Hi everyone and I hope you've had a fantastic week so far! It's been a super busy week here at JabunAudio packing up ready for the move next week, and apart from my desk, main studio monitors and guitar amp + a couple of pedals (all of which will be packed up right after I post this), the studio is all boxed up and ready to go! This post will be the last one for a few weeks until I'm settled in the new place and have a new internet connection set up, but don't fret, this final post is gonna be a big one to leave JabunAudio3 with a bang! Tonnes of radio news to share + one final video and a round-up to conclude Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album's formal promo campaign too! Let's get straight into it!

First of all this week, today is the final day of the formal promotional campaign for Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album and to celebrate, I've uploaded a stream of the full album to YouTube and Newgrounds which you can check out below for the full 39+ minutes of uninterrupted heartfelt ska punk / pop punk that is Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams! I hope you enjoy it!

Purchase the “Hopes and Dreams” album on Bandcamp:
https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/
 
Or grab the full album and complete Better Than The Book discography now when you become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Listen on Newgrounds: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/882416

​Next this week, a tonne more radio news to share! On Saturday morning I managed to catch the re-run of last week's The Undiscovered Sound on idobi Radio​, and "Artificial Ignorance" was featured! Thanks so much to Jeff for playing the music and you can read more about The Undiscovered Sound on their site here:

https://idobi.com/show/the-undiscovered-sound/

I'm don't think there'll be a podcast re-run of this episode, but if there is I’ll update the link on the PRESS page with the replay. Still awesome news!

Onto the next show, "Artificial Ignorance" was also featured on Channel One Radio’s The Warp Factor on Friday! Thanks so much Kirk and Craig for playing the track, and no worries at all on getting the name wrong (you're not the first)! Ironic considering the title too! You can listen to the full radio show again via the link below for many great tunes and a history of punk segment too! “Artificial Ignorance” plays in the last half hour of the show:

https://www.mixcloud.com/thewarpfactor/the-warp-factor-ultimate-punk-with-craig-cabell-6th-sept-19/

Lastly in the radio related news for this week, Button Down Radio and Tonic Ska Radio both seem to be expressing their love for Better Than The Book recently too! Thanks so much for playing the tunes and you can listen in and read more via the Facebook posts below:

Button Down Radio:
https://www.facebook.com/buttondownradio5446/posts/2401291610142662

Tonic Ska Radio:
​https://www.facebook.com/tonicskaradio/photos/a.920763794801085/1091865371024259/
https://www.facebook.com/tonicskaradio/photos/a.929833417227456/1093440354200094/

Next from the news this week, with that final full-album stream released, it feels crazy to me that after almost 5 months of pre-hype and post-promo, the formal Hopes and Dreams album promotional campaign has finally come to a close, and what a heck of an adventure it has been so far! Let's take a look back at everything the album has achieved since the first single dropped back in May:
 
Before the album was even launched, Hopes and Dreams, was featured in a number web magazines with one of the singles “(The Travelling To See Eva Song)” earning Better Than The Book its Australian FM radio premier on The Ska Show with Beefy, the #2 ska music podcast in the world! Fast forward to today, and less than 2 months after the album’s release, 5 out 10 of the tracks have been featured on radio shows and podcasts worldwide including:
 
Idobi Radio’s Fresh Picks, Spinning Thoughts, and The Undiscovered Sound shows (California)
Bobs Ska Radio (Seattle)
Channel One Radio’s The Warp Factor (UK)
Button Down Radio (UK)
Tonic Ska Radio (UK)
The Masita Ska Show with Beefy on Southern FM (Melbourne)
 
Bear in mind that many of these shows have featured and played multiple tracks from the album in multiple episodes too! On top of all the radio features, Better Than The Book has been featured and/or interviewed in a number of web magazines and music blogs too including:
 
Broken Arrow Magazine
Pete's Rock News And Views
Happy Metal Geek
Breathing The Core
The Punk Site
World Beyond Blog
 
A special mention goes out to Newgrounds too where the 2nd single “Artificial Ignorance” (which seems to be a crowd favourite across the board) earned a front page feature award too! A HUGE thanks to everyone who’s shared and played the music and helped spread the word with a round of applause for the album’s PR extraordinaire Meg who especially made many of the magazine/blog features and interviews possible! Thanks Meg! Check out all these features in full, reading interviews as well as re-listening to many of the radio show/podcast features on Better Than The Book’s press page below! I hope you enjoy them:
 
https://betterthanthebookuk.weebly.com/press.html
 
And if you’ve yet to hear the Hopes and Dreams album and see what all the fuss is about, the full album is now streaming on YouTube, SoundCloud and Newgrounds as well as available in all the usual places (iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc...) and of course on the Better Than The Book Bandcamp page! Enjoy:
 
https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/album/hopes-and-dreams
 
(and of course you can listen via the video above too!)
 
Onto other news if you've not yet heard, now that the Hopes and Dreams album is out, it felt like a great time to make some updates to my Patreon page, and so I’ve revised the descriptions, goals and tier rewards (now only 3 tiers to choose from) as well as added REWARD ARCHIVE posts for the convenience of new patrons so you can grab all the past rewards for your tier (including the full Better Than The Book Discography and more) in one place when you sign up! Read all about the new updates via the Patreon post below:
 
https://www.patreon.com/posts/28931894
 
With such a big BTTB related project just finished, the newer rewards which started up again this month will focus mainly around my other musical personality Jabun (electronic / cinematic) for a little while, but don’t worry, Better Than The Book is not done yet which leads me to the final piece of news for today:
 
Last month for the first time since its conception in 2012, 4 guys (including myself) got together to jam the tunes live as a Better Than The Book band! It was just a casual living room jam, but the results were promising enough that over the past month we’ve been hard at work arranging and learning our parts for our first full band practice at the start of October! I can’t say for sure what’ll happen next if that all goes well but there is a definite possibility that after 7 years of being solely a writing/recording project, Better Than The Book may be hitting the stage! Many logistics to figure out before then first, but it’s certainly an exciting time for the project (as if the last year wasn’t exciting enough)! Crazy!
 
A friendly reminder that Better Than The Book is significantly fuelled by my Patreon page, and while recording everything myself is relatively cheap and just takes a huge time investment, taking things to the stage is a bit more of a financial challenge. If you’d like to contribute (for as little as $1 a month) head over to my Patreon homepage to read more about the various rewards you can receive, the goals for the project and pick up the full Better Than The Book discography (including some Patreon exclusives and bonuses) if you decide to sign up!
 
https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding
 
If you’re unable to contribute at the moment, then no worries at all! Sharing the Bandcamp or Patreon link on social media is also a huge way to help spread the word and only takes a moment! Thanks for supporting Better Than The Book in any way you’re able to!
 
And that wraps up this post! I hope you’ve enjoyed all the amazing news this time and throughout the campaign, and I have a feeling that there’ll be more press features to come and big news to share soon (we’ll have to wait and see). If you’re itching to hear more then head over to the Better Than The Book Facebook or Twitter for the most immediate updates, or consider supporting my music on Patreon for a front row view of all the action! It's going to be a few busy weeks until the next blog post here, but I hope to be back to it again on Thursday 3rd October once I'm fully moved into the new place! Until then, a huge thank you for supporting Better Than The Book, JabunAudio and my various music projects and I hope you have a fantastic few weeks whatever you’re up to! Take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great first week of September so far! It's been intensely busy over here at JabunAudio sorting various things for this week's big news: JabunAudio is moving!

That's right, after over 2 years and many projects, JabunAudio is relocating once again, and although it's a bigger move than last time, thankfully it's not as far away! Exciting things are happening in my life at the moment and so the studio will be moving with it. All the acoustic treatment has been taken down and about half of the equipment is packed away already ready for the big day later this month. I'm must say, I'm definitely nervous about having to set up a new work space and calibrate/treat a new room (this place was the best studio I've had yet), but it's also an exciting challenge which I've not had in a while!

Of course with the studio in pieces at the moment, JabunAudio has closed its doors for business until the new place is set up, and so from now until likely mid-October I'll be unable to carry out any audio work. Any communications during this period may also receive delayed responses depending on how long it takes to get the internet up and running, though feel free to message me and I'll get to any messages as and when I can. Apologies in advance for any inconvenience, and I look forward to working with you from a brand new studio location in October! 

With the big news above, the rest of the week has been spent finishing up all the current audio projects, including mixing a teaser for the new Tales of Zale episode by Hikarian Animations, as well as getting machines backed up and things packed away ready for moving. It's also been a busy week for tying up some admin loose ends with much time spent sorting the Patreon page (more on that in a moment), but there's also some exciting news, as well as another track, to share from Better Than The Book! Let's get started with that!

​Another week; another track, and this time I'm sharing the final and title track from Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album, which brings everything Better Than The Book has been about since 2012 to an intense climax to close this chapter! Prepare for some major feels, heartfelt lyrics, and references that go all the way back to One Small Step! Check it out via the YouTube video below or on SoundCloud and Newgrounds if those are your usual haunts and without further wait, here's "Hopes and Dreams":

​Purchase the “Hopes and Dreams” album on Bandcamp​:
https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/
 
Or grab the full album and complete Better Than The Book discography now when you become a supporter on Patreon​:
https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

With that final track out now, you can now listen to the entire Hopes and Dreams album on YouTube, SoundCloud and Newgrounds via the playlists below too! I hope you enjoy revisiting all the music from the past few months:

YouTube: 
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWEmqIhrNPvRXtoSO0XcRRXiZno54nctc

SoundCloud: 
https://soundcloud.com/bttb_uk/sets/hopes-and-dreams-album

Newgrounds: 
https://www.newgrounds.com/playlists/view/4de7b9bd11545537f082fae812c1395f

Just one more thing to share next week before the formal promotional campaign for the album comes to a close, but what and incredible journey it's been over these past few months! Thank you all so much for helping spread the word about this music I've poured my heart into over the past year and supporting Better Than The Book! You folks are awesome!

Onto the next section of news for this week, lots of updates to share from Patreon! First of all, as yesterday was the first Wednesday of the month, the $1+ Patreon rewards have been sent out including my debut track as Jabun from back in 2012 "Bergamot"! It's all pretty much the same news as last week's rewards for the $5+ Hi-Fi Early Pigeons so I shan't repeat it all here, but check out the post on Patreon below for all the details:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/29106009

The bigger piece of news this week is that I have some major updates to share with you about the Patreon page itself, as with Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album (and entire discography) now out and up on Patreon, it seemed like the prefect time for some well needed revamping!

To start with, I've reassessed the reward tiers and reduced it down to 3, waving goodbye to the others as there were no subscribers to those and it was just extra work for me. So long! The 3 remaining tiers are as follows and you can read more about them on the Patreon page here.

$1 - Pigeon (Same as before)
$5 - Hi-Fi Early Pigeon (Same as the previous $5 Early Pigeon tier)
$10 - DEMOlition Pigeon (Same as before)

With these remaining tiers, I've also updated the descriptions to be bullet pointed for clear communication of the rewards and added in the explicit reward of gaining access to all past rewards for your tier too! Speaking of which if you hadn't already heard, for the convenience of patrons I’ve put together "REWARD ARCHIVE" posts so you can quickly access all rewards from October 4th 2018 to August 7th 2019 which include the full Better Than The Book discography and more! No longer will you need to sift through all the past posts manually to grab your rewards; it's all in one place now (up until August 7th 2019). Neat stuff, and feel free to read more about it in the post below:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/28928832 

With the changes to the rewards and these new convenient additions, the main Patreon description and intro video seemed a bit out of date and irrelevant so the intro video has been temporarily removed and the description updated to better reflect where things are now, rather than when I first started on Patreon a year ago. The space where the video was is now occupied by one of the press photos from the Hopes and Dreams album campaign and I hope to have a new intro video put together later this year.

Finally, with all the changes, achievements and a whole year gone past since I first set them, it felt like a great time to reassess my Patreon goals and so there are now only 3 goals for what I hope to achieve when we reach $100, $500, and $2000 a month. The accompanying descriptions I feel are more realistic to what I think I can achieve and I hope will help people to see where I aim to get with the platform and my music projects. As with the rewards tiers and description, you can find all these updates on the Patreon page here.

Next this week some more radio news for Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album! Last night Better Than The Book was apparently featured on The Undiscovered Sound on idobi Radio but I missed it because I was given the wrong air time (an hour late), so I don't even know what track was played! Many thanks to Jeff for spinning a song on the show and apparently there will be a re-run of the show on Saturday at 11am BST. In the mean time, feel free to check out more episodes of The Undiscovered Sound on the show's page on idobi radio below and hopefully I should be episode 21 whenever that comes out in podcast form:

https://idobi.com/show/the-undiscovered-sound/

Interestingly I did catch Better Than The Book's "The Hardest Part" playing on a teaser for idobi Radio's fresh picks segment when I tuned in which was pretty cool! Hopefully I'll be able to catch the intended show on Saturday! 

On a more positive note, it seems like Better Than The Book just keeps getting more and more love over on Button Down Radio, which is always nice to hear! Thanks so much for playing the tunes and check out the post below for some more ska radio fun:

https://www.facebook.com/buttondownradio5446/posts/2397008467237643?__tn__=-R#
​
Finally this week, it's the beginning of another month which means it's once again time to reflect on the previous month's goals and set some new ones for September! Here's what I had for August:

1) Create a "dump" rewards post on Patreon for all the BTTB discography and related rewards
2) Schedule Patreon rewards posts for the next 2 months
3) Have a temporal clean-up on the Patreon page in general (update information etc...)
4) Record lead and harmony vocals (+ the guitar solo?) for the mystery cover song (low priority)

​So let's start with what I didn't get done: it's been such a busy month that I've simply not had any time to pursue any leisurely recording projects, so 4) and the associated project have been put on hold until I'm in settled in the new studio and have some free time again. With the REWARD ARCHIVE posts and this weeks revamp updates on Patreon, I can safely say that 1) and 3) are sorted, and I have indeed scheduled the next 2 months of Patreon reward posts too! Overall not a bad month in terms of goals!

Onto this month, with the studio in pieces at the moment and the big move imminent, I have just a couple of goals to set for JabunAudio:

1) Finish the formal Better Than The Book - Hopes and Dreams promotional campaign
2) Get fully moved in to the new place and start getting stuff set up (I don't expect to finish setting up though)

Only 2 goals (that I'll say here), but as it's set to be a busy month, potentially without a studio or internet connection for much of it, I think those 2 goals are reasonable. The Hopes and Dreams promotional campaign is set to conclude this time next week, a day before everything needs to be packed, so hopefully I can make that (I'll still have my laptop to tie up loose ends afterwards), and with the moving date set as the 20th, 2) should hopefully be doable, though it's a hectic few weeks with other things before and after that too so we'll see how it goes. I have another couple of personal goals to sort too, and those I think will be the harder ones, but hopefully they're doable as well. Anyways, wish me luck and feel free to leave your own goals in the comments so we can keep each other accountable! Gonna be a busy month!

And that wraps up this week's news! Next week's post will be the final blog post for a few weeks, though I aim to be back and writing it again for October 3rd! I'm sure this next week will be super busy finishing off the Hopes and Dreams promotional campaign as well as packing and tying up various other loose ends, but until the next post, I hope you have a marvelous week and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Better Than The Book and my various projects! Take care and see you next time!  

Hi everyone and hope you've been having a great week so far. It's been a pretty hectic time over here (scorching hot too), and I've also been away again for the bank holiday weekend so less than half of the days this week have actually been spent in the studio. The days which have been have been jam packed though and there's a lot to share in this week's post! Before we get into the main news though, I had an unexpected return to Hikarian Animations' Tales of Zale earlier this week which was a lovely surprise! While I can't say anything here at the moment, there's some super exciting things coming up for the project in the future (some of which I'll be continuing to work on for the rest of this week) so keep an eye out for that! There's also some more exciting (and nerve-racking) news to come in next week's blog post but today doesn't feel like the right time to announce it, so you'll just have to wait. With all that mini-news said, let's get into the main stuff for this week and start with another new track from Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album! 

Another week; another track, and this time I'm sharing track 09 from Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album, "You've Got A Lot To Say". This track is one of the more serious ones I've written, all about loss and being there for loved ones in hard times. I feel like "I hope you enjoy it" isn't the right thing to say, but I hope you get something out of it at least and take the message to heart. Check it out via the YouTube video below or on SoundCloud and Newgrounds if those are your usual haunts and without further wait, here's "You've Got A Lot To Say":

Purchase the “Hopes and Dreams” album on Bandcamp​:
https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/
 
Or grab the full album and complete Better Than The Book discography now when you become a supporter on Patreon​:
https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Speaking of Patreon, yesterday was the final Wednesday of August which means the rewards posts have started up again for the $5+ and $10+ patrons! With the entire Better Than The Book discography (so far) out now, that means it's finally time to start on the back catalog of my electronic / cinematic project: Jabun! Exciting times!

For those of you who don't know, although I've gone by the name Jabun in many places online since my early teen years, I only started releasing music as Jabun in late 2012, at a similar time that Better Than The Book was also starting out. This month, I present to you my very first original track as Jabun - "Bergamot", a relaxing chillstep electronic track which aimed to be as soothing as a nice cup of Earl Grey tea! It's something very different from what you've heard from me so far on Patreon, and I hope you enjoy it as there's a lot more different things coming up in the next few months. Fear not if you prefer my ska punk stuff though as more exciting things from Better Than The Book are already in the works! Become a $5+ patron to download the track now, or wait a week for it to become available to the $1 patrons! If you've yet to hear it, check out "Bergamot" below for a step back into my early days as Jabun, and while I still had a long way to go back then (I still do), I hope you enjoy it:

Hi everyone and hope you've had a great week so far. I've been away for most of this past one, and while super busy with some things, it's been the quietest week in a while with regards news to share. Nevertheless, there's more music and things to show so let's get straight to it!

Another week and another track so let's start off by sharing more music from Better Than The Book's new Hopes and Dreams album and this time it's track 08 "GG" all about fun times playing video games! Check out the YouTube video below for a fun pop-punk anthem filled with nostalgic video games references and some chip-tune inspired extra sounds! You can also check it out on SoundCloud and Newgrounds if those are your usual haunts and without further wait, here's "GG":

Purchase the “Hopes and Dreams” album on Bandcamp​:
https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/
 
Or grab the full album and complete Better Than The Book discography now when you become a supporter on Patreon​:
https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

In terms of other news, there haven't been any more press features for BTTB's new album this week, though the Hopes and Dreams album turned 1 month old on Monday which feels a little crazy and what a month it has been! In case you've missed them, you can check out all the press, radio and podcast features so far over on the Better Than The Book website! Exciting times!

https://betterthanthebookuk.weebly.com/press.html

Check out the Hopes and Dreams album on Bandcamp if you haven't already, and thanks so much to everyone who's purchased, listened, shared and played the music loud to the world over this past month! It's been an incredible journey so far!

That's about it for this post! It's onto track 09 of the album next week and I'm sure there'll be more exciting news to share with it. Until the next track and the next post, have a great rest of the week and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Better Than The Book and my various projects! Take care and enjoy the music!

Hi everyone and hope you're all having a great week so far! It's non-stop as usual for the news and exciting times over here at JabunAudio, especially for Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album which seems to be going further and further with every week! Another jam packed blog post this time so let's get straight to it!

Let's start as usual by sharing another track from Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album, and this time it's the opening track to side B, track 06: "Get A Haircut" all about un-fun times and people being pricks! Check out the YouTube video below for a rage filled pop punk anthem about bullying and my first week in a town which shall remain nameless! At least I got a song out of it! You can also check it out on SoundCloud and Newgrounds if those are you usual haunts, and without further wait, I hope you enjoy, "Get A Haircut"!

Purchase the “Hopes and Dreams” album on Bandcamp​:
https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/
 
Or grab the full album and complete Better Than The Book discography now when you become a supporter on Patreon​:
https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Next on the news, it's also been another exciting week for radio features (and more) for Better Than The Book! To start with, The Ska Show with Beefy is back again for another re-run and this time track 05 "Brighton" from the Hopes and Dreams album played right after my favourite ska track of all time "The Impression That I Get" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones​! Such an honour and thanks so much to Beefy for having it up on the show (playing alongside, Reel Big Fish, The Specials and Madness too)! Listen in via the Facebook link below and "Brighton" plays at -18:16 from the end followed straight on by a shout out! Amazing stuff!

You can check out the full track list for the show via the link below too:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/the-ska-show-with-beefy-on-southern-fm/playlist-30th-july-2019/2418165348271856/?__tn__=HH-R

The track which preceded "Brighton", "The Impression That I Get" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones was pretty much THE song which got me into ska back in the day and is still today one my favourite tracks of all time and one I hold close to heart. If you missed it back in 2017, I even recorded an acoustic cover of the song for my parents' Christmas present that year which you can check out below! Such an amazing track and such an honour to be playing alongside it! Hope you enjoy the cover version:

With "Brighton" added to the list, that makes 5/10 tracks from the Hopes and Dreams album to have been featured on the radio worldwide so far too (that I know of)! Crazy feeling!
 
But the radio news doesn't stop there! All 10 tracks from the Hopes and Dreams album are now on Seattle based internet radio station Bob's Ska Radio​'s rotation! You can even request any of the songs to be played with a dedication if you wish too: just search "Better" or "Book" and choose which track you'd like played! Check it out and listen in below! Thanks Bob's Ska Radio!
 
http://www.bobskaradio.com/index.php/playlist-requests
 
Next, some more press news to share today as the Hopes and Dreams album has been featured in Broken Arrow Magazine​! Check it out and read more in the link below, and thanks so much to Broken Arrow Magazine for featuring the new music!
 
http://www.brokenarrowmagazine.com/have-you-heard-better-than-the-book/
 
And finally this week some super exciting news. Tuesday was a historic day for BTTB as for the first time since its conception in 2012, 4 guys (including myself) got together to jam the tunes live as a Better Than The Book band! Super fun and exciting times, and we'll see where it all goes from here! Who can say for sure, but it's certainly looking to be fun!
 
That’s it for the news this week! Next week we'll be onto track 08 of the album "GG", but I'm sure there'll be many more pieces of news to share too! It's set to be a busy week though I'll mostly away so we'll have to wait and see as to what'll be coming next! Until the next one, have a great rest of the week and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Better Than The Book and my various music projects! Enjoy the new music and take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having another great week since the last post! The hype train just keeps chugging on over here and it's been another intensely busy week at JabunAudio with yet more radio features and news for Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album, as well as some other fun things to share! It's gonna be another long post so let's get straight to it!

Let's start with another track to share from Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album, and this time it's track 05 (the final track of side A) "Brighton" all about my favourite city by the sea! Check out the YouTube video below for nostalgic and summery vibes about fond memories growing up on England's south coast, and I wonder if you can pick up on all the references! You can also check it out on SoundCloud and Newgrounds if those are you usual haunts, and without further wait, I hope you enjoy, "Brighton"!

Purchase the “Hopes and Dreams” album on Bandcamp:
https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/
 
Or grab the full album and complete Better Than The Book discography now when you become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Next in the news, it’s been another crazy week for radio features for BTTB's new Hopes and Dreams album! Better Than The Book made its debut on Button Down Radio on Sunday, and there’s still a few more chances (5 at the time I post this) to catch “Artificial Ignorance” in the Featured This Week segment before they refresh the playlist this coming Sunday and it enters the general rotation. Check out the poster promoting the show below for all the times it'll be playing throughout the week, tune in now via their website below to have a listen (and catch more great tunes), and thanks so much to Button Down Radio for having BTTB on the show!

https://www.buttondownradio.co.uk/

More radio news next as the opening track from the Hopes and Dreams album "The Hardest Part" has been added to Fresh Picks on idobi Radio too! Tune in via the link below, check out another promotional graphic from the station, and thanks to idobi for having BTTB on the show! Amazing!

ido.bi/player

That makes 4 out of 10 tracks from Hopes and Dreams to have been featured on the radio so far! Amazing times, and a huge thanks to all the shows and stations who have been playing them! Better Than The Book just passed 500 followers on Twitter and 100 likes on Facebook too, so that's pretty cool as well! I’m so happy people are enjoying the new music!

Last of the big pieces of news this week: some major updates to my Patreon page as I announce the first set of "REWARD ARCHIVE" posts covering 4/10/2018 -> 7/8/2019 (including the full Better Than The Book Discography & more) for the convenience of Patreon supporters and new patrons! You can now use the tag "REWARD ARCHIVE" to access posts which summarize and collect all the rewards for your tier from October 4th 2018 to August 7th 2019, instead of having to search through posts manually to find the past rewards for your tier when you sign up! These months' rewards cover the full Better Than The Book discography (as of August 2019), and the posts are there for your convenience so you can pick up all these rewards (Mp3s, WAVs, artwork and more depending in your tier) in one place, including:

• One Small Step EP 
• Heartbeats [The Knife] + GG [Good Game]  
• Meteor Shower 2017 demo, MLGG + Stars Racing {Patreon exclusive}
• Two Years On album  
• Two Years On [Instrumentals] album
• A selection of pre-BTTB demos {Patreon exclusive} 
• Hopes and Dreams album + press photos, lyric sheets, and a behind the scenes studio photo and story     

Become a monthly patron for as little as $1 to access all the music so far as well as all the music to come in the future while you remain a patron! For those of you signed up the $10+ DEMOlition Pigeon tier, you also have access to all the work in progress, demos and behind the scenes monthly articles too including:
  

• A sneak peek at "(The Travelling To See Eva Song)" 
• Journey into "Get A Haircut"
• One Small Step's artwork story + a new mix 
• A deep dive into "Meteor Shower"
• More Better Than The Book artwork stories + another first(ish) draft mix from the new album
• Work in progress artwork for the upcoming Hopes and Dreams album + a demo master for track 06 "Get A Haircut"
• An in depth look into the creation of the Hopes and Dreams album cover (+ demo alternatives)
• A behinds the scenes look into "The Hardest Part"
• A behinds the scenes look into "Artificial Ignorance"
• A behinds the scenes look into "And I Fear"

Check out the full post on Patreon for all the details and thanks so much for supporting Better Than The Book, Jabun and my various music projects on Patreon!
 
https://www.patreon.com/posts/28928832
https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Finally this week, some super fun celebrations to share because today is 808 Day! In case you're unaware, 808 Day (in the music tech community at least) celebrates my favourite drum machine of all time, the Roland TR-808 and its legacy on music since its invention in the 1980s!
          The TR-808 has been used on countless albums, in almost every genre imaginable by everyone from Phil Collins, to Marvin Gaye, to Blink-182, to Kanye West, to Limp Blizkit & Linkin Park, just to name a few (the list goes on and on)! In my own music, it was used to enhance every track on Better Than The Book's new Hopes and Dreams album, and was used more recognizably in my debut album as Jabun - Daydream, as well as on countless other tracks in my discography! I love it and to celebrate this year I fired up my more compact Tr-08 (Roland's modern reissue) for some big low end booms, robotic claps, sizzling hi-hats, and the most recognizable yet WTF cowbell sound in sampling history for a little jam which you can watch below
          It's my first time recording something like this live in addition to it being completely unrehearsed and improvised, but all things considered I'm super pleased with how it turned out (I might even make a fully fledged track based on this jam later)! All the sounds are from the Tr-08 with effects provided by the filter, mod delay, decimator, reverb and valve saturation from my Korg ESX Electribe (the big red/pink box), and recorded straight onto my Akai MPC 1000 (no post effects/editing). Hope you enjoy it, more electronic music to come soon, and a happy 808 Day to all!

Hello everyone and hope you're having another great week so far! It's been a crazy busy time here at JabunAudio and the press features and news for Better Than The Book's new Hopes and Dreams album just keep rolling in! I managed a little bit of leisurely recording this week amongst the chaos (more on that later), but in terms of news and things to share this is going to be yet another jam packed blog post so let's get straight into it!

First of all this week, it's time to share another track from Better Than The Book's new Hopes and Dreams album and this time I'm going with track 03: "And I Fear", an honest and no holding back ska punk anthem about the fear of not being able to live up to other people's expectations! Check out the YouTube video below to hear it (visualizer courtesy of Vlad from World Beyond, thanks Vlad!), and you can also find it on SoundCloud and Newgrounds if those are your usual haunts! I hope you enjoy it and without further wait, here's "And I Fear":

Purchase the “Hopes and Dreams” album on Bandcamp:
https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/

Or grab the full album and complete Better Than The Book discography now when you become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Next in this week's news, following Hopes and Dreams' feature on Spinning Thoughts' "Bands People Tweet At Me" Spotify playlist last week, there was a very quick public voted competition for which the top 3 voted bands from the playlist would be played on that week's Spinning Thoughts idobi Radio show, and thanks to all your support, BTTB made it onto the show which funnily enough was episode 182 (the perfect pop-punk number!)! I just happened to wake up miraculously at 5am to catch the show broadcasting live and it was crazy cool! Thanks so much to everyone who voted and supported BTTB, Hopes and Dreams' PR extraordinaire Meg for letting me know about the competition, whoever initially tweeted the band to ST for the playlist, and to Angelo from Spinning Thoughts for having BTTB on the show! You can check out the podcast rerun of the show on the SoundCloud player below (Hopes and Dreams is the first full track after the talking starts and has some surrounding hype from the DJ as well as my own recorded bumper message!), and see the announcement poster and post on Facebook. Super cool!

From BTTB's Californian radio debut we head southwest across the Pacific and back to Australia as Better Than The Book was featured once again on The Ska Show with Beefy on Southern FM! This time Beefy played the 2nd single from Hopes and Dreams "Artificial Ignorance" along with giving another awesome shout out to BTTB and the new album! Thanks so much again Beefy for sharing the jams, and it feels amazing to be playing alongside my personal heroes Less Than Jake, as well as the big old ska boys Madness (both in the 2nd half of the show)! Awesome stuff and you can listen to the podcast re-run of the first half of the July 23rd Ska Show with Beefy below! "Artificial Ignorance" is on -9:09 before the end (it's the 2nd to last track) following with an amazing shout out from Beefy! I hope you enjoy it:

From Australia, we head back to home soil in the UK as on Saturday, Better Than The Book made its debut on the London based internet radio station Tonic Ska Radio! Check out the post below and tune it, they've been playing some great stuff!

And I'm STILL not quite done with all the radio related news! Better Than The Book is also set to make its debut on another UK ska station Button Down Radio this Sunday at 11:30 BST, with a twice daily repeat of the segment for the following week! More details to come for that so head over to the BTTB Facebook page for more updates closer to the time if you're interested, but check out the announcement poster for the show here! Super exciting times!

https://www.facebook.com/BetterThanTheBookUK

Phew... that was a lot of BTTB related news! Getting to the end of this post now so let's finish off with the usual monthly goals and reflections. Here's what was set for July:

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

Well I can finally say that Hopes and Dreams has been released now and I'm just about keeping up on all the press work, though there seems to be a fair amount left to come (there's STILL stuff in the pipeline I'm not able to share yet)! With regards 2) I have been able to do a bit of relaxing music stuff this month (just about), though I've definitely been feeling that post-release blues and lack of musical energy for the past week or so. Having said that, I did managed to record all the rhythm guitars and bass (some leads too) for a brand new fun cover song I've been meaning to do for YEARS so that's very exciting! Not quite sure when that'll be out but I'll be playing with it as and when I can! Overall (and I'm sure all the press says a good deal for it) it's been a pretty darn good month overall! Time to set some goals for August!

1) Create a "dump" rewards post on Patreon for all the BTTB discography and related rewards
2) Schedule Patreon rewards posts for the next 2 months
3) Have a temporal clean-up on the Patreon page in general (update information etc...)
4) Record lead and harmony vocals (+ the guitar solo?) for the mystery cover song (low priority)

Lots of Patreon related goals this month; "housekeeping" of sorts. It's set to be a busy month with some time off and some other big things going on which I'll reveal in the coming weeks when things are more concrete, but after a busy month of July, I think it'll be nice to have some hopefully less intensive goals while I keep up with all the promotional work for the new album too. Goal 1) is for the convenience of potential new supporters on Patreon while goal 2) is in case I can't get to those posts when the time comes due to things which I'll reveal later. Goal 3) is just a temporary update to the Patreon page. I intend to record a new intro video and do a full spruce up later on before the end of the year, but with the Hopes and Dreams album now out, some of the information there needs updating so it seemed like a good time to start sorting things out. With regards the cover song, I've no idea whether I'll have time to work on it, but goal 4) is the target I'd like to make if I can. Still no ETA on release date but I hope to have it out before the end of the year. Wish me luck and feel free to share your goals in the comments so we can keep each other accountable. Best of luck to you too!

And that just about wraps up this this post! What a post it was! Next week I'll be onto sharing track 05 of the Hopes and Dreams album which is the end of the first side, and I've no doubt there'll be many more pieces of news to share too! I'll likely be busy with the promo work and working on those Patreon related goals next week too so I'm sure it'll be busy (might get some time to record too hopefully). Until the next one, thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Better Than The Book and my various projects!  Have a great rest of the week, enjoy the new music and podcasts and take care!​

Hello everyone and hope you've all had a fantastic week so far! It's been a boiling hot and busy as heck time here at JabunAudio with the launch of Better Than The Book's 2nd studio album "Hopes and Dreams" which released last Friday 19th July, and man oh man is there a lot to share in this scorcher of a blog post! TONNES of exciting news today so let's not delay and get straight to the big news: Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album!
​
The time has finally come and I cannot tell you how excited I am to announce that Better Than The Book's 2nd full-length album "Hopes and Dreams" has finally been released! You can check out the teaser / launch video below (featuring track 01 "The Hardest Part") as well as listen to the full Hopes and Dreams album, pick up a copy, and see the full album credits and special thanks on Bandcamp via the link below! I hope you enjoy it all! 

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

I'm also super happy to announce that Hopes and Dreams has been approved for worldwide distribution and can now additionally be found on iTunes, Amazon, Google, Spotify and all the other places you'd expect digital music to be found in this day and age! Horray!

With the new album comes a new set of rewards on Patreon too, and boy is there a lot to share this time! With such a huge and special event as an album launch, all patrons will be receiving:

1) A full download of the brand new Better Than The Book - Hopes and Dreams album in mp3 and WAV format as well as high resolution album art ($1 Patrons will only receive the mp3s and artwork, not the WAVs) 

2) A selection of high resolution photos from the press shoot for the album, including photos used for the album's press releases and marketing campaign

3) High resolution lyric sheets for the album

4) A behind the scenes studio photo and story from the Hopes and Dreams album production

And all that for as little as $1 a month when you sign up! Not only that, but I'm once again hosting a Patreon exclusive Ask Me Anything / Q & A session to celebrate the album's launch! Hope to hear some interesting questions from you all!

And remember that on top of all that 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! If you're a $10+ patron too, then you'll have access to the entire series of monthly behind the scenes and demo posts too! There's never been a better time to sign up to Patreon than today!  
https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

With the Hopes and Dreams album finally out, I think it's time for a well earned break, so the next Patreon reward posts will be on the final Wednesday of August (the 28th) for the $5+ patrons, and first Wednesday of September (the 4th) for the $1+ / $2+ patrons when I start releasing the Jabun back catalog of music on the new Patreon rewards schedule. There will undoubtedly be more posts and things to share in the mean time though I'm sure! Until then I hope you enjoy all the new music and extra rewards and I want to express my biggest thanks to all the patrons and readers for supporting Better Than The Book and the Hopes and Dreams album, and my various other music projects on Patreon! Hope to see you over on the Q & A post!

Next this week, I've also uploaded the first of the non-single tracks to YouTube, SoundCloud and Newgrounds! There'll be a new track coming out each Wednesday until mid September and the first of the bunch is the opening track of the album "The Hardest Part"! Get ready for a motivational ska punk anthem to get you pumped for the rest of the new music, and hope you enjoy it:

​
Onto the next piece of news, some more exciting times as the podcast re-run for the radio show which featured BTTB on it a few weeks ago is here! Thanks so much to Beefy for giving "(The Travelling To See Eva Song)" its Australian FM radio premier playing along side some HUGE ska and punk names such as Madness (first half of the show), The Clash, The Jam, and my personal ska punk heroes the Mighty Mighty Bosstones (first half of the show as well), as well as for the amazing shout out for the "Hopes and Dreams" album! Check out the July 9th Ska Show's podcast re-run (second half of the show) via the Facebook post below for some great ska covers, new and old tunes, and a tonne of skankin' fun! "(The Travelling To see Eva Song)" is on -20:37 before the end and there's a shoutout to BTTB at -15:33 too! Amazing stuff, and I hope you enjoy the show!

Beefy tells me that "Artificial Ignorance" made it onto the show this week too, so expect another re-run to be shared up here in the coming weeks! Thanks again Beefy!

A quick stop to catch my breath before I share even MORE press news for the Hopes and Dreams album, and it's honestly felt non-stop this week! First of all some amazing and kind words from my musical colleague and great friend Vlad from World Beyond about the Hopes and Dreams album! Thanks so much Vlad! Next Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams has been featured on Pete's Rock News And Views, thanks so much to Pete for featuring the project! And lastly (for now at least), Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams (the title track of the album) has been featured on Spinning Thoughts' "Bands People Tweet At Me" Spotify playlist! Amazing, and thanks to Spinning Thoughts and whoever tweeted BTTB to them for having me on the list! Check out all these press featured in more detail via the links below and I hope you enjoy reading and listening:

Vladimir Kuznetsov of World Beyond on Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album (Release announcement)

Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album featured on Pete's Rock News And Views

Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams featured on Spinning Thoughts' Bands People Tweet At Me Spotify playlist

Finally this week, as the new Hopes and Dreams album comes out, it's nice to reflect on where Better Than The Book started, and on Saturday 20th this week, I had the perfect reason to go back and look at my very first EP One Small Step, and the historical events which inspired not just the title, but much of the imagery in the first 2 songs of the album (as well as the sample in the intro). I'm talking of course about the first moon landing which happened 50 years ago this week: 3 brave souls taking the meaning of "Leaving Home" to the next level, and taking that One Small Step where no human had ever gone before! Truly inspiring! A huge celebration for 50 years since the first humans walked on the moon, and I wish and wonder for what the next 50 years will bring for human space exploration! Only our Hopes and Dreams can tell!

Check out the One Small Step EP on Bandcamp and all those other streaming places or pick it up when you become a patron! I think it was the first Patreon reward I ever gave!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

And that just about wraps things up for this post! It's looking to be a hectic week ahead keeping up with all the press features that have been coming in, and next Wednesday I'll be sharing around track 03 from Hopes and Dreams "And I Fear"! Not sure what else the week has in store, but I hope it starts to cool down soon at least! Until next time, thanks so much for supporting Better Than The Book, JabunAudio and my various projects, and I hope you enjoy Hopes and Dreams and all the exciting news that comes with it! Take care!

Hello everyone and hope you're having a great week so far! Super exciting and busy times over here at JabunAudio as Better Than The Book's new Hopes and Dreams album is released TOMORROW, but I had a great few days away seeing family and friends for a little pre-launch break too. I also went to see KISS on Thursday night which was unbelievable and a pilgrimage of sorts for my first band and I (as well as my dad and more friends)! Just phenomenal! With more amazing stuff to share in this post, this whole week's just been amazing, so let's get on with the news and start with the big one, Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album release tomorrow!

​The time has finally come and after over 2 months since the first single Meteor Shower was launched, Better Than The Book's sophomore album Hopes and Dreams will be released tomorrow (Friday 19th July) at 6pm BST on Bandcamp! I'm super happy to announce too that worldwide distribution across all major platforms including iTunes, Amazon and Spotify has also been approved and will be up for people to enjoy very soon as well! To celebrate the launch I've put together a short teaser for the album which will go live on YouTube at the launch time so if you're free, come join me for the premier below and I cannot wait to finally show you this album I've been pouring my heart and hard work into over the last year or so!

And if you've still yet to hear them, go check out the 3 pre-release singles over on Bandcamp and even pick up a pre-order if you'd like:

Or head over to Patreon to get the full album now when you join the $5+ tiers! You can also join the $10+ tier for a special thanks in the album credits (last chance today), and remember that you'll get all previous rewards for your tier too including the full BTTB discography including many Patreon exclusive bonus tracks! I'll also be hosting an Ask Me Anything session for the patrons when the album goes live so feel free to join me on Patreon, and I look forward to hearing your questions!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Finally this week, some amazing news as Better Than The Book made its Australian FM Radio debut last Tuesday night with "(The Travelling To See Eva Song)" on The Ska Show with Beefy on Southern FM! Thanks so much Beefy for having it playing alongside the music of my heroes including The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, as well as HUGE names like Madness, The Clash, and The Jam! Amazing stuff! You can check out the show playlist via the link below, and hopefully there'll be a re-stream of the show to share soon:  

https://www.facebook.com/notes/the-ska-show-with-beefy-on-southern-fm/playlist-9th-july-2019/2369304423157949/?__tn__=-R

That about wraps things up for today! Big day tomorrow with the Hopes and Dreams album launch and I'll be sharing tracks from the album in the coming weeks with each blog post too! Next week's looking to be busy continuing with promo work, but I'm sure there'll be more stuff to share as well! Until then, thank you as always for supporting JabunAudio, Better Than The Book and my various projects and I cannot wait to share with you all this new music! Hope to see you at the premier on YouTube and until the next post, take care!  

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!