Another 2 bonus mashup tracks to celebrate my 30th birthday (Listen on YouTube; download on Patreon)!

Hello everyone and hope you're having a splendid April so far! Today happens to be my 30th birthday so as an extra special treat and thanks for all the support over the years, not only am I releasing 2 new Patreon exclusive bonus mashup tracks, but also patrons will be getting them right now on my birthday instead of having to wait for the first Wednesday of the month like usual! Woot woot! For those of you not on Patreon you can listen to them on YouTube! Check them out below:

The first bonus track is another Better Than The Book mashup and although I didn't think it would work initially, I'm actually super pleased with the way it turned out! Check out "The Bigger Call, Maybe..." via the video link below and hope you get a kick out of it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ5Fi1kI2gw

Songs used:

Better Than The Book - The Bigger Picture [Instrumental]

Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe [Acapella]

The second mashup doesn't feature any of my own music (apart from putting it together) but was equally super fun to make. A little back-story: on my first date with my S.O. Eva, I bought the "Significant Other" album by Limp Bizkit on vinyl, and a few years later, I started her vinyl collection with Ed Sheeran's "Divide" album. Seemed like a fun challenge to mash them up, and if you just imagine Ed Sheeran's having a really bad day, I think it works really nicely! Have a listen via the YouTube link below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXUFKfFN2rU

Songs used:

Ed Sheeran - Eraser [Instrumental]

Limp Bizkit - Break Stuff [Acapella]

These bonus mashup tracks are Patreon exclusive downloads so if you want to pick up a copy, come join the lovely community on Patreon! Remember that you'll be getting not just these mashups but all historic rewards for your chosen tier when you sign up too including the full Better Than The Book discography and much more! With the REWARD ARCHIVE tag it's never been easier to catch up with all those posts and music downloads you've missed too! I hope you enjoy them!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

And again for the $10 patrons, you've also got another exclusive demo from Jabun's upcoming 2nd album to look forward to as well as an article on the composition/production process for it (and I really think this articles one of the most interesting production pieces yet!)! Become a $10 patron to access that article, music, and much more now!  

That's it for this post, and as these rewards are really an early May reward for the $1 patrons, I'll be seeing you next time at the start of June to continue with the Jabun back catalogue of tracks unless something else comes up beforehand (last week of May for the $5+ patrons)! Until then, I hope you have a great rest of April and May, enjoy all the silly mashups which have been released this month, and thank you so much as always for supporting Better Than The Book, Jabun, and my various other projects! Take care, and I look forward to seeing what this next decade of my life brings and sharing it with you!

Better Than The Book just reached 1000 followers on Twitter + some upcoming project updates!

Hello everyone and hope you're having a good time despite the isolation and lock-down and all that jazz that's going on at the moment. Just checking in today to report that Better Than The Book just passed 1000 followers on Twitter! Thanks so much for all the support and if you're not yet following you can find BTTB on Twitter here:

https://twitter.com/BTTB_UK

In other news, with not much else to do while on lock-down, I've been busy composing demos and recording for new projects and my oh my has it been a productive time! With almost 2 and a half HOURS of Jabun demos completed since November last year as of this week, I'm taking a break from composition now to focus on what I've currently got and polish them up for some new releases! As it currently stands here's what's lined up for the near(ish) future (in approximate order though with no timescales just yet):

1) A mystery metal cover song (Just waiting on a final green light, then artwork and admin stuff to do)

2) A 33 minute Jabun "LIVE" album (all recorded, needs final mixing and mastering, then artwork and admin)

3) A 37 minute Jabun studio album (fully composed and demoed, needs final recording, and all the rest)

4) A ~70 minute Jabun studio (double) album (Roughly demoed, with possible additions to come) 

5) A bonus album with alternative versions, (eg: instrumentals) from the album above

(+2 more miscellaneous leftover demos I'll likely release as Patreon exclusive bonuses)

And on top of that there will definitely be a Better Than The Book bonus album coming in July! Aiming to have projects 1, 2 & 3 out before the end of the year (maybe beginning of 2021 for #3), and more details to come as and when I can share them! In any case it's looking to be an exciting time for music for the foreseeable future (and I've still got the rest of the Jabun back catalog to upload too)! Hope you're looking forward to it as much as I am!

That's it for this post and more Patreon rewards (2 exclusive bonus tracks) will be coming on my 30th birthday this Friday! Become a $5+ patron now for early access to those, and get all past rewards for your tier when you sign up including the full BTTB discography and more!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Until then, thanks as always for supporting Jabun, Better Than The Book and all my projects and I hope you have a great week! Stay safe, wash your hands, and I can't wait to share all this new music with you soon(ish)!

Update: PayPal Tip Jar + Better Than The Book's "Brighton" featured again on The Ska Show with Beefy (alongside Less Than Jake too)!!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great start to April so far (despite all that's going on in the world). Just a couple of quick updates to share with you today:

First of all, after much consideration and suggestions from various social media platforms due to the corona virus disruptions over the last month or so, I've decided to set up a PayPal tip jar for anyone who wants to throw some spare PayPal pennies my way, especially during this crazy time.

I realise that while Patreon is a great platform for people who want to support my music on a regular basis, many people aren't in that position to do so, and since I try to keep as much of my music as possible free to listen to for everyone on platforms such as Spotify, YouTube, Soundcloud, and of course Newgrounds, there's not much incentive these days for people to actually buy digital downloads anymore (a huge thank you to everyone who does though)! With this being the case, I thought setting up a separate PayPal tip jar would be a good alternative for those who want to support my music with one-off tips or the occasional support without the commitment of Patreon, or simply buying the same digital album over and over again. If Newgrounds (etc...) is my busking street, think of this tip jar as my open guitar case for your spare change. Every little bit makes a difference!

With the UK on lock down at the moment, all I can really do is make more music, so you can bet that I'll be working on a whole plethora of new tunes for the foreseeable future (and more intensely than usual)! If you're enjoying the music and have some pennies you won't miss (whether a Patreon supporter already or not), feel free to send them my way via the new PayPal Tip Jar below:

https://www.paypal.me/NickStanding

Next and lastly for this post, some super cool news to share as Better Than The Book's "Brighton" was back on The Ska Show with Beefy this week playing alongside Less Than Jake's "The Science of Selling Yourself Short" (a track I requested for the show and one of my all time favourites)! Thanks for sharing the tunes and the lovely shout out, Beefy!

Check out the replay of the show below: Less Than Jake is on at -37:03 followed by a lovely shout out, then "Brighton", then more tunes and another shout out!

https://www.facebook.com/TheSkaShowwithBeefy/posts/2923405277747858​

And check out the full playlist for the show below! Lots of great stuff this week! 

https://www.facebook.com/notes/the-ska-show-with-beefy-on-southern-fm/playlist-31st-march-2020/2914311901990529/

Remember you can grab "Brighton" and the rest of the Hopes and Dreams album in all the usual digital places including the Better Than The Book Bandcamp page:

https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/album/hopes-and-dreams

Or grab the full BTTB discography, bonus tracks and all when you become a supporter on Patreon if that’s your jam. Next set of rewards will be on April 24th (my 30th birthday) including 2 new Patreon exclusive bonus tracks! Hope to see you then!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

And that about wraps up this post. Thanks as always for supporting Better Than The Book and my various music projects in all the ways you can, many thanks for listening, and I can't wait to take Better Than The Book live once this corona virus thing is all over! Stay safe and sensible!

The $1 & $10 rewards have been sent out: an exclusive download of Better Than The Book's bonus track "Mark Your Wall" + another exclusive demo from Jabun's upcoming 2nd album for the $10+ patrons!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great start to April! It's the first Wednesday of the month which means the $1 Patreon rewards have just been sent out, and this time I have something extra special for you, an unreleased bonus track from the 2016 Better Than The Book album "Two Years On"! Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liE7nsRbgJY

... is what I would say, if there were such a thing! Anyway, here's Wonderwall...

and happy April Fool's Day!

This silly mashup has been sitting half finished in my projects folder since about September 2018 but now seemed like the right time to finish it up ready for some April Fool's fun! I hope you get a kick out of it and sing along loud and proud!

Songs used:

Better Than The Book - Make Your Mark [Instrumental]

Oasis - Wonderwall [Acapella]

This bonus mashup track is a Patreon exclusive download so if you want to pick up a copy, come join this lovely Patreon community! Remember that you'll be getting not just this mashup but all historic rewards for your chosen tier when you sign up too including the full Better Than The Book discography and much more! With the REWARD ARCHIVE tag it's never been easier to catch up with all those posts and music downloads you've missed too! I hope you enjoy them :) 

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding (Sign up and find out more)

https://www.patreon.com/posts/34612394 (Exclusive download)

And for the $10 patrons, you've got another exclusive demo from Jabun's upcoming 2nd album to look forward to as well as an article on the composition/production process for it and early access to all the upcoming music later this month! Become a $10 patron to access that article and music and much more now!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/34612377 ($10 rewards)

That's it for this post, but as it's my 30th birthday on April 24th, there'll be new rewards including 2 more Patreon exclusive mashups coming early next time! I'll leave all the details as a surprise for later this month, but until then, I hope you enjoy the new music and thanks as always for supporting Better Than The Book and my various projects! Enjoy the new tune(s) and see you on the 24th!

A full song play-through of Better Than The Book's "Cathode Ray Days" from the first full-band LIVE and loud practice in December!

Hi everyone and another LIVE & LOUD full song play-through video to share with you today from Better Than The Book's first full band rehearsal back in December! This time we're back to the Two Years On album for "Cathode Ray Days" again, this time in full for the finale of this live rehearsal video mini-series! Enjoy some TV nostalgia (amongst other things) below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_iRw3lsJrg

Line-up:

Nick Standing: Composer, guitar + lead vocals

Eamon Standing: Harmonica + backing vocals

Sam Brown: Bass + backing vocals

Andy Forman: Drums

"Cathode Ray Days" and the rest of the Two Years On album are available on all major digital distributors as well as the Better Than The Book Bandcamp page:

https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/

Or of course you can pick them up if you haven't already when you become a supporter on Patreon, complete with the full Better Than The Book discography and more when you sign up! Another set of $5 early access rewards was just posted last week too so come join the community:

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

This unfortunately brings us to the end of the current video series taken from BTTB rehearsals I can share with you, and with the coronavirus stuff going around at the moment, it may be a while until we can practice together again and record some more... Fret not though, there's still some more non-live videos and new music to come next week so subscribe to the BTTB YouTube channel to get them fresh off the press, and I'll see you next week for something a little different! 

That's it for today's update and I'll be back this time next week with more things to share as well as another set of $1 and $10 Patreon rewards! Looking forward to it and until then, thanks as always for supporting Better Than The Book, and my various music projects and I hope you have a great week to come! Stay safe, take care and keep on skankin'!

An unfortunate update: Better Than The Book's debut gig on April 11th has been indefinitely postponed due to COVID19...

Hi everyone and hope you're staying safe and healthy in these rapidly changing and uncertain times. It is with mixed emotions that I must report less than a week after I excitedly announced it, that Better Than The Book's debut gig on April 11th in Haywards Heath (Sussex, UK) has been indefinitely postponed by the event organisers due to COVID19 concerns.

Given the current times, I fully support their decision for the safety and comfort of the attendees, staff and entertainers for the evening, though of course it saddens me that it'll be longer until we can hit the stage.

I'll be sure to share updates as and when I receive them and hopefully we'll be able to make the future rescheduled date when it comes around. Keep up to date on the events page for the time being:

https://www.facebook.com/events/892633854540874/

And until then and always, stay safe, be kind to each other, and keep on skankin'! All the best!

A full song play-through of Better Than The Book's "And I Fear" from the first full-band LIVE and loud practice in December!

Hi everyone and another LIVE & LOUD full song play-through video to share with you today from Better Than The Book's first full band rehearsal back in December! This time we're moving onto the Hopes and Dreams album for "And I Fear" and as with the last track, this would have been literally the 2nd time we'd have played this together (the first being a few minutes before). Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8OgLGLfms0

Line-up:

Nick Standing: Composer, guitar + lead vocals

Eamon Standing: Harmonica + backing vocals

Sam Brown: Bass + backing vocals

Andy Forman: Drums

"And I Fear" and the rest of the Hopes and Dreams album are available on all major digital distributors as well as the Better Than The Book Bandcamp page:

https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/

Or of course you can pick them up if you haven't already when you become a supporter on Patreon, complete with the

full Better Than The Book discography and more when you sign up! With the project going live, we could use all the support we can get to push it as far as possible, and another set of $5 early access rewards was just posted on Monday too so come join the community:

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Just one more of these videos to come next week before we move onto something different! Subscribe to the BTTB YouTube channel to get them fresh off the press, and I'll see you next week for another one! 

That's it for today's update and I'll be back this time next week with the final LIVE video (for now)! Looking forward to it and until then, thanks as always for supporting Better Than The Book, and my various music projects and I hope you have a great week to come! Take care!

$5 rewards have just been sent out: early access to 3 Patreon exclusive bonus tracks to be released in April + an updated rewards schedule for March / April / May!

Hello everyone and hope you're having a great March so far! You may be thinking, wait... it's not the final Wednesday of the month and indeed you're right, but it's time once again to mix up the Patreon rewards schedule for some new music which means the $5 & $10 patrons have just been granted extra early access to not 1, not 2, but 3 Patreon exclusive bonus tracks! 

Become a $5+ patron for instant access to all those tracks on top of all historic rewards for your tier:

Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Get these rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/34612358

I'll not be saying what the tracks are here (that's for the $5+ patrons to know), but with a new batch of tracks completed comes a diversion from the usual first and last Wednesday of the month Patreon reward schedule, so here's an update on what's to come over the next few months!

Firstly with this new $5 reward out which covers March and April's rewards there will be no new $5 rewards in April, only new $1 and $10 rewards as follows.

First Wednesday of April:

$1 patrons will receive the 1st of the Better Than The Book bonus tracks

$10 patrons will receive another demo & article from the upcoming Jabun album (delayed March reward)

Friday April 24th:

$1 patrons will receive the 2nd of the Better Than The Book bonus tracks + another bonus track (early May reward)

$10 patrons will receive another demo & article from the upcoming Jabun album (early April reward)

There will also be no extra $1 reward in May since it was given at the end of April.

You may be wondering why April 24th, and that's because the reason for these bonus tracks is that it's my 30th birthday! They're nothing too special (or extra special depending on how you view it) but all 3 tracks will be exclusive downloads only for patrons (though they will be available for streaming on YouTube as well)! I hope you enjoy something slightly different and fun to start my 3rd decade of living and look forward to seeing what I'll create in the next decade to come!

With that schedule lined up, it should be back to the usual schedule and the Jabun back catalogue for the end of May with $5 & $10 rewards on May 27th and $1 rewards on June 3rd. There are still however 2 new and bonus pieces of music currently in the works with the aim of releasing this summer, so I'll keep you updated on any changes to the schedule! It's certainly set to be an exciting few months!

And that wraps things up for this post! Become a $5+ patron to be among the first to listen to these 3 new bonus tracks (and grab all previous rewards for your tier when you sign up including the full Better Than The Book discography), and I'll be back with another post and Better Than The Book LIVE video on Wednesday! Until then, I hope you have a great few days and thanks as always for supporting Better Than the Book and my various projects! Enjoy the music and take care!

HUGE NEWS: Better Than The Book will be playing its first EVER gig on April 11th at the United Services Club in Haywards Heath (Sussex, UK)!

***Update: event has been indefinitely postponed due to COVID-19. I'll post updates as and when I receive them***

It's set to be a great night with a load of other pop punk bands from the local scene and all proceeds going towards Macmillan Cancer Support! All the details can be found (or asked for) on the following Facebook event page so if you're interested in going, go grab your tickets from Ben or Bex before they're all gone (all tickets must be bought in advance due to the venue's guest-list policies):

https://www.facebook.com/events/892633854540874/

I realise that many of you reading will be halfway around the world and unable to make it, but for those of you in the area, I hope to see you on April 11th for a night I'm sure will be spectacular! And with the gig less than a month away now, I guess I should get back to practicing some songs ready for the big night! Exciting times and until then I hope you have a great month to come and thanks as always for supporting Better Than The Book and my various projects here on Newgrounds! Just one month to go until showtime!

A full LIVE & LOUD play-through of BTTB's "Undead Education" + "GG" featured on the Best Indie Pop Punk Spotify playlist by NeverEnoughMusic.com

Hi everyone and another LIVE & LOUD full song play-through video to share with you today from Better Than The Book's first full band rehearsal back in December! This time we're moving onto the Two Years On album for "Undead Education" and truth be told, this would have been literally the 2nd time we'd have played this together (the first being a few minutes before) so please excuse the roughness around the edges! We definitely messed up the ending a bit but hope you enjoy it nonetheless, it was fun times anyhow! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICptI6D7Q9M

Line-up:

Nick Standing: Composer, guitar + lead vocals

Eamon Standing: Harmonica + backing vocals

Sam Brown: Bass + backing vocals

Andy Forman: Drums

"Undead Education" and the rest of the Two Years On album are available on all major digital distributors as well as the Better Than The Book Bandcamp page:

https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/ 

Or of course you can pick them up if you haven't already when you become a supporter on Patreon, complete with the full Better Than The Book discography and more when you sign up! With the project going live, we could use all the support we can get to push it as far as possible, so come join the community and grab some tunes:

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Only 2 more of these videos to come over the next month! Man how time flies... Subscribe to the BTTB YouTube channel to get them fresh off the press, and I'll see you next week for another one! 

Next and finally this week, some more cool news to share: looks like GG from the Hopes and Dreams album made it onto a Spotify playlist! Thanks so much to NeverEnoughMusic.com for sharing the tunes, and check out the playlist below: 

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1ZAVMLJco8G18mT3stwPfG 

And that about wraps things up for this post! Lots of exciting stuff is in the works currently, so hopefully I'll be able to reveal more by this time next week, but if not, there'll still be another video to share at least! Until then, thanks as always for supporting Better Than The Book and my various projects, enjoy the music and videos and take care :)