams album, "Meteor Shower" will be launching this Friday 10th May at 6pm BST on YouTube along with a fantastic lyric video courtesy of my good friend and collaborator, Vladimir Kuznetsov of World Beyond! Not only that, but at the very same time pre-orders will be opening for the Hopes and Dreams album on Bandcamp, as well as the album cover art finally being revealed to the public! Come join the premier via the YouTube video link below (This will become a proper video once the premier has started), and keep an eye on the Better Than The Book Bandcamp page to see the new album art, album credits, and pre-order Hopes and Dreams:

https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/

Remember too that the Hopes and Dreams album has already been released to the $5+ monthly patrons over on Patreon, so if you can't wait to hear the rest of the album, head over to Patreon to receive early access to the album over 2 months before it releases to the public! I hopes you enjoy it!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Next this week, a bit of a different celebration for the 5th of May, which I'd decided this year to make an unofficial 505 Day honouring the Roland TR-505 drum machine, an unsung hero in Roland's synth history! The rest of the Roland X0X machines get a lot of love with the TB-303, TR-808, TR-909 and more recently the SP-404 having their own dedicated days of celebration by the Roland Corporation, either sharing articles or launching new products on these special days to celebrate their technology which has made a huge mark on the music industry. The TR-505 hasn't made quite as big an impact as it's siblings but is undoubtedly a charming drum machine in its own right, and on this 5th of May, the first that's come now that I actually own a TR-505, I thought it'd be nice to make some short videos to remind people of this lovely instrument an its quintessentially 80s digital character! The one I'm playing of course was a 29th birthday present from my twin brother Eamon last month, my first instrument older than I am (1986), and while I'm still getting used to programming it properly, I thought I'd do some finger-drumming for 505 Day and share it with the world. Check out the video below:

[For those interested, the TR-505 was recorded in mono through the Korg ESX Electribe (Red machine above it) adding a touch of reverb and valve saturation, before heading to my Akai MPC 1000 to capture the audio which was then synced to the video in post editing].

Here's another extra video from the same session, though this time it's just the camera mic:

Whether you're an avid drum machine fan or you've only heard about the TR-505 today, I hope you enjoy the videos above and I look forward to recording with it properly soon! ​No doubt this gem will be on the next Jabun album which I aim to start working on later this year. Anyways, a belated Happy 505 Day to you all, and I look forward to 808 day when I'll likely be doing a similar video with my TR-08 reissue of the classic machine (unless I get 606 or 707 in the mean time)! Fun times!

Lastly this week, a big celebration for the 4th of May as my debut chill / electronic album as Jabun, Daydream, celebrates 2 years since its release! Man how the time flies! If you've yet to hear it, then feel free to sit back, relax and have a listen via the player below (make sure to start from track 01) and feel free to pick up a copy on Bandcamp if you like it. It's been a while since I've worked on similar chill vibes, but once the BTTB - Hopes and Dreams album is out, and after another brief excursion, I hope to get back to it and start on another Jabun EP or album later this year. Looking forward to it, and while you wait, enjoy Daydream:

That about wraps thing up for this post! I hope you're all excited as I am for the "Meteor Shower" lyric video launch tomorrow so come join the premier on YouTube and check out the BTTB Bandcamp page as soon as you're done to read more about the upcoming album, check out the cover art and pick up a pre-order! I'm sure you'll love it! No doubt that next week will be busy with the promo work for the new single but there'll definitely be more to share in the next blog post so look forward to that. Until then I hope you have a great week and thanks as always for support JabunAudio, Better Than The Book and my various music projects. Take care until then, and I hope you enjoy the new and old music and videos!