Nick Standing AKA Jabun: Multi-instrumentalist, Composer & Mastering Specialist at JabunAudio making dynamic, clean and punchy masters to encourage people to turn up your music, rather than turn it down! Creator of the Skapunk project Better Than The Book
Announcing Better Than The Book's upcoming 3rd full-length album "Side Character In My Own Life" with the first single "Plot Holes" coming on December 30th! Pre-orders are now open on Bandcamp!
Hi everyone and hope you're all well and enjoy the holiday season!
It's been a long LONG time in the making, but after 2 home and studio moves, a global pandemic and 2 computer meltdowns (not to mention a tonne of equipment fixes and even restoring a vintage organ), it's finally (almost) time for me to start sharing the follow-up to Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album from 2019 (and man that feels like a lifetime ago now)!
I was determined to share SOMETHING before 2024 was over and although the album's not quite ready to launch yet, I am happy to say that the audio is 100% complete, admin is well on the way, and its mainly just artwork, mp3 conversions, and all the visual good stuff left to sort out!
With that said on December 30th at 8pm GMT I will be launching the first single "Plot Holes" from Better Than The Book's 3rd full-length album "Side Character In My Own Life"! If you've not heard it yet, here's a solo live performance demo from earlier this year:
I'm absolutely sure the final recorded version is going to blow your socks off!
Bandcamp pre-orders are now open, and I'll be updating the page with the pre-release singles as they're released, artwork, lyrics and descriptions in due time. Of course the current art is just a placeholder for what's to come, and there is a LOT of new music to come! Check out the track list for the new album below:
(Note that the album release date is a placeholder to be confirmed)
Better Than The Book - Side Character In My Own Life
01 - 2020 Was A Write-off, But What Comes Next?
02 - Side Character In My Own Life
03 - Mood Swings
04 - Red Kite
05 - Rewrite
06 - Don't Be Too Hard On Yourself
07 - Hold Me Tight
08 - Bump In The Night
09 - Plot Holes
10 - You'll Never Be Too Old For This
Bonus Tracks
11 - Hearts Racing Backwards
12 - Plot Holes (Alternative Version)
13 - Hold Me Tight (Non-Acoustic)
14 - Side Character In My Own Life (Acoustic)
+ Additional Radio Edits for Tracks 07, 08, 09 & 10
Written, performed and produced by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Recorded, mixed and mastered at JabunAudio by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Artwork, images and photography by Nick Standing [Jabun]
No generative A.I. tools were used in the creation of this album.
More album credits and special thanks are to come but for now I'd like to extend an immediate thanks to my family and friends (both online and offline) for their support and a big thanks to the current supporters on Patreon with extra mention to $10+ patrons: Nathan Puray, and Michael White! Thank you all so much for your help and support in making my musical dreams a reality! You folks are amazing!
And speaking of them, the $10 supporters on Patreon have just been granted access to the Plot Holes pre-release single download including mp3, WAV and artwork downloads! If that sounds good to you then become a $10 patron and experience Plot Holes before anyone else (and remember that you'll receive all past rewards for your tier as well when you do):
I'll also be giving the $10 patrons full early access to the complete "Side Character In My Own Life" album as soon as the artwork and mp3 files are made which should be in the coming months!
And with that I'll leave you to it for today! Mark your calendars for December 30th at 8pm GMT and I hope you're as excited as I am for this next chapter of Better Than The Book! I hope you have an amazing holiday season until then and I'll be back on Saturday 28th for a reminder before Monday 30th's big premier! Thanks for supporting Better Than The Book and my music however you can, Happy Holidays and take care!
Nephology is a 6+ hour collection of 3 long-form ultra ambient remixes of my 2nd album 15-4-20 inspired by cloud gazing. Each track is a 2+ hour long soundscape showcasing a different atmosphere and mood, and the album as a concept aims to be an auditory and musical expression of cloud watching. I hope you enjoy the chill vibes and it helps you with your study, meditation, or just general relaxation! Thanks for supporting my music however you can and I'll be back later this month with the first real taste of the new Better Than The Book album! Take care!
December 2024 Patreon & News Post: Jabun's Nephology album has been released, a huge thanks for 500 subscribers on YouTube, listening parties (next one at 8pm GMT today), fixing gear, more videos and more!
Hi everyone and hope you've had a great November! It's the beginning of another month which means another news roundup to share and since Jabun's Nephology album was released just a few days ago (more on that in a moment), there's no extra rewards this time so I thought I'd just make one news post for all the patrons today. Don't worry though, I'll be sharing something more before the year is out so there's still more rewards to come this month! Until then though, let's get on with the news!
First of all, as you're probably already aware on Wednesday 27th November I released my 6th album/EP project as Jabun - Nephology, a 6+ hour collection of 3 long-form ultra ambient remixes of my 2nd album 15-4-20 inspired by cloud gazing! I've already rambled a lot about it in various posts last month, so I shan't repeat myself here, but you can purchase, read all about and listen to the album over on the Bandcamp page here:
And of course for the appropriate Patreon subscribers you've got the full download package of Nephology in your rewards below which includes Mp3s (+ WAVs for the $10 patrons) and full sized album art + cover photo + alternative cover! If any of that sounds good to you and you're not a Patreon supporter yet then consider becoming a patron for as little as $1 today, and remember you'll be getting the full back-catalogue of rewards for your tier when you join, including the full BTTB, Jabun and Nick Standing discographies, bonus Patreon exclusives and much more! Find out more below:
For the Bandcamp savvy amongst you, it's the final Bandcamp Friday of 2024 on Friday 6th December which means that when you purchase anything on Bandcamp day (not just my music), 100% of your contribution will go straight to the artists you want to support. If you're planning on picking anything up or sending a digital download Christmas present then this coming Friday is the best time to do so. Thanks for supporting independent music however you can!
To celebrate the Nephology release I'll be hosting a number of listening / chillout / cloud watching parties on YouTube! The one for the first track Cumulus was on Wednesday but don't worry if you missed it as I'll be holding listening parties for the next 2 tracks on my JabunAudio YouTube channel today on Sunday 1st December and on Wednesday 4th December. If you've not done so already, subscribe to the channel to keep in the loop via the link below and come hang out, ask questions, and let's enjoy some Nephology together!
And speaking of my YouTube Channel, I want to say a HUGE thanks to everyone who's been watching and supporting the channel since I started this 2-videos-a-week schedule last year (and everyone before that too), as the JabunAudio YouTube Channel has just exceeded 500 subscribers! It's really cool to see that people are enjoying the videos (of me mainly messing around in the studio) and music (hopefully)! I'll be releasing a dedicated thank you video at the start of 2025 to celebrate and show my appreciation and I look forward to seeing how the channel grows in the next 500 subs and more! Thanks so much for watching and listening!
Keeping on the topic of listening, alongside the Jabun Nephology listening parties on YouTube, on Wednesday 27th, I held the first private listening party for Better Than The Book's upcoming Side Character In My Own Life album, just myself, and Eamon and Sam from the BTTB live band. It's always a nerve-racking experience showing these projects to people for the first time, but I can safely say now, that I'm not the only one who thinks this new album is gonna blow some minds, from a performance, writing and production point of view! Get ready for a ska punk journey like no other in the coming months, starting before the year is over! I can't wait to share it!
Onto some studio updates now, things are slowly but surely settling in at the new studio though there is still a little way to go yet. More than half of my current acoustic tiles are up now with still some planning to get the rest of them done soon, and it's certainly sounding a lot better and more studio quality now between these walls (with still some room for improvement). In terms of equipment repairs, after a month long dance with NI tech support, we FINALLY managed to resurrect my beloved Session Horns plugin I use for all my Better Than The Book brass work! A HUGE horray and thanks to Franky from NI tech support for the patience and troubleshooting. We got there eventually!
On top of that, my main guitar amp of 17 years, a Marshall AVT50x combo has been rescued from a silent grave by an incredibly simple fix! Basically all that had happened is that after many years of being thrown around the back of cars and moved around, the one pre-amp valve had wobbled free and become slightly deseated from its socket on the main circuit board. A quick wiggle and firm press back and the amp was back in working order! While it was apart anyway though, I took the time to replace what had become a very noisey output fan, and now it's running much smoother (I've made a video about it which will be coming out in the new year if you're interested). I also noticed that a lot of noise was coming from the new computer tower into the reverb circuit so I relocated the reverb to a new position in the speaker cabinet section of the combo, shielded the tank more with copper tape and moved the PC tower a few inches further away and all the noise is basically gone now. Horray!
If that wasn't enough repairs for the month, I also fired up my Moog just to find out that one of the keys was sticking/ not triggering properly, but thankfully that was just a 5 minute job for some contact cleaner and button mashing, no extra parts needed. Phew!
For now the next step for studio set-up will be switching to a slightly smaller but hopefully as ergonomic synth desk in order to make room for my big bass amp which I'll be picking up later this month, then planning some shelves and storage spaces. There sure does seem to be a lot of Tetrising needed to fit this 20+ years of my music recording (and 28+ of music playing) life into this new studio. It's a big job but I'm looking forward to the adventure!
Finally for this month as usual I've been keeping up with my 2 a week videos on the now 500+ subs strong JabunAudio Channel! This month we said farewell to the old studio along with a tonne of organ related videos, and more. Here's the updated main playlist:
Nektar NP-2 Sustain Pedal Half Damper function with Yamaha Reface CP?!
I'm moving! Goodbye Studio Tour!
Inside my Homemade Spring Reverb Unit (with Yamaha YC-25D Organ)
Vintage String Machine Vibes with the Yamaha YC-25D Combo Organ and MXR Phase 90 Script (Arp Solina)
MXR Phase 90 vs Jim Dunlop Rotovibe vs Phase 45 Clone Shootout with Combo Organ (Yamaha YC-25D)
One last jam before moving house: War Pigs by Black Sabbath on Organ (Yamaha YC-25D)
KORG Volca Keys Synth Challenge: 3 part Techno Drums + Bass LIVE NO OVERDUBS!!!
Uncut Guitar Practice - The stuff YouTube guitarists don't share (at least that's what I hope)...
Next month we're saying hello to the new studio along with some more guitar and organ and a few little insights into setting everything up! Hope you enjoy it and looking forward to seeing you in the comments!
That wraps things up for this time! I'll be back before the end of the year with something extra special from BTTB before it's time to update the reward archives at the beginning of 2025, so the next (usual) beginning of January post will likely be another "no extra rewards" shared news post! Until then, I hope you enjoy the Nephology album, hope to see you at some of the listening parties this week and thanks as always for supporting my music however you can! Take care, happy holidays if I don't speak to you before, and enjoy some cloud watching!
Jabun's new "Nephology" album has been released along with download rewards for all subscribers on Patreon! Join me for a cloud watching party at 8pm GMT tonight on YouTube!
Hi everyone! It's finally time to release Jabun's 6th album/EP project "Nephology"! Check it out now on Bandcamp and I hope you enjoy it:
Well... I got distracted again! After I released my 5th and shortest collective Jabun project June22 in March 2023, I was super sure that it’d be my ska-punk project Better Than The Book which would be getting the next album release. Time sure does fly though, and alongside the hard work on that BTTB album I got back to some ambient explorations in some free evenings. An experiment with the first track from my 15-4-20 album turned into an over 2 hour long ultra ambient remix like nothing I’ve ever done before, and after revisiting the results at a later date, I figured I’d do similar remixes for the other 2 tracks from 15-4-20 as well and a new album project (and by far the longest one to date) was formed! For those eager to hear the new Better Than The Book album though, don’t you worry. Audio is actually now 100% complete for my ska-punk project’s next release, but it just so happened that the admin for this Jabun project filled a much smaller to-do list so it’s coming first! Thanks for your patience!
Nephology is a 6+ hour collection of 3 long-form ultra ambient remixes of my 2nd album 15-4-20 inspired by cloud gazing. Each track is a 2+ hour long soundscape showcasing a different atmosphere and mood, and the album as a concept aims to be an auditory and musical expression of cloud watching. All tracks were remixed using Paul’s Extreme Sound Stretch, Ableton Live 8 and Valhalla Supermassive and were mastered in Ableton Live 8.
Nephology isn’t an album to listen to note for note so to speak, more a collection of 3 sonic paintings to have in the background, glance through at your leisure, and just enjoy the vibes for as short or long a time as you want, much like how you’d experience watching clouds in the sky. These 3 tracks and over 6 hours of ambient remix material are all non-looping and never exactly repeating much like how the 15-4-20 album was (and how cloud gazing is) and through the gently evolving sounds I hope you enjoy the sound design, shifting textures, and unexpected moments and have fun with it.
Cumulus shares deep, dense and warm slowly drifting ambiences gradually morphing as time goes by. Meanwhile, Stratus shares a similar vibe to its precursor but with lighter and more dynamically evolving textures. Finally, Cirrus shifts the tone entirely to a colder, mysterious and more out of this world soundscape where you can almost hear the wind and ice crystals swirling into those distinct wispy formations as they pass by. Whether you sit down to listen intently, have them on in the background while doing something else, or simply immerse yourself in the sounds for as long as you’d like to, I hope you enjoy these ambient sonic experiments from 2024 and the overall concept I wanted to share with this album.
Much like the 15-4-20 album, Nephology’s album cover photo is of the sky, in fact the same sky as before, but this time looking up from the ground instead of out of the window. The note paper motif is very typical for me (see Better Than The Book) but hadn’t previously been used in any of the Jabun album covers. I thought it fit well with the literal meaning of Nephology which is the study or contemplation of clouds. Interestingly, the lines of the paper were drawn digitally, but the punched holes were actually photos of paper holes because drawing them in didn’t look quite real? Strange how that goes! I also created visualisers for this album which are slowed down footage looking out of that same window as 15-4-20 at the passing and evolving clouds. I’m really going to miss the view from that studio of 2019-2024 and I wonder what will bring me inspiration and where it’ll take my music in the next few years to come!
Nephology Tracklist:
01 Cumulus
02 Stratus
03 Cirrus
All tracks written, performed, remixed and produced by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Recorded, mixed and mastered at JabunAudio by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Album artwork, images and photography by Nick Standing [Jabun]
No generative A.I. tools were used in the creation of this album.
You can explore the full Nephology album credits and special thanks on the dedicated Bandcamp page, but for now I'd like to extend an immediate thanks to my family and friends (both online and offline) for their support and a big thanks to the current supporters on Patreon with extra mention to $10+ patrons: Nathan Puray, and Michael White! Thank you all so much for your help and support in making my musical dreams a reality! You folks are amazing!
To celebrate the release launch I'll be hosting a listening / chillout / cloud watching party "premier" for the first track "Cumulus" on YouTube at 8pm (GMT) tonight! Check out the link below and come hang out, ask questions, and let's enjoy some Nephology together! I look forward to seeing you there:
And I'll be holding listening parties for the next tracks on my JabunAudio YouTube channel in the coming week too (on Sunday 1st December and next Wednesday 4th December). If you've not done so already, subscribe to the channel to keep in the loop!
Of course my supporters on Patreon are celebrating today with the full download package of Nephology which includes Mp3s (+ WAVs for the $10 patrons) and full sized album art + cover photo + alternative cover! If any of that sounds good to you, then consider becoming a patron for as little as $1 today, and remember you'll be getting the full back-catalogue of rewards for your tier when you join, including the full BTTB, Jabun and Nick Standing discographies, bonus Patreon exclusives and much more! Find out more below:
That about wraps things up for this post! I'll be back on Sunday for a shared monthly news roundup for all Patreon supporters but since the Nephology album has just launched there'll be no extra rewards this time. Having said that, I will be back before the end of the year with something extra special from BTTB before it's time to update the reward archives at the beginning of 2025! Until then, I hope you enjoy the Nephology album, hope to see you at some of the listening parties this week and thanks as always for supporting my music however you can and on Patreon! Take care and enjoy some cloud watching!
Jabun's Nephology album releases this Wednesday on November 27th! Join me for a cloud gazing party at 8pm GMT on YouTube!
Hi again everyone and hope you're having a great February so far! In case you haven't heard already I'll be releasing my latest album as Jabun "Nephology" on Wednesday November 27th at midnight (GMT)! To celebrate I'll be hosting a listening / chillout / cloud watching party "premier" for the first track "Cumulus" on YouTube at 8pm (GMT) on Wednesday! Check out the link below and come hang out, ask questions, and let's enjoy some Nephology together! I look forward to seeing you there:
I'll be holding listening parties for the next tracks on my JabunAudio YouTube channel in the coming week too (on Sunday 1st December and next Wednesday 4th December). Subscribe to the channel to keep in the loop!
Nephology is a 6+ hour collection of 3 long-form ultra ambient remixes of my 2nd album 15-4-20 inspired by cloud gazing. Each track is a 2+ hour long soundscape showcasing a different atmosphere and mood, and the album as a concept aims to be an auditory and musical expression of cloud watching.
Nephology Tracklist:
01 Cumulus
02 Stratus
03 Cirrus
All tracks written, performed, remixed and produced by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Recorded, mixed and mastered at JabunAudio by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Album artwork, images and photography by Nick Standing [Jabun]
No generative A.I. tools were used in the creation of this album.
You can read all about Nephology on the dedicated Bandcamp page, including the full album credits and special thanks but for now I'd like to extend an immediate thanks to my family and friends (both online and offline) for their support and a big thanks to the current supporters on Patreon with extra mention to $10+ patrons: Nathan Puray, and Michael White! Thank you all so much for your help and support in making my musical dreams a reality! You folks are amazing!
And if you really can't wait, the $10 supporters on Patreon already have access to the full album including Mp3s, WAVs, and full sized album art + cover photo + alternative cover! If that sounds good to you then become a $10 patron and experience Nephology in full now (and remember that you'll receive all past rewards for your tier as well when you do):
Until Wednesday 27th and the next post (when I'll be giving out the associated Patreon rewards), I really hope you're hyped for these latest ambient soundscapes from Jabun and thanks as always for supporting my music however you can! Take care, all the best and see you on Wednesday!
Nephology is a 6+ hour collection of 3 long-form ultra ambient remixes of my 2nd album 15-4-20 inspired by cloud gazing. Each track is a 2+ hour long soundscape showcasing a different atmosphere and mood, and the album as a concept aims to be an auditory and musical expression of cloud watching.
You can read all about it on the Nephology Bandcamp page, and I'll be streaming the album track by track on my JabunAudio YouTube channel in the coming weeks too!
November 2024 Patreon & News Post: Jabun's Nephology Early Access on Patreon, new studio ups and downs, Cyberdevil's Inktober 2024 + an exclusive beat download + YouTube videos and playlists and more!
Hi everyone and hope you had a great October (and Halloween yesterday)! It's the beginning of another month and after the huge disruption last time, things are starting to get back on track though are maybe a few months behind where I wanted to be in some aspects... Taking the good stuff along with the bad though it's been a super busy month of both fun AND pain so let's dive into the details!
First of all some studio updates: After a near (computer) death experience following September's studio move and the hard work and research from some friends, we FINALLY got the computer to boot up again (without a reset or clean install) and things are almost back to normal now! I've even been back to some JabunAudio client work again (which was a big worry this time last month), and cut a first track in the new studio too (more on that later)! The only thing that hasn't seemed to survive the fixes is unfortunately the virtual horns I use for Better Than The Book... They're stuck in demo mode! I've been in touch with Native Instruments tech support to try and figure things out so hopefully something can be done, but if not it might be time to look for some new horns... what crummy luck! As If I didn't need even more stuff to worry about too just earlier this week my main guitar amp for the last 17ish years went BANG a few times then silence... it's currently in pieces under my desk awaiting some new part and hopefully will join the resurrected equipment club later this month. I sure hope so...
Away from problems though, the studio overall is starting to shape up again, sort of... I need to figure out a new design layout eventually but for the moment everything's back in that was in there before while I look out and plan for new furniture etc... The organ rig is back together and thankfully as sturdy as ever too, and I've started on the acoustic treatment but there's still a long way to go which means lots more headphone work than usual. Overall things are getting there though and I finally had the time (and tools) to finish some things off I needed to, so I'm super pleased to finally announce:
Jabun's new Nephology ambient album is fully complete and launching for FULL Early Access to the $10+ supporters on Patreon! I'm giving early access to the artwork package to the rest of the patrons this time too! Downloads include the full artwork package (including album art, album art photo, and alternative art), and if you're a $10 Patron you have the master high quality WAV files, and the Mp3s too! Links to Patreon at the bottom of this post!
I'm sure I've previously said, but Nephology is a long form ambient collection of 3 2 hour tracks which are each remixes of the tracks from my 2nd album 15-4-20 and inspired by cloud watching! They're less something to listen to intently and more something to have on in the background while doing something else, or just to create an ambience for a space. It was a fun experiment and I hope you enjoy the vibes! In terms of the project itself, it's fully complete now and all that's left to do is finish the marketing and promotional materials and literature which will likely take a while so I'm not putting a concrete release date on things just yet, but will be aiming for the end of November, beginning of December time! For those of you waiting on Better Than The Book's new album, I'm making sure to pace myself with all this work so unfortunately that's not looking to be out in full this year anymore, BUT I do hope to have SOMETHING out before 2024 ends to start that hype train rolling again! Plans are being made, so keep watching the usual spaces, and I'll keep you posted when I can! Thanks for your patience!
Next this month, @Cyberdevil has been back to his usual INKtober madness for the 6th year in a row! For those of you not acquainted with the challenge, each October he sits down to write, record and release a new rap EVERY DAY of the month, and in this case, some days even have 2! As usual I took some time to throw a beat his way to see what he'd do with it and for the 2nd year in a row I made it purely on my KORG EM-1 Electribe groovebox with just some mastering in Ableton before I sent it over! Cyberdevil took a dark but thought provoking turn with the lyrics this time so trigger warning, but I hope you appreciate the vibes! Check out the full track below which is free to download at Newgrounds:
And if you're a supporter on Patreon you have the instrumental beat too in this month's download rewards!
Some insider backstory on the title. B35 refers to pattern bank b35 on my Electribe which happens to also be the same as the model number of a bomber aircraft developed shortly after WW2 which which I'm sure inspired Cyberdevil's lyrical take and title. There's a whole bag of different vibes to explore this year though so I highly recommend checking out the full INKtober 2024 playlist below, and a huge well done to Cyberdevil and everyone involved with special mention to @larrynachos who undertook their own "Tunetober" challenge this month as well as being on a tonne of the Inktober beats this year! I hope you enjoy it!
Next and finally this month over to YouTube Videos! I've been keeping up with my 2 a week as usual which is now scheduled up until the end of the year! Not only that but with SO many videos now I decided to make a few playlists for interest groups so that people didn't need to skip through the main one. Check them out below:
Guitar, Organ, Synths & Gear Videos (the usual playlist):
Does any other guitar have this feature? Ultra thin tones with phase reversed humbucker
Rare VOX K-ON! Yui Hirasawa amPlug: Does it do metal? I think so! (Killswitch Engage + Trivium)
Rare VOX K-ON! Yui Hirasawa amPlug: Pop Punk tones and I get carried away (blink182 + Fall Out Boy)
Rare VOX K-ON! Yui Hirasawa amPlug: Clean Ska Tones with Goldfinger - Don't Let Me Go (I'm singing)
Next month will be a goodbye studio tour along with some piano and organ and more! Hope you enjoy what's to come!
And that about wraps things up for this post! I'll be busy getting the Jabun Nephology album prepped for release along with continuing to set up and repair the studio and with any luck next time you hear from me will be when the new Jabun album drops! Until then, I hope you have a great November to come and thanks as always for supporting my music and projects in all the ways you do! Take care and all the best!
October 2024 Patreon & News Post: Some amazing and some super sucky news: Got a house, moving studios, broken computer and all projects suspended indefinitely... + more videos and more!
Hi everyone and what a mixed month it's been over here... Some HUGE big news of both the super good and the super bad variety this time and it's probably best just to start off with that...
THE GOOD NEWS: Eva and I finally got our own house! We've only been in for just over a week now so things are still spread out everywhere and it's a bit of a mess but it's great to finally have our own space and it's just about starting to feel homely now! This also means I'm finally moving to my very own (non-rented) studio space which'll hopefully be the home for JabunAudio for a LOOONG time to come (and it's slightly bigger than the last place too)! It's exciting as it is nerve racking, but with no limits to what I'm allowed to do, I'll be taking the time to create the most ideal studio workspace as I possibly can which I'm sure is going to take a while, but more on that as we get to...
THE BAD NEWS: I knew there was going to be some disruption moving studios as there always is, but not as bad as this... Firstly the smaller(ish) bad news: the studio room which I'll be moving into isn't quite ideal and needs some additional work on top of the usual acoustic panelling which'll require some extensive planning, time and investment to sort out, but should hopefully be manageable. eventually. Along with that we're currently living on the edge of a building site so things are a bit noisy at the moment and probably will be for some time too... It was to be expected, but it's still a bit of a buzzkill for any acoustic recording for a few months at least.
Finally though, and here's the really REALLY BAD news, after moving, I set up my trusty audio production computer for the last 7-8 years, and... it won't boot up... Startup recovery? Nope! System restore? Nope! Boot up in Safe Mode? NOOOPE! I was hoping at least to be able to get along with promo-work, basic client consultation and editing work, making videos and artwork and prepping these 2 album releases while the acoustic side of the studio needed sorting, but NOPE! It's all grounded... apart from basic social media and email work (on the Chromebook I'm typing this up on), I can't do any computer work anymore!
I'll be making some calls later this week to see if things are salvageable which I should know by the end of the week, but unfortunately at the moment, it's looking like the BEST case scenario is a hard reset on the PC, and starting back from square one... 8 years of crafting a specialised software environment for making music and I'll have to rebuild from scratch... Luckily, I backed up everything before the move and the master WAVs for the next 3 Jabun Records releases are complete and backed up, but while all files are preserved and there's a record of all the software etc... setting up the software environment again including installing all the software, plug-ins, bridging software for back compatibility, licencing etc... is going to be a massive task (if even 100% possibly) and I'm hoping it's not going to cost an arm and a leg too. On top of all this, there's over 70 minutes of unfinished Jabun projects which I don't have access to anymore, and there's also no guarantee that they'll be fully recoverable (error free) even if I do manage to set up the software environments again. It's a real headache I did not want to have to deal with, and if things go the way I think they will, I think it's gonna be a long time to fully recover from this... I've still not had a chance to check the rest of my equipment yet, but I know at least my MPC and grooveboxes still work so maybe I'll have to go DAWless for a while? That'd be an interesting challenge.
Moving on to some more bad news, with the situation above, and not having (useful) access to many files or being able to do any media work, I'm having to put a hold on all music releases for the foreseeable future, including Better Than The Book's "Side Character In My Own Life", and Jabun's "Nephology". I simply don't have the means to release them at the moment, or promote them effectively. I'll keep you posted with any updates on this as and when but it's gonna be a case of taking each day at a time for the moment.
Onto some better news, I did manage to finish all the artwork for Jabun's Nephology project before the move and if you're a $10 Patron (and in place of any music rewards this month), you have a download of all the artwork, including the main album cover, the alternative cover (for the matching Jabun catalog) and the isolated photo used for the cover too to look forward to! I hope you enjoy it while you wait for the album to finally drop (as soon as I can)!
Finally this month, I managed to keep up with the 2 videos a week YouTube stream despite the disruptions! Check out the playlist below:
KORG Volca Modular Tips and Tricks: Sub-harmonic Generator Patch using Function 2
KORG Volca Modular Tips and Tricks: Basic Envelope Follower Patch using Function 1
KORG Volca Modular Bouncing Ball Patch
I got to play Henry the Pipe Organ at London Bridge Station! J.S. Bach Prelude I in C Major BWV 846
Playing Henry the Pipe Organ at London Bridge Station! Spirited Away One Summers Day Joe Hisaishi
Better Than The Book - Bump In The Night (Vocal Harmony Practice 13-7-2024)
Darude - Sandstorm on Organ (Yamaha YC25D)
Trance Synth vibes Organ (Yamaha YC-25D)
I currently have videos scheduled for up until the end of November including some about the studio move, but after that I'm not sure what's going to happen with the lack of a working computer. I'll be continuing to film stuff when I can and hopefully I'll be able to get back to editing and scheduling videos soon.
And that about wraps things up for this month! Not exactly the best news I was hoping to share, but we'll just have to see how things progress over the next month. Thanks for always supporting my various projects however you can, and I'll be back with hopefully some better news in November. Take care!
September 2024 Patreon & News Post: Audio Masters are finished for Better Than The Book's 3rd full-length album: "Side Character In My Own Life" + Jabun's 6th Album/EP "Nephology"! More Ska Punk and Ambient Experiments coming soon (+ more)!
Hi everyone and hope you've had a great August! It's doesn't feel like that long since I last wrote out to you, as I guess the previous post was a week later than expected. As such there's not as much stuff to report this time, but the news that will be shared is BIG! Lets get straight to it!
This month it's all been about finalising the audio for numerous projects and after 5 years of writing, recording, production and engineering, I'm super happy to announce that the master audio for Better Than The Book's 3rd full-length album is COMPLETE! It's been a heck of a load of hard work, long listening sessions and fine tweaking BUT I really think it's not only the biggest project I've put out, but also sonically the best work I've ever done too! With the master audio complete, I'll shortly be onto creating the artwork while also going through the all the admin work to get this officially released out into the world as well as making a good promo plan, as such it'll still be a little while yet until this is our into the world but the hardest part is complete and while I can't give a release date just yet, what I will say is that I'm aiming for the album to be out before the end of the year but that after 5 years of hard work on this I'll not be rushing things. In the mean time though, while I won't call this the official announcement for the album, I hope you're as excited as I am for this latest installment of my Better Than The Book ska punk project. Get ready for:
Better Than The Book - Side Character In My Own Life
Track listing as follows:
----- Side A -----
01 - 2020 Was A Write-off, But What Comes Next?
02 - Side Character In My Own Life
03 - Mood Swings
04 - Red Kite
05 - Rewrite
----- Side B -----
06 - Don't Be Too Hard On Yourself
07 - Hold Me Tight
08 - Bump In The Night
09 - Plot Holes
10 - You'll Never Be Too Old For This
-----Bonus Tracks -----
11 - Hearts Racing Backwards
12 - Plot Holes (Alternative Version)
13 - Hold Me Tight (Non-Acoustic)
14 - Side Character In My Own Life (Acoustic)
+ additional Radio Edits for Tracks 07, 08, 09 & 10
Not only that but the master audio is also complete for the bonus instrumental (off -vocal) version of the album too! I haven't decided yet whether to release that a full 1 year after this one like usual, or get it our a bit sooner instead this time (potentially the latter). Either way, people seem to be enjoying / making use of the instrumental versions of the other albums so I thought why not regarding this album too. Enjoy that too when that comes!
If finalising the audio for effectively 36 new tracks and over 2 hours of Better Than The Book music (instrumentals included) wasn't enough then man oh man do I have a surprise for you! It's not been in development for even nearly as long nor been nearly as much work (sort of), but I'm also pleased to announce that audio has also been finalised for Jabun's next small(?)album/EP project too! As with many of the recent Jabun ambient projects, this one was also an exploratory experiment of sorts, but the results I was very pleased with so I thought why keep it to myself! Jabun's new album will actually be an ultra ambient remix version of my 2nd Jabun album/EP 15-4-20, but this time each track is a 2 hour long soundscape which in my ears aimed to be an auditory and musical expression of cloud watching. It's not an album to sit down and listen to note for note per say, more a collection of 3 sonic paintings to have in the background, glance through at your leisure and just enjoy the vibes for as short or long a time as you want (and if you REALLY want to listen for more than 2 hours per track then you can loop it yourself). These 3 tracks and over 6 hours of ambient remix material are non-looping and never exactly repeating much like how the 15-4-20 album was (or how cloudgazing is) and I hope you enjoy the concept, textures and sound design and just have fun with it. I've already started preparing artwork for this one, and with only 3 tracks and not the type of music to need to prep/ send out to radio stations etc... it's a heck of a lot less admin work than for Better Than The Book's album so there's a very good chance it'll be out before the new ska punk vibes! With that said, again although I'll not call it an official announcement just yet, I hope you're intrigued and looking forward to checking out Jabun's 6th album/EP project:
Jabun - Nephology
Track listing as follows:
01 - Cumulus
02 - Stratus
03 - Cirrus
After that I still have a BIG pile of over 70 minutes of Jabun demos and decent ideas which I aim to sort through, curate and compile along with some newer compositions too soon. Those have been slowly collecting/building since 2019 and are less ambient experimental and more akin to my debut album Daydream as well as venturing into the cinematic and instrumental hip hop side of things (check out my instrumental work with the recent Cyberdevil INKtober collaborations for a taste of the latter vibes)! That'll be a job for 2025 and super looking forward to getting back to those soon!
Finally this month, I managed to pick up the pace and get back on track with the 2 videos a week YouTube stream for now! I must admit I've been finding it difficult to share new or worthwhile ideas recently especially for guitar playing, so the next few months are taking a more synth and organ focus which people seem to be enjoying anyway so that's good. Check out the playlist below:
The Human League - The Sound of the Crowd - KORG Electribe EM-1 + Vocals
10 minutes of Unattended Volca Keys Ambient Synths
808 Day Quintuplet Polyrhythm Beatmaking
More AGCFAD Guitar Riffage
12-String Chainsaw Riffage but I get interrupted
10 minutes of Unattended Volca Modular Ambient Synths
Bonus unattended Volca Modular Video
Volca Modular Drum Synth Patch
Volca Modular Hand Drum Bongos Patch
More Volca Modular videos to come in the coming month as well as some organ and even pipe organ(!), and a clip from a Better Than The Book mini-practice session too. I hope you enjoy it!
And that wraps things up for this month unless you're a $10 supporter on Patreon which case I'm sharing with you an exclusive first look at the finished opening track to the new Better Than The Book album! Disruption is on the horizon, hence why I was so busy this month finishing up as many audio projects as possible, but hopefully by the next blog post I'll be able to reveal all and share some potentially even bigger news than in this post! Until then I think it's going to be a busy admin and artworky month for me with some more video recording to do too. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the new music and videos, and thanks so much as always for supporting my music and projects however you can. Big things coming all at once in the coming months! Get excited and take care!
August 2024 Patreon & News Post: Better Than The Book's new album is mastered and out to beta testers before the final cut, an amazing London trip (Spirited Away, Pipe Organ & meeting one of my heroes) + celebrating with collaborators and more!
Hi everyone and apologies for the slightly delayed post this month! I hope you've had a great time since the last one, and over here's it's been a super busy and exciting one to report so I hope that makes up for the delay! Lot's to go through this month so let's get to it!
First on the updates for this month, some big news from BTTB! As of yesterday, I've just rendered the first finished master test for the complete 14 track album and finally sent it over to my team of 2nd ears for a sanity check before it goes out to the world! Essentially, unless they have any specific quarrels, then the audio for the album is complete and it's just a final round of checks, exports and checking exports then the master audio will be considered finished, then just 4 quick radio edits to make/check etc... We're in the endgame now and man oh man I can't wait to share this with the world! It's been a long and difficult 5 years since Hopes and Dreams but man oh man, I think you'll hear how far 5 years of extra experience goes! Not long to wait now!
Onto some less project related and more casual fun updates, earlier last month I went on an amazing trip to London to go see the Spirited Away stage play which was phenomenal! Despite that being the aim of the trip though, that show wasn't the only highlight of the day. When we arrived at London Bridge Station, I had the pleasure of finding and playing London Bridge Station's famous recently rescued pipe organ "Henry" which was amazing (video coming to YouTube at some point)! It's likely been over 10 years now since I last had the opportunity to play pipe organ and man oh man it feels so good to be back to it! As you can expect, I've been spending even more time with my own Yamaha YC-25D organ since that day. Inspiration has been flowing like a broken tap!
That's not all for the day though, on a routine trip to Denmark Street, which has changed a lot in the few years since I was last there, I had the amazing fortune of completely by chance meeting one of my biggest electronic engineering heroes Ade Emsley! For those who don't know, he's a legend among the music tech community in a 2-fold way! On top of being head of engineering and design at Orange Amplifiers; the guy who designed virtual every Orange amp and pedal and more since the late 90s, the guy who STARTED the lunchbox/small amp head trend with the Tiny Terror, the guy who designed the very amp I use for playing organ, and live Better Than The Book performances (and much of the recording on the new record), he's also an industry legend as a mastering engineer with credits such as... the most recent few Iron Maiden albums + their entire back catalog of remasters (designing and building his own mastering rig I might add)! Needless to say, it's been a while since I was that star-struck, but I had a nice quick conversation with him and told him how much his work has inspired me before leaving him to it. I hope he enjoyed the encounter too. What a great day!
The following morning Sam, Eamon and I got together sans Andy for a Better Than The Book vocal harmonies and quiet practice session to brush up some of the tunes. It was so nice to jam again in a more relaxed setting where we weren't paying for the clock and hopefully we'll get back to some full loud-boi band practicing with Andy soon!
Onto some collaborative news now, first of all I'd like to congratulate Sif Savery and the Tales of Zale team for reaching a whopping 1 million views on YouTube for our Tales of Zale: Flickering Lights short film released back in 2022! Crazy to think that it's been seen that many times now and I'm so glad that people have been enjoying our biggest animation project so far! Hope to be working with the team again at some point and check out Sif's post on Patreon all about it. Woot woot and well done team!
Next, a newcomer of collaboration (sort of), and man oh man is this guy crazy, but I was asked to help out with some vocal editing and the final music mastering for a genre switching, A.I and stock photos collage editing madness monster of a rap track "Smack a Fish (Motha Sharka)" by eterniTRex! The music is all real musicians and vocalists (no A.I. used) while the video is a collage of A.I. generated and stock images, animated manually animutation-style for a wacky music video crazier than anything you can possibly imagine. It was a fun project to be a part of and the track / music video even got featured on the All Metal Everything music blog (with a fun write up too)! Check it out below:
Finally for this month, although I've been falling behind a bit on my pre-scheduled recording, I'm still keeping up with the 2 videos a week YouTube stream for now! It's been a synthy and Better Than The Book live band time recently, with more to come soon! Check out the playlist below:
Homecoming into Hearts Racing BTTB LIVE Practice (Clip)
Undead Education BTTB LIVE Practice (Clip)
Cathode Ray Days BTTB LIVE Practice (Clip)
Plot Holes BTTB LIVE Practice (Clip)
Hold Me Tight into Bump In The Night Full BTTB LIVE Practice
Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight Intro cover on KORG Electribe EM-1
Pale Waves Television Romance Intro cover on KORG Electribe EM-1
August has already started with another KORG EM-1 cover, an unattended synth session, and an 808 celebration and will continue with more synthy stuff and a guitar interlude to come! Hope you enjoy it!
And that about wraps things up for this month (unless you're a $10 patron in which case you have a download of that unattended synth session to look forward to)! Hopefully by the next time I write another of these, the master audio for the new Better Than The Book album will be complete and I'll be onto drafting up some artwork! In the mean time, I've got some video recording to catch up on too and I'm sure there'll be other things coming to keep me busy. Until next time, I hope you have a great month to come, enjoy all the new videos, and thanks as always for supporting my work! New Better Than The Book album is almost there! Get excited!
