Week 7 out of 8 of the acoustic cover songs: "Papercut/PPR-KUT" by Linkin Park, new collaborative track with Subu Nomo, "Saboteur" is out, A P O T H E O S I S soundtrack updates, reflecting on goals / new goals for March + some more updates!

Hello all! It's been a jam packed week these last 7 days and while my time has been mostly spent working on the A P O T H E O S I S  soundtrack (more on that later), there is much to share in terms of both news and new music! It's the first of March too which means it's time to check in on some goals, and speaking of which, this week's been a bit of a break from the new Better Than The Book album as I'm trying to finish up some of the other projects I've been working on before I get back to it. There's a lot to say this week so let's start off with the next acoustic cover song to share.

First on the news this blog post, after last week's conclusion of the cover songs I recorded for Christmas for my parents, we move onto our next set of cover songs, a pair of acoustic rap tracks I recorded for my girlfriend Eva for Christmas! I'm not going to claim at all to be a fantastic rapper or anything so don't expect much, but I'm very happy with the way they turned out. First in the series is a mash-up version of Linkin Park's "Papercut/PPR-KUT", and next week we conclude this acoustic covers series with Zebrahead's "The Juggernauts". I hope you enjoy the tracks and without further wait, here's "Papercut/PPR-KUT"!

Speaking of waiting, after many delays, mishaps, and feeling like the whole universe was against us getting this finished and out, I'm super happy to finally be able to present to you my first collaboration with Indian musical chameleon Subu Nomo, a Black Sabbath esq old-school metal track: "Saboteur"! Despite all the production problems, this track was really fun to make and really brought me back to my early teen years of playing Black Sabbath with my mates in a band after school. I think the wait was definitely worth it! If you like it, go show Subu your support by visiting his YouTube Channel and pick up a free download of "Saboteur" on SoundCloud or Newgrounds. I'm sure this'll be just the first of many collaborations to come! Credits are as follows, and here's "Saboteur":

               Written and recorded by Subu Nomo & Nick Standing 
               Vocals, Bass, Guitars, Guitar Solo #2: Nick Standing
               Lyrics, Additional Backing Vocals, Guitars, Guitar Solo #1: Subu Nomo
               Mixed by Subu Nomo 
               Mastered by Nick Standing

Next this week, some updates on the A P O T H E O S I S  soundtrack! ​As I'm sure you're well aware by now, over the past month I've been working hard on the climax of the game, the final boss fight! The fight itself is split into 2 sections, an intro cutscene, phase 1 of the fight and phase 2, and as of this week, my music for the intro and phase 1 is complete, while phase 2 is well on the way, just needing a couple more elements added, some live electric guitars recorded and of course some good mixing and mastering. Since the intro and phase 1 are finished now I aim to upload a demo for those for your listening pleasure on March 14th, following the current series of acoustic cover songs, with phase 2 hopefully going up the following week on March 21st. We'll see how it goes and I'll keep you updated on how things are going, but hope you're looking forward to the most intense addition to the soundtrack yet! I can't wait to share it!

Next this week, just a little update. Having been making music for a fairly long time now, my SoundCloud page is starting to reach its upload limit (again), and so my oldest track on there "The Theme of Isabelle Samson" which I recorded and engineered for my brother DR Eamon Standing (before I even released Better Than The Book's One Small Step EP in 2012), has been moved to his own SoundCloud page, where you can find a small collection of other tracks. It's been a while since I worked with him and I very much hope we can work together again soon as he's got a whole library of amazing song which need to be recorded! Check out his latest demo here, go show him some love, and in the spirit of the hashtag that is #ThrowbackThursday, here's "The Theme of Isabelle Samson"!

Finally this week, another month has gone by (unsettlingly fast..) and we're at the start of March, so let's look back and reflect on what goals I set at the beginning of February:
​
1) Have all the drums for the new BTTB album drafted out ready for recording.
2) Service all the guitars ready to start recording by the end of February.
3) Finish the A P O T H E O S I S  Final Boss Theme.

Soo... looking back at it, it's been a sort of successful month, but it could be better... Task 1) was complete, but delays in 3) (which is very much getting there), mean that I've yet to start on 2). On the bright side though, I managed to fulfill some more personal goals this month as well as release the long awaited "Saboteur", so while I didn't make all the targets I'd hoped, I wouldn't by any means think of this month as a failure, if anything, I'm just a week or 2 behind schedule. With that, let's set some new goals for March:

1) Service all the guitars ready to start recording.
2) Finish the A P O T H E O S I S  Final Boss Theme.
3) Record all the main rhythm electric guitar parts for the new BTTB album.

I think that's reasonable at the moment, though I may add stuff to the list later, and for sure I have some more personal goals to look into soon too. In any case, let's work through this together and feel free to share your own goals for the month below if you've got any in mind. I'll keep you updated on mine!

And that about wraps things up for this week! This coming week's looking to be more work on A P O T H E O S I S  for me and I'm hoping to get the track to a state where it's just mixing and mastering left to do by this time next week (if it's not already complete). Still got to service my guitars too, but I'll wait to do that until after all the recording is finished for A P O T H E O S I S! Looking forward to sharing those new tracks and we'll see where the wind (and snow) takes me in the next 7 days. Thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and all my projects and hope you have a great week until next time. Take care and have fun!