Hi everyone and hope you're having a great March so far! It's been an intensely exciting week here at JabunAudio mostly working on drums for Better Than The Book's in-progress 3rd full length album (just some final checks to do, then it's onto guitar recording), as well as prepping for this week's HUGE announcement from Jabun! Let's not wait any longer; onto the big news!

Following my improvised, semi-live, ambient and experimental 2nd album as Jabun – 15-4-20 (released December 2020), I'm super pleased to finally announce my next experimental studio album as Jabun – Generation Supernova which will be released on the 1st anniversary of 15-4-20's recording: April 15th 2021!

In the last few months of 2019, I started writing and gathering demos for what I’d hoped would be Jabun’s 2nd album, a continuation to my debut album Daydream in style which even included some repurposed ideas from those writing sessions back in 2016-17. It was an amazing feeling to be back to Jabun after all these years and I really couldn’t get enough of composing all this new music! At the start of 2020 however I had a week or so of being awfully ill, the worst I’ve felt in years, though this was before the whole COVID-19 situation really hit the UK. Lying in bed for the best part of a week, I was itching to keep composing and thought to myself “Boy would it be nice if the music just kind of wrote itself?” With no physical energy and nothing better to do, I spent my waking hours browsing the internet and researching and eventually stumbled upon, and fell down the rabbit hole of, the topic of “generative music”, the works of Brian Eno, Steve Reich, generative modular synthesis, Turing machines and more. It was an exciting and unknown world to me, and as soon as I was fit as a fiddle again, I was straight back to the studio to put some of the ideas I’d learnt into action!

The result was the first demo for a track which would eventually become Deep Space, track 2 on this album. Deep Space didn’t really fit in with the other demos I’d been working on at the time, and as I continued writing a mixture of generative ambient explorations alongside my more traditional Jabun works, eventually 4 generative pieces stood out from the others to form their own album which was soon titled Generation Supernova. Around this time I also had the inspiring semi-live ambient explorative evening session which would become the 15-4-20 album, and the rest of the year was spend polishing these 2 projects while I continued to write further demos as Jabun.

Generation Supernova is a 37+ minute collection of 4 tracks exploring generative music methods in the studio. Each track utilises a carefully designed system set up to generate a never-repeating and ever evolving soundscape which was conducted and guided to build an emotional and developing journey from the first note to the last.

Generation Supernova was a fun and rewarding exploration into generative music methods, with each piece very much the result of the unexpected fruits of conducted chaotic experiments in the studio, much like the 15-4-20 album. Whether you sit down to listen intently, have it on in the background while doing something else, or simply immerse yourself in the sounds, I hope you enjoy these semi-ambient, generative experimental soundscapes, from the strange early months of 2020.

The photo for the album artwork was taken looking out of the living room window from the flat in Rotherham where I was based in 2017-19. I’d been meaning to use this picture for another Jabun album ever since I took it, but I didn’t end up working on any Jabun during that time and the photo finally felt right for Generation Supernova. This Jabun album is the first where the cover photo wasn’t taken in the town where the album was completed.

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!

Hi everyone and hope you've had a great few weeks since the last blog post! It's been a fairly busy one over here at JabunAudio working on another collaborative track of sorts (more to report on that when I can), as well as programming drum parts for Better Than The Book's upcoming 3rd full length album! 6 tracks done so far, so just a little short of halfway at the moment, but I think things are coming on nicely! Got a fresh batch of Ernie Ball strings in the post too, so I'll be servicing the guitars for some recording once these drum parts are sorted very soon. Busy busy! Onto the main news for the week, it's time for some more $5+ Patreon rewards so let's dive into that!

Yesterday was the final Wednesday of the month which means it's time for some more $5 and $10 Patreon rewards, and this time I have not one, but TWO classic Nick Standing songs to share with you (including some extra bonus content as well)!

Let's start with the earlier and lesser known of these two, a parody VERY rough punk rock song called "I Won't Eat My Broccoli!!!"! This was originally released on the same day as Sonnet For A Spider Girl: Halloween 2012 (according to the earliest dates I could find), and really was just me messing around recording for an afternoon to experiment (as I recall) with my newly homemade Super Fuzz pedal (which you'll be able to hear the bass guitar blasting though on this, as well as in some of my other discography)! I also wanted to try out getting some valve saturation and grit on the vocals which were recorded though my Korg ESX sampler for extra character. It was a fun afternoon with a silly song to show for it. Call me a phoney too, but full disclosure: I actually LOVE broccoli (probably one of my favourite veg), but those were the words which came to mind that afternoon, and so it's history now! The track was remastered for a Bandcamp release on May 7th 2014 and I've included both the original legacy version as well as the remaster as rewards for your enjoyment. Hope you enjoy a little silliness and you can listen to I Won't Eat My Broccoli!!! (the remaster) on Bandcamp:

https://nickstanding.bandcamp.com/track/i-wont-eat-my-broccoli

And speaking of silliness, we come to the next track which was released just one day after the IWEMB remaster on May 8th 2014: Mr. Knife! I've spoken about Mr. Knife in previous posts and for some reason, this Tiny Tim style track which was omitted from the original animation it was commissioned for has become one of my most popular tracks to date (I have no idea why)! To save some space on this already long post, you can read more about the creation of Mr. Knife on the 3rd part of this fantastic interview I took part in on Newgrounds which covers many aspects of my music philosophy and history and is my most detailed interview to date! Read more below:

https://theinterviewer.newgrounds.com/news/post/1119990

And I hope you enjoy the one and only Mr. Knife! Grab it as a reward on Patreon or listen below on Bandcamp:

https://nickstanding.bandcamp.com/track/mr-knife

For the $10+ patrons, you've also got an exclusive sneak peek demo from the upcoming next Better Than The Book album to look forward to! Become a $10+ patron to access that and many more rewards now, and remember that you'll gain access to all historic rewards and posts for your Patreon tier too when you become a supporter including the full Better Than The Book and Jabun discographies and much more! With the newly updated REWARD ARCHIVE it's never been easier to catch up with all those posts and music downloads you've missed too! I hope you enjoy them!

Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding
Discover the Reward Archive: https://www.patreon.com/posts/44575319

That about wraps up the rewards for this time! Mp3s for these songs will be out for the $1+ patrons next Wednesday, and the next set of rewards after that will likely be a bit early and coincide with the announcement and pre-order launch for Jabun's upcoming 3rd album. Until then, I hope you have a great March to come and thanks as always for supporting my music, Jabun, and Better Than The Book! Take care and I can't wait to show you my latest tracks as Jabun!

And that it for this blog post! As mentioned above, next time I'll be sharing the $1 Patreon rewards and it's also Bandcamp Friday coming up next week as well as time to go through the usual monthly goals etc... at the very least! Always room for more excitement here at JabunAudio, but until next time, I hope you have a great end to February and thanks as always for supporting my projects in all the ways you can. All the best and take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great week so far! It's been a fairly busy (and super cold) one here at JabunAudio sorting out all the Patreon rewards associated with Jabun's upcoming 3rd album, as well as the Bandcamp page and all the online streaming descriptions (YouTube Newgrounds etc...). A LOT of typing and copying and pasting, but it's all done now, and just one last thing to wait for until the pre-release admin work for the album is complete too. Almost there! On top of that I've also been going through all the pre-studio-recording demos for Better Than The Book's upcoming 3rd album and thankfully it's not taking nearly as long as I expected it would! Just one more left to go through then it'll be time to prep for recording for real! Fun times! That's about all the main updates for this week, but I do have just one little press feature to share with you this week, so let's finish off this post with that!

So on Monday this week I had an nice surprise when my Patreon page was featured in The Tank Tribune Newspaper on Newgrounds.com! A huge thanks to The Tank Tribune for sharing the page and you can check out The Tank Tribune NO. 30 below:

https://thetanktribune.newgrounds.com/news/post/1142472

If you're reading this and haven't done so yet, then come join me on Patreon for as little as $1 and get the full Better Than The Book & Jabun discographies (and much more) when you sign up to support my music for monthly rewards; it really helps me out to keep making all these tunes! Thanks for the love and hope to see you there!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding
​
And for a big list of all the past rewards you'll have access to when you sign up, check out the reward archive below I put together for the convenience of new patrons! There's a TONNE of stuff:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/44575319

That's it for this blog post! I'm sure I'll be busy finishing up that final Better Than The Book demo in the coming week, and perhaps it'll be time to order some new strings soon too! Time will tell and we'll see how it all goes, but until the next one, I hope you have a great week ahead whatever you're up to and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my various music projects in any way you can! All the best and take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great week and start to February so far! Boy has it been an exciting and busy one over here and there's a tonne of news to share with you as you can probably tell by the title! Let's dive straight into it with the release of the first compilation album to feature my music: The Ska Show with Beefy's "Save The Ska Show"!

Following the big announcement last week, I'm super pleased to tell you that the Save The Ska Show compilation album was finally released on Saturday and man is it a monster of a compilation! Featuring 64 ska bands from around the world in all sorts of ska flavours, this album will be acting as a fundraiser to help keep the great Ska Show with Beefy (proudly the 2nd most listened to Ska music show in the world) broadcasting during these crazy times. You'll even recognise my own contribution to the album on track 62: Better Than The Book's The Hardest Part! Check out the full album on Bandcamp below and I hope you enjoy it!

https://theskashowwithbeefy.bandcamp.com/releases

It's been an absolute honour to be part of this fundraising compilation (the first EVER compilation album I've been a part of in fact), and if you're a lover of ska music and/or the show, then that's 64 tracks from around the world for as little as 12 Australian Dollars (not even £7), with the option to donate more if you wish. Let's keep the skanking going and save this great show! Pick it up!

Next on the news this week, some more ska punk updates from Better Than The Book as I'm super excited to announce that songwriting for the project's next album (AND EP) are just about almost done! First draft lyric sheets are completed with rough demos of all tracks recorded as well; a total of 10 brand new tracks for the project's 3rd full length album (running in at ~35 minutes) + a subsequent EP of 4 bonus tracks including one new song + 3 alternative versions from the main album (running in at ~13 minutes)! Of course I also plan on making instrumental releases for these projects too, so that's 4 Better Than The Book releases (at least) to look forward to over the next few years! Due to restrictions from the pandemic, as well as general project timescales, I'm doubtful I'll be able to release the first of these before the end of 2021, but I aim to be well into the recording and production process at the very least! There's still a little preparation needed before it's time to start recording for real, including servicing instruments and setting up project worksheets/sessions etc... but next thing on the cards will be to go through these 14 demos and make sure I'm happy with all the general arrangements etc... before I get started recording for real. That'll be one of the goals this month (which we'll get into at the end of this post), but things are certainly exciting for Better Than The Book at the moment! More details to come as and when, but if you really want a closer sneak peek at the writing process then head over to Patreon and become a $10 supporter where I've already started sharing sneak peeks and demos at the progress so far! Remember you'll be gaining access to the entire back catalogue of rewards too, when you sign up so come get a backstage pass to the action and I look forward to seeing you there!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding 

And speaking of Patreon, yesterday was the 1st Wednesday of the month which means it's time for some more $1+ Patreon rewards! This month we're going waaay back to Halloween 2012 for my first acoustic solo track as plain old Nick Standing: "Sonnet For A Spider Girl". Read more about it below and become a patron to d0wnload the track (as well as my entire Patreon back catalogue so far). I hope you enjoy it!

Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/posts/45792410/
$1 rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/45792397/
Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding 

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 February, 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 new 15-4-20 album, Better Than The Book's "Hopes and Dreams" or "Two Years On" albums (the latter of which celebrates its 5th anniversary on February 6th! Man how time has flown!) or the new 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

Finally this week, it's the beginning of another month and so time to reflect on and set some new goals as usual! Here's what I set for January:

​1) Sort the Bandcamp, RouteNote and streaming uploads for Jabun's 3rd album (proof listening)
2) Make an announcement video for Jabun's 3rd album
3) Make a promo schedule for Jabun's 3rd album
4) Try to finish another 3+ 1st draft lyric sheets for Better Than The Book's next album
​
And overall a great turnout! All the music uploads have been sorted, RouteNote's even been approved for worldwide distribution too, the announcement video has been made and uploaded, and I've sorted out a solid promo schedule which lasts from March to mid-May as well (lots of work ahead for me). I also finished not 3 but 4 first draft lyric sheets for Better Than The Book's next album/EP project, as well a few horn parts and other things! Good progress! Next month is looking to be similar in terms of goals and things to do so let's aim for this:

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

That seems like a tonne of work to do, but hopefully just about doable (and I still have other non-JabunAudio goals for this month too). Of course I aim to keep up with my Better Than The Book live practice too as best I can, though still not sure when that's going to be put to good use... Anyways! A Long (short) month of hard work ahead methinks! Wish me luck and I hope you're able to achieve your goals too! Feel free to share them in the comments below!

That about wraps things up for this post! Seems like I've got a lot of typing in my week ahead to look forward to, but hoping for some BTTB practice and demo time too! Until the next blog post whenever that may be (February 24th at the very latest), I hope you have a great month ahead and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Jabun, Better Than The Book and my various projects (and the things they're connected to) in any way you can! Hope you enjoy the new compilation album and looking forward to sharing even more Better Than The Book and Jabun with you soon! All the best and take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great week so far! Boy has it been a busy one here at JabunAudio and some incredible news to share with you in today's blog post! Before that, some quick updates: I'm been busy sorting out admin work for Jabun's upcoming 3rd album (which will be coming Spring 2021) and I'm super happy to announce that it's just been approved for worldwide distribution so the ball is finally rolling and clock ticking until the concrete release date! I still need to sort out the associated Patreon rewards and the Bandcamp page, but at least I know it'll be arriving to iTunes, Spotify, etc... on the desired date without any problems! With much of my to-do list complete earlier this week, I've also been busy writing more lyrics and recording demos for the upcoming next Better Than The Book album as well, which is going VERY well and ahead of schedule. Just one more first draft lyric sheet to finish off and a few rough horn parts to arrange, then it'll be time to go through these demos with a fine comb before recording everything for real! Exciting times ahead! Anyways, with those little updates all said, it's time to get onto the main news for this week and let's start with a HUGE one: Better Than The Book's first compilation album feature to save a beloved ska radio show!

Those of you who've been following Better Than The Book over the past few years have certainly heard of the amazing Ska Show with Beefy, based in Melbourne and proudly the 2nd most listened to Ska music podcast in the world! The show has played a tonne of Better Than The Book since my debut on there in 2019, but with all that's happened over the past year and finances running low, the future of the show is looking unfortunately uncertain...

But when things are looking dire, people come together, and so Beefy along with 60 ska/skapunk bands/artists from around the world (including myself) have put our heads and hearts together to release a 60 track fundraising compilation album to keep the show on the air! There'll even be one BTTB track on there! Which one? You'll have to wait and see! Pre-orders for the album are now open and the album releases this Saturday 30th January! Check it out on Bandcamp below, along the promotional art:

https://theskashowwithbeefy.bandcamp.com/releases

It's been an absolute honour to be part of this fundraising compilation, and if you're a lover of ska music and/or the show, then that's 60 tracks from around the world for as little as 12 Australian Dollars (not even £7), with the option to donate more if you wish. Let's keep the skanking going and save this great show and I'll be back next week when it's finally out!

Next on this week's blog post, another quick bit of cool news to share with you as my most recent collaborative single with Cyberdevil (as Jabun) "Away Fear" was featured in this week's The Tank Tribune's Tribune Phonograph playlist Vol. 28 on Newgrounds.com! Thanks so much for sharing even more of our music, and check out the full playlist below:

https://www.newgrounds.com/playlists/view/7a1628488d0ca66a3ea72f38928041d9

And read The Tank Tribune No. 28 below too:
https://thetanktribune.newgrounds.com/news/post/1139715

Finally for this week's news, it's the last Wednesday of the month which means it's time for some $5 and $10 Patreon rewards, and with last year's Jabun album out to the world (completing the current Jabun discography), it's time to go waaay back and explore some of my classic tracks as plain old Nick Standing!

This month it's my very first acoustic solo track: "Sonnet For A Spider Girl"! Released on Halloween 2012 (before even the very first Jabun track but not before the first Better Than The Book demo), this song is a love ballad for my greatest childhood fear! The lyrics are pretty self explanatory and as expected my production has improved a tonne since this was released (unlike my drawing or handwriting) so the mixing/mastering isn't to today's standard, but it's a trip down memory lane which always brings a smile to me, and I hope it does to you too! If you're an arachnophobic, I hope this changes your mind even if just a little! Listen to Sonnet For A Spider Girl on Bandcamp:

​https://nickstanding.bandcamp.com/track/sonnet-for-a-spider-girl

For the $10+ patrons, you've also got an exclusive sneak peek at this year's upcoming 3rd Jabun album to look forward to (set to release in spring) with a cover artwork reveal and story as well as a title reveal! Become a $10+ patron to access that and many more rewards now, and remember that you'll gain access to all historic rewards and posts for your Patreon tier too when you become a supporter including the full Better Than The Book and Jabun discographies and much more! With the newly updated REWARD ARCHIVE it's never been easier to catch up with all those posts and music downloads you've missed too! I hope you enjoy them!

Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding
Discover the Reward Archive: https://www.patreon.com/posts/44575319

That's it for this month's rewards and Sonnet For A Spider Girl will be out for the $1+ patrons next Wednesday! Next month we'll be continuing with the Nick Standing song back catalogue with 2 shorter tracks, one of which I've already mentioned here and on Patreon, but until then, I hope you enjoy some old music from plain old Nick Standing!

And that about wraps things up for this blog post! Next time I'll be posting up the released link for the Save The Ska Show fundraising compilation album, as well as the $1+ Patreon rewards, and there'll be the monthly reflections and goals to go through as well at the very least! Until then, I hope you enjoy all the music, thanks for reading and as always thanks for supporting JabunAudio, Better Than The Book, Jabun, and my various projects and the things associated with them however you can; it really means a lot! Let's save this ska show and I look forward to sharing more news with you next week! All the best until then, and take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great month so far! Time's flying and it's been a medium-busy week over here sorting more admin stuff for Jabun's upcoming 3rd album, though with the slightly lighter schedule I've had some time to get back to Better Than The Book writing too which has been nice! Not a whole lot to report this week, but there's another nice press feature to share from Jabun so let's celebrate that!

It's always fun to get a get a feature, and on Monday Jabun's  "Home" (the 2014 single version) was featured in this week's @TheTankTribune's Tribune Phonograph playlist Vol. 27 on Newgrounds.com! Thanks so much to The Tank Tribune for sharing the music, and check out the full playlist below:

https://www.newgrounds.com/playlists/view/d3ea1a6bcf44529373a64faf187c6aa3

And read The Tank Tribune No. 27 below too:

https://thetanktribune.newgrounds.com/news/post/1138365

That really about wraps things up for this week! I'll be back next time to share some more Patreon rewards at the very least, and maybe some more exciting news will come to fruition in the mean time too! Until then, I hope you have a great few days ahead and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my various projects however you can! All the best and take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great week so far. It's been an intensely busy one here at JabunAudio, mostly sorting out and proof-listening to all the uploads for Jabun's upcoming 3rd album (all done now), as well as doing a variety of admin tasks too. Not much actual music making this week, but I did receive my new Korg Volca Modular synth in the post which has been intensely fun! A little more news to share with you this week as you can tell by the title but let's start with a little update on the new synth!

As many of you know I've been using the Korg Volca Keys for years, most notably in tracks such as Better Than The Book's Meteor Shower, or Jabun's Anxiety, and after so many years working with it, it's been amazing to add another Volca, the Volca Modular to my synth armoury! Based on the Buchla "west-coast" method of synthesis, it's taken a little while to get my head around compared to my experience with the more common "east-coast" style synths and with the highly flexible patch-ability of it, it's been hours of great fun exploring new synthesis methods and sounds over the past week (so much so that I'm almost through my 2nd set of batteries for it already; gotta pick up some more rechargeables). While I originally intended to use it for making light ambient soundscapes, I've actually found it easier for making intense and gritty sounds unlike anything I've been able to do up until now instead, a testament to the versatility of the unit despite its compact design. For those interested in something alien, but fun and a great bang for it's buck, I'd highly recommend one, with the warning that things might not always go how you expect them to when working with it (at least that's what I've found). Looking forward to using it in a new track soon(ish)!

Interestingly, on my first day playing with it though, I discovered a strange behaviour which seemed unintentional. After reporting it to Korg tech support, they've managed to reproduce my result on their end and confirmed that I've indeed found a bug (likely in the firmware) and so the information has been passed onto the Korg development team in Japan, which if you ask me is pretty darn cool! Hopefully there'll be a firmware update shortly but in any case I'll be having a tonne of fun with the synth in the meantime while a solution is found! Seems I've had a knack for finding bugs recently! I wonder if I'll end up with 2 of these as well!

Onto other updates for this week, some amazing news to share as Jabun's 15-4-20 album received a Front Page Award on Newgrounds.com, gathering over 2000 listens in the week since its upload! Thanks so much for the love folks, I think that's a record for me, and check out 15-4-20 on Newgrounds below:

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/993867

Hope you enjoy the music, and if you like it, pick up a copy on Bandcamp below:

https://jabun.bandcamp.com/album/15-4-20

Or grab it with the entire Jabun and Better Than The Book discographies + all past rewards for your tier when you become a supporter on Patreon for as little as $1 a month! More music to come soon!

Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding
See the past rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/44575319

That about wraps things up for this week! I've got a tonne of spreadsheets etc... to sort for Jabun's 3rd album release so it's looking to be an admin heavy week for me, though hopefully I'll have some time for more writing / jamming and there is another SUPER exciting project coming up which I should be revealing at the start of next month if all goes to plan! Until the next one (which may be next week or not, though there'll certainly be one on the 28th), I hope you have a great January to come and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my various projects in all the ways you can. Stay safe, take care, and all the best!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great start to 2021 so far (despite the UK being back on national lockdown...). It's been a busy week here getting back into the swing of things, setting up Patreon reward posts for the next few months as well as promoting the newly updated REWARD ARCHIVE (more on that in a moment), updating all the websites with the 2021 dates as well as some more admin, maintenance type work. Some exciting things to look forward to though, as following last week's ponderings for new gear, I've treated myself to a new synth (at a great price too): a Korg Volca Modular! Feel free to Google it if you're interested and hopefully it'll arrive by the time I post this, but I'm certainly excited to start learning the (rather alien to me) Buchla West Coast method of synthesis! No doubt this'll be a source of inspiration for new Jabun material to come! Onto the main news, it's going to be a long post this week with some new music uploads to share as well as lots of reflecting on monthly and yearly goals as has become tradition. Let's start with the final upload for Jabun's 15-4-20 album: the full album stream!

The final (for now) weekly new music upload is here and Jabun's full 15-4-20 album is now available for streaming on YouTube and Newgrounds! Check out and relax to the full 15-4-20 album below:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoNxP6aKAaE
Newgrounds: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/993867

Or check out the playlisted songs on the platform or your choice:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6tKVPNjy1_DhYHr_G4zBVb0B4U7XvXCr

Newgrounds: https://www.newgrounds.com/playlists/view/afd0c486bbd149e1ba77435e0d5ee8ae

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/04UWDI1dPv1eVO674eZy1w

And if you like what you hear, pick up the 15-4-20 album on bandcamp:

https://jabun.bandcamp.com/album/15-4-20

Or grab it with the entire Jabun and Better Than The Book discographies + all past rewards for your tier when you become a supporter on Patreon for as little as $1 a month! More music to come soon! Hope to see you there!
​
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding
See the past rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/44575319

And that wraps up the promo period and uploads for Jabun's 15-4-20 album! I hope you enjoy these ambient soundscapes for years to come and I'll be back shortly with the next batch of Jabun tracks in the spring! More details to come soon!

Speaking of Patreon I have a HUGE update to share with you this week as on January 1st I announced the second set of Patreon reward archive posts for all rewards covering from 4th October 2018 (when I started on Patreon) to 1st January 2021 for the convenience of Patreon supporters and new patrons!

These months' rewards cover the full discographies (as of 1st January 2021) for my ska punk / pop punk project Better Than The Book and electronic / cinematic / ambient project Jabun, as well as a few bonus tracks and covers, and the REWARD ARCHIVE is here for your convenience so you can pick up all these rewards (Mp3s, WAVs, artwork and more depending on your tier) in one place when you sign up. No need to search through all the posts manually: Just click the link to the REWARD ARCHIVE below (which will be pinned to the top of your feed when you sign up), select the archive for your tier, dig in and enjoy the music! Hope to see you in the comments! 

Become a patron for as little as $1 a month to access the REWARD ARCHIVE below and all new music as it's released:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/44580119/

And find out more and become a patron below:

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Music rewards include: 

Better Than The Book's full discography (as of 1st January 2021):

• 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
• Get A Haircut [Radio Edit] {Patreon exclusive}
• Hopes and Dreams [Radio Edit] {Patreon exclusive}
• Mark Your Wall & The Bigger Call, Maybe... {Patreon exclusive}
• Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] album

Jabun's full discography (as of 1st January 2021):

• Bergamot
• Diamond Eyes - Nine Fifteen Ft. Jess (Jabun Remix)
• 3rd September 1939
• Apollo
• Clare Jeffrey - 60 Days [Jabun Orchestral Mix]
• Distance
• Home
• Verlies Projekt - (Feels Like) Heaven [Jabun Hardcore Remix]
• The Ocean Above + Noir
• Jabun [Alternate Reality] - Warrior (Kesha METAL Cover) {Patreon exclusive}
• Daydream album
• 15-4-20 album

As well as:

• Erase Stuff (Mashup) {Patreon exclusive}
• Nick Standing - Nothing Else Matters (Metallica cover) {Patreon exclusive}

For those of you on the $10+ DEMOlition Pigeon tier, you'll also have access to all the work in progress, demos and behind the scenes monthly articles too including:

• A sneak peek at Better Than The Book's "(The Travelling To See Eva Song)"
• Journey into Better Than The Book's "Get A Haircut"
• Better Than The Book - One Small Step's artwork story + a new mix
• A deep dive into Better Than The Book's "Meteor Shower"
• More Better Than The Book artwork stories + another first(ish) draft mix from the new album
• Work in progress artwork for Better Than The Book's upcoming Hopes and Dreams album + a demo master for track 06 "Get A Haircut"
• An in depth look into the creation of Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album cover (+ demo alternatives)
• A behinds the scenes look into Better Than The Book's "The Hardest Part"
• A behinds the scenes look into Better Than The Book's "Artificial Ignorance"
• A behinds the scenes look into Better Than The Book's "And I Fear"
• A behinds the scenes look into Better Than The Book's "Brighton"
• A behinds the scenes look into Better Than The Book's "GG"
• A behinds the scenes look into Better Than The Book's "You've Got A Lot to Say"
• A behinds the scenes look into Better Than The Book's "Hopes and Dreams"
• 10 minutes of exclusive demos for upcoming Jabun tracks
• Another behind the scenes look at an exclusive Jabun demo
• Another behind the scenes look at an exclusive Jabun demo
• Another behind the scenes look at an exclusive Jabun demo
• Another behind the scenes look at an exclusive Jabun demo
• Another behind the scenes look at an exclusive Jabun demo
• A look into the artwork for the 2nd Jabun album
• A sneak peek demo at an upcoming cover song
• A behind the scenes breakdown of Jabun [Alternate Reality]'s Kesha Warrior metal cover
• An exclusive sneak peek at next year's 3rd Jabun album, demo + photo
• Another sneak peek demo from next year's 3rd Jabun album
• An exclusive first sneak peek demo from Better Than The Book's next album

More Better Than The Book will be coming soon(ish) as I'm busy writing the project's 3rd album, but the next few months will be focused on my "other" music as plain old Nick Standing, as well as Jabun's upcoming 3rd album which is due for release spring 2021! Until the next post and then, thanks so much for supporting Better Than The Book, Jabun and my various music projects on Patreon, and I hope you enjoy the music (and articles) above and to come!

Finally this week, it's time for some reflections on December and 2020 as a whole and to set some new goals for January and 2021. I think it goes without saying by this point that 2020 was not the year we all expected it to be, and with that came much disappointment, but let's look back at the goals I set myself at the start of last year and see how I did. Here's what was set:

1) Finish and release that cover song!
2) Finish or at least be in the final stages before releasing the 2nd Jabun album
3) Release the 3 mystery bonus projects I plan to release!
4) Play my first full band gig as Better Than The Book
5) Start work on a new BTTB EP/album?
6) Make a new and updated Patreon intro video
7) Invest in some new studio equipment and/or instruments      
8) Keep doing what I do, and keep getting better at it! 
9) Make 2020 the best financial year for JabunAudio yet!

Now, ya' know, considering the unexpected circumstances, I don't think things went that badly at all! Of course the main disappointment was not being able to play my first gig (or any gigs) as Better Than The Book, especially after all the hard work and investments at the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020, though I've been sure to keep up my practice throughout last year and apart from getting back in sync and practiced with the guys again, I'm feeling mostly ready for it when the time comes! Musically it's been a very successful and productive year 1) was revealed as Jabun [Alternate Reality]'s debut track Warrior (Ke$ha Metal cover), 2) although not the album I'd planned to release at the time was Jabun's 15-4-20, though my 3rd album as Jabun is already complete and ready for release in the spring (apart from admin work) and I'm STILL sitting on an additional 70+ minutes of demos as well! 3) Turned out to be the 3 silly mash-ups around April Fools and my 30th birthday "Mark Your Wall", "The Bigger Call, Maybe..." and "Erase Stuff", as well as Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] bonus album, and speaking of 5), apart from some lyric sheets to finish and of course properly recording and producing it all, I've got a decent amount of material for the next BTTB album on the back-burner for working on throughout 2021 as well! One thing I really didn't get around to was making an new Patreon intro video. By the time I had some free time (which wasn't a lot), it felt like it'd be irrelevant again, and so I figured I'd delay it until it felt right to do another, and just concentrate on actually making music for the moment. And speaking of making music, although not on the goals list or even my radar at the time, Cyberdevil's INK 19 mixtape, our collaboration "Away Fear", and my Metallica "Nothing Else Matters" cover for my Dad's 60th birthday were more grand additions to the music of 2020! Onto 7), not only did I get a cabinet for my at the time new Orange amp, but I also invested in the lovely Yamaha YC25D vintage combo organ (something I've wanted for decades) AND fixed it up to 100% working order again (not to mention making my own service manual and finally repairing my Moog too). I think 8) goes without saying as accomplished and my longest interview to date in October on Newgrounds is a good illustration of that. Finally although it could have been a complete disaster, 2020 understandably wasn't the best year financially for JabunAudio, but it wasn't the worst either (partially thanks to the SEISS grants from the government which have helped keep me afloat). It's been a bumpy ride for sure, but things are going better than expected given the circumstances. Overall, while 2020 was an awful year for socialising and gigging, the isolation made for some good productive time and inspiration and I'm sure there'll be plenty more music to show for it (not just from me).

With those reflections done, let's set some goals for 2021! With all the uncertainty of the future, these'll be tentative, but I'll see how I get on:

1) Keep doing what I do, and keep getting better at it!
2) Make 2021 the best financial year for JabunAudio yet! (I can only try)
3) Release Jabun's 3rd album
4) Finish writing and start recording Better Than The Book's next album
5) Play the first BTTB live gig (still hoping)
6) Release or at least finish recording another (4th) Jabun album?

With the Korg Volca Modular on the way, it'd be nice to invest in more gear, but there's no quota to meet for a 2021 goal and I've probably treated myself enough already. Goals 1) and 2) will always be so and I hope at the very least I'll still be able to do this in a year's time. Goal 3) is pretty much in the bag as everything just needs to be uploaded and the admin sorted ready for launch and promo. 5) I'd really like to do, though it's not really up to me anymore... we'll see how it goals. 4) I'm not even if I started now I'd be able to get the album out this year (Maybe if I'm extra inspired with the final bits of writing), though I don't want to rush it either, but I'd at least like to be well on the way recording-wise before 2021 is out. 6) I think it'd very much be possible to release another Jabun album in 2021 on top of the 3rd album, and there's still a lot of (IMO) great material from the writing sessions of 2019 and 2020 I'd like to compile and release. We'll see how it all goes with Jabun and BTTB and I'm sure one of them will be close to or have already launched another album before the year is out! Wish me luck and I hope you all have great 2021s to come!

Onto reflecting on December's goals, I didn't set many for the month but here they are:

1) Release Jabun's 2nd album "15-4-20" to the world!
2) Sort the next set of Patreon Reward Archive posts which'll go live at the start of January.

And not really much to say! Jabun's 15-4-20 was released and so were the new Patreon reward archives! Done! I've already done a considerable amount of the things I'd intended to do in January 2021 (Updating the Patreon page with the new reward archives, updating the websites, finishing the 15-4-20 promo period, and sorting the next few Patreon reward posts), so the rest of my goals are mainly focused around admin on Jabun's upcoming 3rd album:

1) Sort the Bandcamp, RouteNote and streaming uploads for Jabun's 3rd album (proof listening)
2) Make an announcement video for Jabun's 3rd album
3) Make a promo schedule for Jabun's 3rd album
4) Try to finish another 3+ 1st draft lyric sheets for Better Than The Book's next album

Goals 1) - 3) are essential to keeping the next Jabun release on track, and there'll be more to do on that next month as well. Goal 4) is more causal, though I'd like to make sure I keep working at the new Better Than The Book album while I'm busy with all this admin work. I'll also be keeping up with live practice, and I've even started practicing (roughly) some of the new demos too + I need to update some of my records for upcoming royalty payments, and serial numbers when the new synth arrives etc... It's looking to be a busy month overall, though with the new lockdown and ongoing isolation fatigue, I'll be making sure to keep tabs on my own mental and physical health too and doing my best to balance the hard work and play / relaxing time. Hope it's a good month ahead and hope you all have a good month to come as well!

And that wraps up this gargantuan start of the year blog post! It's going to be busy on my end I'm sure, but I also can't wait to get patching and experimenting on the new synth when it arrives and having some fun making music in a new way! Until the next post which may or may not be next week but will certainly be on January 28th at the latest, I hope you have a great start to 2021 and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Jabun, Better Than The Book, my projects and just me, Nick Standing, especially over the past crazy year. I look forward to bringing you new music soon! Take care and all the best for 2021!

Hello everyone and hope you had a great Christmas and/or winter festive time however you were able to celebrate! I've been taking a bit of a break since the last post, but keeping up with a little bit of web update work, promo for Jabun's recent 15-4-20 album and of course this blog post! It's certainly been a bit of a strange Christmas this year, my first away from family and my hometown, but all things considered I think things were pleasant as I could have hoped for, and it's been nice to relax a bit after such a busy time last week with the various project and album launches (before a similar level of busy comes in January)!

Some fun things to share from the holidays: My twin Eamon and S.O. Eva chipped in together to gift me an Ammoon Pockverb reverb/delay pedal to help with creating some lovely ambient soundscapes, especially with my Yamaha YC-25D organ (though I've been playing it with synths and guitar too and it sounds spectacular)! Funny story: when it first arrived, I tested it and some strange glitches were happening with certain settings though the pedal itself apart from that was about 95% working as it should. I contacted Ammoon directly to see if there was simple fix to the problem (firmware update perhaps), but instead they decided to just send me ANOTHER one so now I have two of them! They both work about the same, and funnily enough using them together solves the initial problem I had! A super pleasant surprise which has made for some LOVELY ambient explorations over the holidays, though none recorded as of yet. Looking forward to putting these to good use for jams, inspiration and future music! On top of that, my parents gifted me a lovely and compact power supply to power those pedals (as well as some new wellies), Eamon made me a GLORIOUS dank meme mashup album, and Eva got the New "Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity" game for us to play together (If "Jabun" didn't give it away you must already know by now I'm a massive The Legend of Zelda fan)! Lots of snacks from care packages too which was very kind and I've been eyeing up some things to potentially treat myself too given the time of year and the recent album launch so I'm sure there'll be more updates on that later. Overall, a fun festive period, though I'm very much looking forward to being able to see family again; this covid thing really has been going on for far too long... 

Onto the main news for this week! Let's start with some more music! The next weekly new music upload is here and Jabun's 15-4-20 C is now streaming on YouTube and Newgrounds! Check out and relax to 15-4-20 C below:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tDNPCWS_TM
Newgrounds: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/991903

And if you like what you hear, pick up the 15-4-20 album on bandcamp:
https://jabun.bandcamp.com/album/15-4-20

Or grab it with the entire Jabun and Better Than The Book discographies when you become a supporter on Patreon for as little as $1 a month! More music to come next year! Hope to see you there!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

And the full 15-4-20 album is now available to stream on Spotify as well:

https://open.spotify.com/album/04UWDI1dPv1eVO674eZy1w

Next week I'll be putting up a full album stream for 15-4-20 (the final video in this 15-4-20 series) and calling the promo period for 15-4-20 to a close, but I hope you enjoy listening to the tracks individually until then. Not long to wait!

Next this week, Jabun's 15-4-20 album was featured in World Beyond's winter round-up blog post, along with a lovely rendition of Carol of the Bells as well as some free download codes for our Winter Legend EP and more project updates from World Beyond's Vladimir Kuznetsov! Check it out below and hope you enjoy the music:

https://www.worldbeyond.net/2020/12/merry-christmas-and-happy-new-year.html

And finally, as promised in last week's blog post, the new Cyberdevil INK 19 mixtape is now available for streaming on YouTube! Strangely, the first couple of seconds is a bit messed up but other than that everything's great (let's just call it a watermark of sorts)! If you haven't yet checked it out, read more about INK 19 on Cyberdevil's website below where you can pick up a free download ungarbled version of the album as well! Enjoy!

https://cyberd.org/the-fruits-why-fruits-though-why-dont-we-ever-say-vegetables-or-nuts-or-berries-or-something-of-inktober.html

That's about it for me this week and month and year! Man oh man has 2020 been a strange one, but a strangely productive one given the circumstances too. I'm looking forward to reflecting on everything in next week's blog post as well as unveiling the updated Patreon Reward Archive too, but until then, I think I'll be enjoying the rest of my holiday drowning in echos and reverb tails! Thanks for sticking with me over this past and crazy year and heres to a hopefully much better 2021! Take care and as always, thanks for supporting JabunAudio, Jabun, Better Than The Book, and my various projects in any way you can. All the best and have a great New Year's Celebration how ever you're able to!