Happy 4th anniversary to Better Than The Book's debut full length album: Two Years On, a video of the BTTB LIVE band's very first jam session, more $1 Patreon rewards (Jabun - Distance) + setting and reflecting on monthly goals!

Hello everyone and hope you're having a wonderful start to February! I don't say this often at all, but it's been a... "meh" kind of week here at JabunAudio, as I've been off for most of it dosed up on Lemsip which means no vocals + I burnt my left index finger on the hob which means an unwanted break from guitar too... With the time I have been here though (or typing social media posts from bed), it has been a pretty productive week working on this month's targets and goals which we'll get to in a moment, but before all that, some extra special things to share with you this week! Let's get to it!

First of all, some celebrations! How quickly time flies and would you believe that 4 years ago today, Better Than The Book released its debut full-length album Two Years On! It's also of course the 3rd anniversary of the Two Years On [Instrumentals] bonus album, and man oh man has it been a heck of a ride since these albums came out! Check them out on Bandcamp if you've yet to hear them:

https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/

To celebrate (and next in this week's big news), I think it's about time we get this live show rolling, so here's a clip from the VERY FIRST meet-up of the Better Than The Book LIVE band from back in August last year! I know a lot of you have been waiting YEARS for this day, so here's a short clip of Hearts Racing from the Two Years On album from Bassist Sam's living room! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did getting this all together!

The line-up is as follows:
Nick Standing: Composer, 1st guitar + lead vocals
Eamon Standing: Harmonica + backing vocals
Sam Brown: Bass
Andy Forman: 2nd guitar

Andy's usually on drums, but he had his guitar this time! There are 7 more of these videos to come over the next 2 months, and it just gets better from here (IMO)! Subscribe to the BTTB YouTube channel to get them fresh off the press as they come, and support Better Than The Book and the rest of my music on Patreon for the FULL BTTB Discography, monthly rewards and more!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

And speaking of Patreon, the $1 rewards for February have just been sent out, Mp3 and Artwork downloads for Jabun's 2013 single Distance (+ all historic rewards for your tier)! Read more and check out the rewards via the posts below: 

Read more: https://www.patreon.com/posts/1-rewards-have-33000130
$1 rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/1-patron-rewards-33000133

Finally this week, it's the beginning of the month which means time to reflect on last month goals and set some new ones! Here's what I had for January:

1) Write & record 30+ minutes of rough demos for the 2nd Jabun album (total)
2) Finish recording vocals for that cover song 
3) Update the websites (change the dates, update descriptions on front page etc...)
4) Sort the next set of Patreon rewards
5) Sort the arrangement and practice materials for the next set of 7 BTTB songs
6) Set up a BTTB Instagram account and share the links on the web etc...
7) Hang up and mark up my JabunAudio world map
8) Sort through all the BTTB footage from the practice(s) and get ready to upload it

And I think things went super well this month! 1) There are currently 36+ minutes of rough demos for the 2nd Jabun album, so I hit a fair bit above the target! 2) Is FINALLY DONE (just in time for another cold and bad throat). 3), 4), 5), 6) done! 7) The map is all marked up but looks like I don't have the wall-space to hang it at the moment, so it's currently rolled up with the microphone stands. I'm not too bothered that I couldn't hang it right now, but it was sure fun to fill in, and hopefully I'll have some space in the future! And 8) That's all done, and as you can see the first video has already been uploaded + published! Overall a cracking month for goals and targets! Horray!

Onto goals for the coming month, I've already made a start with these so the Patreon rewards for next month are already sorted + I've already uploaded and scheduled the 7 other BTTB live videos too! That's 2 things off my goals list already. Here's the rest of them:

1) Develop a general exercise / vocal workout / BTTB practice routine
2) Get this cover song mixed and rough mastered ready to send for some feedback
3) Write 50+ minutes of rough demos for the upcoming 2nd Jabun album (total)
4) Get verified and sort my profiles for Jabun and Better Than The Book on Spotify (update socials + website with links)

Doesn't seem like as many goals this month, but on top of the ones already completed, I have a handful on non-music related personal ones too, and with it being February (the shortest month), I'm sure this'll be PLENTY to get on with! 1) I've actually already mostly got the general exercise routine down, it's just implementing the other workouts around it that needs doing. 2) It's all edited now and is getting there with regards the mix, so hopefully shouldn't be too much of a strain, though it's venturing out of my comfort zone a little. 3) I think will be the most challenging, I just need to keep at it and develop more of these partially completed ideas for another 14 minutes of finished demos. And 4) I've actually already been verified (as of a few days ago), but I need to go through and sort all the profiles + update links in all those other places. Should hopefully be smooth sailing! Any goals on your end you'd like to share? Feel free to post them in the comments below so we can keep each other accountable, and best of luck!

And that wraps things up for this post! Another BTTB live clip will be coming in the next one and once I've shaken off this illness I'm sure I'll be back to my usual productive self (very much looking forward to playing guitar and singing again). Until the next one, I hope you enjoy the new video and have a great time 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!

Get more from Jabun and Better Than The Book on Patreon: 
https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding