More $1+ Patreon rewards are out: "Mr. Knife" and "I Won't Eat My Broccoli!!!" (Mp3s + Art) + another BTTB sneak peek demo for the $10+ patrons, Bandcamp Friday, setting and reflecting on monthly goals + some more BTTB writing updates!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great start to March! Man is the year flying past and this week's been another busy one here are JabunAudio mostly working on drums for Better Than The Book's upcoming 3rd full-length album! Only 4 drum tracks left to go so it's almost time to start tracking rhythm guitars! More exciting times ahead (though I've got to service the guitars first). Onto the main news for this week, there's not a whole lot to report apart from the usual beginning of the month things: Patreon rewards, Bandcamp Friday and some goals to set and reflect on, so let's start with some Patreon news! 

Yesterday was the 1st Wednesday of the month which means it's time for some more $1+ Patreon rewards and this month we're going waaay back again to 2014 for 2 classic Nick Standing tracks: "Mr. Knife" and "I Won't Eat My Broccoli!!!". I'll also be sharing another exclusive sneak peek demo from Better Than The Book's upcoming album with the $10+ patrons! Read more about everything below and become a patron to download the tracks as well as my entire Patreon back catalogue so far (including the full Better Than The Book and Jabun Discographies and many Patreon exclusives). I hope you enjoy them all!

Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/posts/45792424/​
$1 rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/45792426/
Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding 
Discover the Reward Archive: https://www.patreon.com/posts/44575319

Next this week, building on the success of last year's campaign in support of musicians impacted by the coronavirus, Bandcamp is again waiving its revenue share fees on the first Friday of the month from midnight to midnight Pacific Time (that's tomorrow) for Bandcamp Friday! That means that if you purchase anything from Bandcamp this Friday 5th of March, the artists you support (including myself) will get more of the sales revenue than usual since Bandcamp doesn't take its cut, and you'll be able to support the music you love more directly than ever on the platform!
 
If you've been itching to pick up Jabun's recent "15-4-20" album, Better Than The Book's "Hopes and Dreams" or "Two Years On" albums or last month's Save The Ska Show compilation album, now's the best time to do so! Check out the Bandcamp pages below and thanks again for supporting my music in any way you can, it really means a lot:

Better Than The Book
https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/
 
Jabun
https://jabun.bandcamp.com/
 
Nick Standing (< The sillier old stuff)
https://nickstanding.bandcamp.com/

Save The Ska Show:
https://theskashowwithbeefy.bandcamp.com/releases

And if you're not sure whether it's Bandcamp Friday in your time-zone, you can check using the tool right here:

https://isitbandcampfriday.com/

Finally for this week's post, it's time to do the usual reflecting on last month's goals and setting some new ones! Here's what was set for February:

1) Sort Patreon rewards for the next 2 months (related to Jabun's 3rd album)
2) Fully sort the Bandcamp page for Jabun's 3rd album
3) Sort all the streaming descriptions/tags/scheduling for the online uploads of the album (YouTube, Newgrounds, and SoundCloud teaser)
4) Finish assessing and finalising the 14 BTTB demos as mentioned earlier and set up a spreadsheet for the album production progress

​And a successful month it has been! 1), 2), 3) & 4) are done without much to comment on. Jabun's 3rd album is ready to be announced NEXT WEEK, though there is one tiny bit of admin work which seems to be stuck and waiting for tech support at the moment... (thankfully nothing which will hold up the release schedule though)! On top of finishing off the demos for Better Than The Book's 3rd full-length album, I've also recorded/programmed 10/14 of the drum parts so far, so lots of extra progress than I expected (I also just about kept up with my BTTB live practice too, though admittedly it's been a bare minimum). Pushing on forward for next month goals, here's what I'll be setting:

1) Announce Jabun's 3rd album and launch the pre-release single / pre-orders
2) Finish recording drums for BTTB's 3rd album (4 left + checks)
3) Test guitar recording set-ups and start recording rhythm guitars for BTTB's 3rd album
4) Design and source at least one piece of merch for BTTB and/or Jabun

I have a tonne of other personal goals to accomplish too, but these are the 4 JabunAudio goals I'll be setting myself publicly! 1) Should go on without a hitch, and I think 2) should be fine at the current pace things are going. 3) will be interesting. I'd like to try out a new guitar recording method for this album using both my Orange and my Marshall amps bi-amped in hopes of a fuller and more balanced tone. There will be technical things to sort to make sure everything works properly and it should be an interesting exploration! On top of that I'll need to service my electric guitars before recording with them, but I'll likely do them one-by-one as needed, rather than all before I start recording. Ideally I'd like to have at least 1 guitar serviced and some parts tracked before the end of the month, but we'll see how it all goes. Goal 4) is a sidestep from usual things. I've been meaning to set up a merch store for Better Than The Book and Jabun for a while now and after some good ideas and discussion, I'd like to start planning for it. Whether the stores get set up before the end of the month is unclear, but I'd at least like to have some solid designs ready and sources for merch sorted before the end of the month. Should be another interesting endeavour!

On top of these I'll be doing my best to keep up with Better Than The Book live practice and with the end of lockdown in sight I'm REALLY looking forward to jamming with the guys again (it's been over a year now since we were all in the same room). Since guitar recording means taking apart my live rig though, I'll have to get all my practice done BEFORE I start on the guitar recording tests, and practice will understandably be a bit disrupted while I track guitar parts for the album. A couple more things to sort too, but that'd secret for the moment. With all that said, wish me luck and I hope you have a good and productive month working on your goals too! Feel free to leave you goals in the comments and we can cheer each other on!

And that about wraps things up for this week's blogpost! Next week's going to be an exciting one as I formally announce Jabun's upcoming 3rd album, but I'm sure there'll be more to report on top of that as well! Until next time, I hope you have a great week to come, be sure to support your favourite artists (hint hint) for Bandcamp Friday tomorrow, and thanks as always for supporting my music and projects in all the ways you can! An exciting month to come and I look forward to sharing the journey with you as it unfolds! Take care and all the best!