Jabun's debut album Daydream celebrates its 3rd anniversary, setting and reflecting on monthly goals + some smaller updates!

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

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

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

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

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

1) Learn the 17 BTTB songs from last month (effectively 4 more to finish + polishing the rest)
2) Sort artwork, mp3s (etc...) and admin work for mystery cover song (ready for release)
3) Finish final audio + sort mp3s (etc...) and admin work for next Jabun album (ready for release)
4) Finish initial mixing the following Jabun album ready for final tweaks and mastering
5) Fix my Moog synth

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

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