Rising Artist Medium Build Announces EP & New Single
Rising singer-songwriter Medium Build is set for the release of his new Marietta EP, due November 15 on Slowplay/Island Records. In celebration of the forthcoming EP, Medium Build is debuting the new track “Triple Marathon;”
“Triple marathon is about a relationship-situationship-friendship thing where I just felt so desperate for this person’s approval and love and time and attention,” notes Nick Carpenter, a.k.a. Medium Build. “I oscillated between feeling it was the best thing I’d ever had and thinking I was being used and abused and mistreated. I think we all end up in things that are confusing, grey areas of self-doubt. Never knowing if we’re setting boundaries or being an asshole, anticipating needs or being a doormat. I still love this person and maybe it will work one day. Maybe it won’t. But the feeling was there and I wrote it down. It’s always funny to read my own lyrics to see how pathetic I was. You never know how someone feels, do you?”
Marietta is named after the town outside of Atlanta, Georgia where Carpenter grew up. The songs cover the central tenets of his time there: his parents looking for opportunity, his relationship with the church and the angst and longing of his adolescence. The images from the EP’s artwork were all shot at a series of hometown locations, including the street where Carpenter grew up and the abandoned Sears where his father once worked.
Carpenter explains, “Marietta is more so a zoom out of my childhood. Extending grace to my family. To myself. I just wanna thank myself and my parents for surviving my childhood.”
The Marietta EP comes on the heels of Medium Build’s critically acclaimed debut full-length, Country, which is out now on Slowplay/Island Records. The record continues to see extensive praise from NPR Music, People, Billboard, The Tennessean, NME and many more.
Country finds Carpenter wrestling with the idea of home across the album’s twelve songs. Born in Georgia with a close relationship to his Southern roots, the artist now splits his time between hometowns in Anchorage, Alaska and Nashville, Tennessee. “I wanted this album to have my goddamn DNA on it,” Nick details. “I wanted Country to have a human touch. I want Country to be something you love with and dance with and cry with and sleep with and lean into.”
The album was recorded on Nashville’s Music Row by Medium Build alongside creative partner Laiko, where the two experimented with genre and style. “We made the album we wanted to make,” Nick says. “It’s so easy to get back in touch with yourself if you can throw off the heavy cloak of duty and just do something that feels good.” Identifying as queer, Nick draws inspiration from his own exploration of sexual identity and sonically blends classic country, ’80s new wave and ’90s rap and hip-hop.
Following a recent run of dates with Rainbow Kitten Surprise, which included a stop at Radio City Music Hall, Medium Build is currently on a headlining run of shows with upcoming performances including two nights at Austin City Limits. See below for a list of dates.
Medium Build also recently teamed up with Winnetka Bowling League and Dawes on the single “This is Life;”
photo credit: Silken Weinberg