Medium Build, high standard

By Finnian Cox

American singer-songwriter Medium Build is to bring his particular style of country and western music to Cork next month.

The show is at DeBarra's in Clonakilty on 5 November and comes as a part of his Irish tour which will see him performing in Limerick, Ennistymon, and Kilkee, before finishing up in Cork.

Dividing his coming of age between Georgia and Tennessee before eventually finding his community in Alaska, Medium Build is the creative brainchild of Nick Carpenter.

Kicking off his career a decade ago under his real name, Carpenter made a name for himself as an honest songwriter that draws on his own experiences for inspiration.

Since this humble beginning ten years ago, Carpenter has since seen steady growth, which recently culminated in him signing a deal with the legendary Island Records last year.

2023 was a big year for Carpenter in general, as he had his first charting hit with the song ‘Friend for Life’, a collaboration with pop rockers X Ambassadors.

The song debuted at No.17 on Billboard’s alternative digital song sales list and was followed by an appearance at Austin Texas’ coveted South by Southwest festival.

As well as catching the attention of record labels and festival promoters, Carpenter has also gained the respect of his peers, performing alongside country music messiah Tyler Childers, as well as artists like Lewis Capaldi and Finneas.

Carpenter’s shows are described as being equal parts concert, testimony, and stand-up comedy, with the artist describing how he aims to connect with the audience at each show.

“Now I’m realising my career can last longer than five seconds and I can kind of just breathe and show one thing at a time,” said Carpenter, speaking on his recent growth.

Though he does bring his own perspective to his sound, Carpenter admits that he stays true to the genre’s roots, suggesting, “if you slow all of my songs down, they’re just three-chord bummer country tunes".

This latest Medium Build tour comes to support his latest album, 'Country', which saw Carpenter again working with longtime collaborator Jake LiBassi, AKA Laiko.

The album, which he describes as “self-soothing” saw the duo experimenting, and was written on the road before being recorded at Nashville’s Music Row.

He describes the album as “the one we wanted to make", adding that “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".