February 2025 Patreon & News Post: Better Than The Book Artwork updates (+ a sneak peek for $10 Patreon Supporters), updated Patreon Reward Archive, Plot Holes on BBC Radio + press features, more YouTube video + more!
Hi everyone and hope you've had a good start to 2025. It's been an extra busy month over here catching up with stuff I slacked off on at the end of last year, falling behind in some other aspects instead, and prepping the new Better Than The Book album for release as well as continuing to set up the new studio. Regarding the latter, it's getting there slowly but surely! I still need to put up some more shelves and finish off the acoustic treatment so it's still a way off but hopefully it'll be closer to completion by the spring. More updates coming soon and let's get onto the news for this month (there's a lot of stuff)!
Firstly, I've been super busy working on the cover art for Better Than The Book's upcoming Side Character In My Own Life album! As with a lot of my artwork, especially the more complex ones, this one started out as pencil sketches in a pad which were then photographed, rearranged and edited to make a digital collage to experiment with layout and draft out the overall look of the album art, and I'm pretty pleased with the way this one has come so far! As it currently stands I'm in the process of redrawing the whole thing with the new compiled layout with the exception of the album title which I'm not quite 100% sure on the layout for yet. The overall image takes inspiration from the title track of the album, but there's a tonne of references to other tracks of the album in the picture too. It's been so much fun to be back to drawing again. I should do it more often! Next step is to finish the line redrawing, finalise any colour etc... settle on the final logo layout, then a final digital scan, clean-up and compilation. Hoping to get this done before the next update ready to release with the next single which will be the title track Side Character In My Own Life! Hope you're excited for it, and if you're a $10 Patreon supporter, you've got a .ZIP folder full of sketches + the latest digitally complied draft to look forward to! Enjoy!
Onto more news for this month, apart from working on the Better Than The Book artwork (and setting up the studio), I've finally taken the time to update the Patreon Reward Archives! It's been a while since the last update, which I think was when the Jabun - June22 album was released back in March 2023. Read more about the updated archive below and here's a list of all the additions!
Updated archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
$1 Reward Additions:
- Cyberdevil and Jabun - Pool Party {Free download + Patreon Exclusive Instrumental}
- Cyberdevil and Jabun - B-35 Bomber {Free download + Patreon Exclusive Instrumental}
- Jabun Nephology album
- Better Than The Book Plot Holes (Radio Edit) single (from the upcoming Side Character In My Own Life album)
$10+ Reward Additions:
- A sneak peek demo of Better Than The Book's "Rewrite"!
- A sneak peek demo of Better Than The Book's "Red Kite"!
- Fully recorded demo of Better Than The Book's "Plot Holes (Alternative Version)"!
- Fully recorded demo of Better Than The Book's "Red Kite"!
- Fully recorded demo of Better Than The Book's "Rewrite"!
- Fully recorded demo of Better Than The Book's "Hold Me Tight"!
- Pre-mix demo of Better Than The Book's "Hold Me Tight (Non-Acoustic)"!
- Mix demo of Better Than The Book's "Hold Me Tight (Non-Acoustic)"!
- Mix demo of Better Than The Book's "Red Kite"!
- Mix demo of Better Than The Book's "Plot Holes"!
- Mix demo of Better Than The Book's "Rewrite"
- Mix demo of Better Than The Book's "Don't Be Too Hard on Yourself"!
- Mix demo of Better Than The Book's "Plot Holes (Alternative Version)"!
- Final Mix of Better Than The Book's "Hold Me Tight (Non-Acoustic)"!
- An exclusive live synth performance demo!
- Another exclusive live synth performance demo!
- Early access download for Better Than The Book's "2020 Was A Write-off, But What Comes Next?"!
Next on the news for this month, some press features to share from Better Than The Book! After the launch of Plot Holes, the first single from the upcoming Side Character In My Own Life album, my inbox has been buzzing with stuff and while some things have yet to be confirmed, here's a few things which have happened so far! First of all, and this is huge, Plot Holes was featured on the BBC Introducing The South show on BBC Radio Sussex in my home county! It was even chosen as the opener for the show! Huge thanks to Melita for sharing the music and while there's not much time left, there's still about a week to catch up on the show on the BBC Sounds App if you've yet to hear it. Some cracking tunes over there!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0kbhyw4
Next the single and album announcement was featured on The Punk Site! Thanks for the feature peeps and hope to be back on the site again when the next single or album drops in full:
Finally in the confirmed news Plot Holes has been added to The RETWEETER RADIO's tune rotation! Thanks so much! More radio shows and podcasts to confirm the feature on to come hopefully!
https://x.com/ITHERETWEETER1/status/1876352413004931566
Finally this month, more YouTube Videos to share! After recording NOTHING in the month prior to the previous post, it was a super busy few weeks catching up and recording twice as many videos to get back on track, but I (just about) managed it! Phew! In honesty, I may have to reduce the number of videos I put out at some point, but for the moment, I'm keeping up. Anyways! A busy month of videos it's been so here's the updated main playlist and the latest additions:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWEmqIhrNPvQTBoOjZdKLgL4ecTvLz6sm
- Happy New Year and thanks for 500 Subscribers!
- Marshall AVT50 combo amp repairs and look inside
- Testing my repaired Marshall with some Iron Maiden
- New Studio Part 3: How to hang foam acoustic panels
- Limp Bizkit Re-Arranged live looping guitar cover
- AGCFAD tuning heavy extended guitar chord ideas
- Ambient combo organ jam
- Korg Volca Keys: How to add a kick to your bass line tutorial
- Textured beats with synced Bastl Kastle v1.5 and Roland Tr-08
This coming month's videos will be full of me messing around on the big bass amp with not just bass, but guitar and organ too! Hope you enjoy it!
That about wraps things up for this post! Next month's looking to potentially be busy with some trips but I'll be aiming to get the album artwork for Better Than The Book's Side Character In My Own Life finished as well as more YouTube videos recorded and more studio build updates done at least. It's a little later than I'd hoped but I recon the next BTTB single will be coming in March at this rate. We shall see I suppose! Until the next update I hope you enjoy the news and new videos and thanks as always for supporting my music and projects however you can! Take care and all the best!
$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/119425579
$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/121177435
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding