As a musician with a nomadic lifestyle, Nick Carpenter often enters spaces as a stranger and leaves with lifelong friends. The creator of Medium Build possesses a connective charisma that shows in his songs and performances—which can seem like equal parts concerts, testimony, and stand-up comedy. That gift and yearning for connection has been amplified during a transformative season for Nick. In 2023, Medium Build signed with slowplay / Island Records, toured with Lewis Capaldi, and reached the Billboard charts for the first time collaborating with X Ambassadors. Life was pulling Carpenter away from his home, dog, and sense of belonging in Anchorage to Nashville. Nick spent his drives looking, listening, and reflecting. This inner and outer journey led to Country, the thematic album draws from Carpenter’s roots as much as it considers his future—while exploring genre. His music is as vast and unique as his backstory, but “if you slow all of my songs down, they’re just three-cord bummer Country tunes,” he admits. Evident in the video single “Cutting Thru The Country,” this collection packs for a trip that explores wide open spaces, musical frontiers, and oneself.Medium Build began as the name Nick Carpenter attached to four-track recordings a decade ago. The storyteller applied aspects of a middle-class church-going Georgia childhood and a Tennessee education to truths learned along the way—ultimately delivering the queer extrovert to find a community in Alaska. There is duality and dichotomy in Medium Build’s life and music—but it is drenched in authenticity. The music has endured, resonated, and connected with a growing base. “Now I’m realizing that my career can last longer than five seconds and I can kind of just breathe and show one thing at a time,” Nick shares. His dynamic catalog mirrors the people who have shown up in his corner: Elton John, Boygenius, John Mayer, and Noah Kahan, to name a few.
