Amazing news! Better Than The Book's "Artificial Ignorance" places #16 best new ska tune of 2019 on The Ska Show with Beefy Top 30 Charts + some radio re-runs and love!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

https://www.patreon.com/posts/33066689

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great weekend so far! Some amazing news to share with you today, and a GREAT start to the year for radio features as The Ska Show with Beefy (The #2 ska radio show / podcast in the world) awards Better Than The Book's "Artificial Ignorance" #16 on their Top 30 new ska tunes of 2019 charts! Thanks so much to Beefy for all the love he's showed for the Hopes and Dreams album and Better Than The Book last year, and check out the replay of the #20 to #11 chart in this latest episode of The Ska Show below:

https://www.facebook.com/TheSkaShowwithBeefy/posts/2744594605628927

Better Than The Book plays about halfway through preceded by a lovely shout out from Beefy! You can also check out the #30 to #11 chart list via the link below:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/the-ska-show-with-beefy-on-southern-fm/playlist-5th-january-2020-the-best-of-2019-chart/2742981579123563/?__tn__=-R

And if that wasn't a good enough Saturday of Ska, Tonic Ska Radio has also been showing the project some love over in London! Thanks so much for sharing the tunes and check out their Facebook post all about it below:

https://www.facebook.com/tonicskaradio/posts/1205821572961971

That's it for this post! I do wonder what exciting things are to come next for Better Than The Book and my various projects, but until then I hope you have a great time and thanks as always for supporting my music here on Newgrounds! Take care :D

Happy New Year and HUGE NEWS: Better Than The Book finally has a band and is preparing to hit the stage in 2020 (+ some fun gear updates)!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/32944672

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Happy New Year everyone and some long awaited HUGE news to share today as you can probably tell by the post title! Hope you all had a great time over the winter holiday period and are settling back smoothly into routine now that we're almost at the end of the first week of 2020. I certainly had an exciting few weeks away, so let's get into that and the big news!

Let's start with some backstory. Better Than The Book has been a studio project since mid 2012, but apart from making the records themselves, I never really had the opportunity / means to take it to the stage. Fast forward to 2016 when Two Years On was released, and things started getting interesting. With 2 tracks making it on the radio over in the USA, I was getting interviews and requests asking when I would be touring the USA, but as a person with no band or funding, I really had no idea what to do. I even had a label approach me about the project back then, but without a gig-ready band at the time, I couldn't fulfill the needs they wanted. Fast forward again to 2019 and Hopes and Dreams, and even before the album was released the attention was heating up with radio play as far as Australia and many web features and interviews. When the album launched on July 19ths, things exploded over the next few months and it was clear that people wanted me to take this live, and I'd be kicking myself if I didn't give it a shot. By the end of October, 7/10 tracks from the album had made it onto the radio all across the USA, UK and Australia!

After much discussion with a few close and musical friends, in August 2019, four of us got together for a casual living room jam and strategy meeting, and all things considered, it went super smoothly and I was happy to give this live thing a shot. We set out 8 tracks to learn to start with with the aim to practice hard and meet up for a full band, loud and proud rehearsal before the end of the year, and in late December 2019 it happened, and it was spectacular! Considering we'd never played most of these tunes together, and certainly not in a full band situation, it was already more than 90% there musically, with just a few tiny kinks to iron out (like vocal harmonies and who was doing which backing vocals). I was on top of the world, and at the end of that practice, it was pretty darn clear that 2020 would be an exciting year for Better Than The Book!

And so without further wait, I'd like to formally announce that Better Than The Book will be hitting the stage in 2020 with the following line-up of my crazy friends:

Nick Standing (Me): Lead vocals and guitar

Eamon Standing: Backing vocals, guitar and harmonica (the amazing one man horn section)

Sam Brown: Backing vocals and bass guitar

Andy Forman: Drums

Eamon, Sam and I were in our first band together, I was in a band with Andy, Sam was in that same band with Andy before I joined, Eamon and Andy made a record together with me producing it, Sam's been in another band I was in, I've been in a battle of the band against Andy, and of course Andy lent his guitar playing to Better Than The Book's 1st EP One Small Step on the track "Woof Woof, Nag Nag" (as well as many gang shouts on the album along with Eamon). In short, we all have a long musical history together and I honestly couldn't think of a better bunch of people to be doing this with! What's next for the project? Well we've another 7ish songs to learn before our next meet-up in April then it's time to make the final polishing and start looking for gigs! We already have one confirmed for November (more details to come closer to the time) so at the very latest, our first gig will be then! It's been a tonne of hard work but I can't wait to really push this to see how far we can take it, and if you want to help support the project over on Patreon, it'd really help cover the practice studio and travel costs while we prepare (and get some merch sorted), and of course you'll be getting all the good stuff and full BTTB discography when you sign up!

And speaking of getting things, I'm super happy with my love new and compact gigging amp I got just before the practice, an Orange Micro Dark! Don't let it's size fool you, this thing is DEAFENING if it wants to be! Plugged into a Marshall 4x12 cab at practice, I could only get the volume up 1/3 the way before it was plenty loud enough for the room and to keep up with Andy's drumming! Simple, sweet sounding, my kind of tone and doesn't even weigh 1kg!!! I'll definitely be putting this in my rucksack for practice rather than taking my 50 watt 14kg+ Marshall amp on the train, as lovely as it sounds. For the gear heads among you, since the Micro Dark only has one channel (or sound at a time), as opposed to my Marshall which you can switch between 2 via a footswitch, I took some time during the Christmas period to build a little pedal for it! This'll be the 4th (and most simple) pedal I've designed / built from scratch, and I call it the "Pre-Wash". Put it before you amp and when engaged it cleans up your single for less distortion, in the same way as rolling the volume down on your amp can clean the signal. It basically turns a single channel amp into a basic 2 channel one. Neat! I still need to save up for a speaker cabinet for the Micro Dark to play through in the studio, but as of right now I have all the equipment I need to gig Better Than The Book (which is half the battle)!

Back to that epic practice in December, I did manage to get some footage of that, as well as subsequent practices too, so keep a look out for some of that coming hopefully later this month over on Patreon! Overall, 2019 was a heck of an exciting year for Better Than The Book, but I have a feeling that 2020 will be just as exciting in a completely different way!

That's it for this post! There's still a heck of a lot of work to do in preparation for gigging but I think musically and equipment wise we're pretty much there! I'm sure I'll be posting more updates about this soon, but until the next post, I hope you have a great start to 2020 and thanks as always for supporting Better Than The Book, Jabun and my various projects! Let's make 2020 (and the decade to come) and amazing one!

More Patreon rewards have been sent out: Clare Jeffrey - 60 Days [Jabun Orchestral Mix] + 10 minutes of exclusive demos from Jabun's upcoming 2nd album for the $10+ patrons!

$1 rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/32058625

$5 rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/32058620

$10 rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/32096914

Become a patron and find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Happy New Year 2020 everyone, and hope you had a great holiday season and New Years however you celebrated! Another set of rewards for my supporters on Patreon are out, and this time we're continuing with the 2013 Jabun back catalog of music with another and one of my favourite remixes: Clare Jeffrey's "60 Days [Jabun Orchestral Mix]"!

This remix really takes me back and was one of my first real attempts at orchestral writing (which was released), something I'm very much planning to get back to in the upcoming 2nd Jabun album next year. In summer 2013 Clare, who was a friend of mine and close with the people I hung around with at the time, came to me to record a lovely acoustic + vocal song “60 days”. We recorded that in an afternoon I think in the same makeshift bedroom studio that Better Than The Book’s “Two Years On” was recorded in and with the recording ready for me to mix and master at the end of the day, I began my usual work. I often find when I’m listening to music, especially with my “production hat” on, these things really mix and arrange themselves, telling you what they need and where in order to bring out the best in the melodies or atmosphere, and while I was mixing this lovely acoustic version, the song was saying to me that I had to try making it sound HUGE as well! The result was “60 Days [Jabun Orchestral Mix]” which was really only made for the fun of it but I’m super pleased with it even to this day. With that said, I think I’ll let you hear it for yourselves, I hope you enjoy it, and a huge thanks to Clare for having me record and produce the original as well as have fun with the remix too! It was a blast!

Listen here:

For the $10+ patrons, I have a VERY special treat for you this time: a download package with 10+ minutes of rough demos from the upcoming 2nd Jabun album as well as articles on the composition/production process for each of the tracks contained! Become a $10+ patron to access that article and many more now, and remember that you'll gain access to all historic rewards and posts for your Patreon tier too when you become a supporter! With the new 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

That's it for this month's rewards and another Jabun track will be coming next time as we continue with the final original track from 2013's Jabun discography! Until the next post, I hope you have a great January and 2020 to come, and thanks as always for supporting Jabun, Better Than The Book and my various music projects! Take care, enjoy the music, and I look forward to bringing you more exciting things in 2020! All the best!

Some more super exciting news coming later this week so keep your eyes on this page!

More Patreon rewards have been sent out: Jabun's "Apollo" + an in depth look into Better Than The Book's "Hopes and Dreams" for the $10+ patrons!

$1 rewards (mp3 + artwork): https://www.patreon.com/posts/31102211

$5 rewards (mp3, WAV + artwork): https://www.patreon.com/posts/31102206

$10 rewards ($5 rewards + an in depth look into Hopes and Dreams): https://www.patreon.com/posts/31102207

Become a patron and find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great start to December! It's the first Wednesday of the month which means another set of reward posts for the $1+ patrons are out ($5 and $10 posts were out last week), and this time we're continuing with the 2013 Jabun back catalog of music with another original track: "Apollo"!    

"Apollo" was released back in March 2013, and was another track where I was still experimenting with finding my own voice as Jabun too. It's got a more beat driven chillstep vibe to it, and the instrumentation and overall feel were heavily influenced (perhaps a little too much) by one of my finger-drumming heroes Araabmuzik, known for his lovely MPC performances. Interestingly too, "Apollo" is the only Jabun track to date which features my own lyrical sung vocals, and was the first track which I recorded vocals with my SM27 mic too. Of course having received such a crisp and clear sounding condenser mic for Christmas, the first thing I did was negate all that clarify by running the vocals through a telephone style effects chain XD Whatever the case though, I'm still pretty happy with the way this one turned out, and it was probably the first Jabun track to get a little bit of external attention too, even if that was by someone using it to launch their own YouTube music showcasing channel without asking permission first... oh well! In any case, without further wait I hope you enjoy "Apollo"!  

Listen here on Newgrounds:

For the $10+ patrons, I'll be diving deep into the creation of the final and title track from Better Than The Book's recent "Hopes and Dreams" album! Become a $10+ patron to access that article and many more now, and remember that you'll gain access to all historic rewards and posts for your Patreon tier too when you become a supporter! With the new 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 :)   

Check out Hopes and Dreams on Newgrounds:

Become a patron and find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

That's it for this post! Another Jabun track will be coming next time as we continue with another remix from 2013's Jabun discography, but until the next post, I hope you have a great December to come and thanks as always for supporting Jabun, Better Than The Book and my various music projects! Take care and enjoy the music!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a splendid day! 

Following up from the last few posts, it was another amazing show on BBC Introducing: The South (BBC Sussex / BBC Surrey) last night and thanks so much to Melita for playing that special radio edit of "Hopes and Dreams" and for the amazing shout-out, reading all my tweets on the air, and more! For anyone who missed the show you can catch it again on the BBC Sounds App / website but as with the last one, it's only available for the next month! Check it out via the links above and below:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07r91qx

And if you want to hear more from the new "Hopes and Dreams" album, check it out on Bandcamp and in all the usual digital places, or pick it up when you become a patron for as little as $1!

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

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

A big shout-out to my good friend By Hand And Heart who was featured on the show as well this week! Well done bro! 

For some key times in the show keep an eye out for the following, though don't skip through as there are some cracking tracks in the show this week! I hope you enjoy it :) 

0:29:41 - Better Than The Book Tweet readout 

1:26:00 - Better Than The Book Tweet readout  

1:31:40 - Better Than The Book's "Hopes and Dreams [Radio Edit]" + a shout-out before and after  

1:48:56 - By Hand And Heart's "November Freefall" + a shout-out before and after 

As promised I have an extra bonus reward for all the patrons this week too: an exclusive download of that special radio edit of "Hopes and Dreams" that was featured on the show! As mentioned previously, I may decide to make this radio edit available for streaming and download elsewhere at a later date, but for now, it's a Patreon exclusive download, and patrons at least will be the first to be able to get it! Become a patron for as little as $1 a month to access this track and many more now, and remember that you'll gain access to all historic rewards and posts for your Patreon tier too when you become a supporter! With the new 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 :) 

That's it for this post! The next set of $5+ rewards will be coming in 2 weeks so not long to wait in the grand scheme of things, but until then I hope you have a great time, enjoy the BBC show and thanks as always for supporting Better Than The Book and my various projects! Take care :D

More HUGE NEWS to share today and hope you're having an excellent day so far!

Tonight at 7-9pm GMT Wednesday 13th, Better Than The Book will be featured again on "BBC Introducing: The South" with a special radio edit of "Hopes and Dreams" (from the album of the same name)! Check out their Facebook post for all the details of how you can listen in and take part tonight, send in a text or tweet if you're listening LIVE for a shout-out on the radio, and I can't wait to tune in to listen! Awesome news! 

https://www.facebook.com/BBCIntroSouth/photos/a.423129657865927/1345277258984491/ 

And as quoted from the post above, you can listen in and take part via the various methods below!

BBC Introducing: The South, 7-9pm Wednesdays

BBC Sussex and BBC Surrey, BBC Sounds app & DAB

Listen in Brighton on 95.3 FM

Listen in Sussex & Surrey 104-104.8 FM

Listen globally online via the BBC Sounds App

Text in during the show (you need to start texts with the word ‘radio’) on 81333 (normal rates apply)

Twitter/ Instagram/ facebook: @BBCIntroSouth

As with last time, in case you can't make it for the LIVE broadcast, the episode will also be available for a month on the BBC Sounds app and at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07r91qx too! If you've still yet to hear the album, it's available in all the usual places as well as on Bandcamp, and of course you can pick it up on Patreon along with the rest of the BTTB discography and more when you sign up for as little as $1 a month. Hope you enjoy it!

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

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

With this being a never-before-heard new-and-special radio-edit of the track too, I'll be making it an extra bonus reward for all patrons shortly after the live broadcast! Unlike the censored version of "Get A Haircut" which was a Patreon exclusive download, I may decide to make this Hopes and Dreams radio edit available for streaming and download elsewhere at a later date, but for now, it'll be a Patreon exclusive download, and patrons at least will be the first to be able to get it!

That wraps up this post! Hope you're able to tune in tonight and I can't wait to listen in LIVE! I'll be making more posts about this on Facebook and Twitter today and on here on Newgrounds on Thursday after the broadcast too, so feel free to head to those various places for the latest news and updates! Until the next one, hope you have a great rest of the week, hope you can join in tonight and thanks as always for supporting Better Than The Book and my various projects! Take care!

Hi everyone and hope you've got a fun weekend lined up!

For those of you interested in the audio production work I do (from a creative, technical or business point of view), I've just put out a new Mastering and Music Production Demo Reel for 2019 featuring music from Better Than the Book's recent "Hopes and Dreams" album! For each pair of clips, the first version is the final mix made up against a generic limiter (to match loudness with the final master), and the 2nd is the final master as released. As well as being the mastering engineer (as demonstrated in the reel), I was also the composer, performer, recording and mix engineer, and producer for all these tracks, so this serves as a demo reel for those services too.

Check out the description in the audio portal and explore my services and portfolio as JabunAudio for more information, and I look forward to working with you on your own projects!

Listen to and purchase the full “Hopes and Dreams” album here:

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

And find out more about Better Than The Book on the project’s website:

https://betterthanthebookuk.weebly.com/

Quick bonus post: With JabunAudio open again as of yesterday I've made a special bonus reward post on Patreon: A tour of the new workspace with Q&A in the comments! Join in for as little as $1 and pick up all previous rewards for your tier when you do!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/31329452

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

The previous rewards include the entire Better Than The Book discography (+ bonus tracks) too: "One Small Step EP", "Two Years On (+ [Instrumentals])", "Hopes and Dreams" and more all for just $1, with more rewards coming to the $1 patrons tomorrow as well. Hope to see you there and thanks for supporting my projects :)

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great start to November! It's a little later than anticipated, but after almost 2 months of downtime, I'm super excited to announce that my audio production business JabunAudio is finally relocated, calibrated and open again to help with all your digital mastering, music production, and animation audio needs!

Feel free to explore the portfolio and services list to see what JabunAudio is all about, and if you're a creator who uses audio then I look forward to working with you on your projects soon!

https://www.jabunaudio.com/

Some small website updates as well as a new mastering demo reel for 2019 will be coming soon too. Feels great to be back to it!

That's it for this update post! The next set of $1+ Patreon rewards go out this Wednesday (November 6th) so exciting times ahead this week (see previous post for details)! Until then I hope you have a great few days and thanks as always for supporting my projects!

Patreon post: "The $5+ rewards have been sent out: Jabun's "3rd September 1939", Better Than The Book's "Get A Haircut [Radio Edit]" which was featured on BBC Introducing (Patreon exclusive download) + an in depth look into BTTB's "You've Got A Lot To Say" for the $10+ patrons!" (Mp3s, WAVs & Artwork)

https://www.patreon.com/posts/31102201

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great October so far (and have fun plans for Halloween tomorrow too if it's your jam)! It's the final Wednesday of the month which means another set of reward posts for the $5 and $10 patrons are out, and this time we're heading into 2013 continuing the Jabun back catalog of music with another remix-contest track: "3rd September 1939"! I'm also sharing a bonus Patreon/Radio exclusive Better Than the Book track this month: the radio edit of "Get A Haircut" which was featured on BBC Introducing! Just a little extra reward but I hope you enjoy it! 

Onto this month's Jabun track, "3rd September 1939" was created back in February 2013 for a remix context which if I remember correctly was to promote the release of some sample packs. Unlike last month's track which was an actual remix of a pre-existing song, this time contestants were given royalty free stems to compose with and my entry was the track below. Back then I was still experimenting with finding my own voice as Jabun and remix contests like this are always fun opportunities to experiment with new styles in a low-pressure "have some fun" environment. I wouldn't say I'm completely happy with this one but there are a tonne of elements I do like and it was a great learning experience back in the day! I hope you get a kick out of it at least, and without further wait, here's "3rd September1939"!

Listen on NG:

Onto the bonus Better Than The Book Patreon exclusive download: I have the radio edit of "Get A Haircut" which was featured on BBC introducing earlier this month. It's nothing too exciting in that it's the same as the album version apart from having the word "prick" muted (at the request of the BBC) but as my closest supporters I thought the patrons would appreciate a download of it!

Listen to the album version on NG:

For the $10+ patrons, I'll be diving deep again into the creation of another track from Better Than The Book's recent "Hopes and Dreams" album, the solemn number on the album "You've Got A Lot To Say"! Become a $10+ patron to access that article and many more now, and remember that you'll gain access to all historic rewards and posts for your Patreon tier too when you become a supporter! With the new 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 :)

Listen to "You've Got A Lot To Say" on NG:

And that's it for this month's rewards! Another Jabun track will be coming next time as we continue with 2013's Jabun discography, but until the next post, I hope you have a great Halloween and month to come and thanks as always for supporting Jabun, Better Than The Book and my various music projects! Take care and enjoy the music :)

Note: This month's tracks ($5 rewards: Mp3s, WAVs + Art) will be made available to the $1 patrons (Mp3s + art only) next week on Wednesday 6th November.