Medium Build a.k.a. Nick Carpenter
The generous and inviting spirit of Nick Carpenter’s personality manifests in his songwriting, which is why he’s developed such a passionate fan base both in Alaska and outside its borders, as he inspires listeners to dig deep and discover themselves alongside his own emotional journey. Medium Build has toured with pop headliners like Lewis Capaldi and Finneas, but beneath it all, there’s an old country soul, who treasures the simple things in life and keeps his family close to his heart. “Never Learned to Dance” is pure cosmic Americana, complete with lush acoustic guitar and twangy steel, but it’s distinctly contemporary too, a modern tale of digital love and missed connections. More than just the sound alone, what Medium Build takes most from country music is a sense of yearning and restlessness, always in search of another experience and another sound in whatever form they may come. In another era, Medium Build might have just as easily been a rhinestone cowboy lonesome out on the range, a blue-eyed crooner on a smooth-sailing yacht, or a leather-clad video star, but in the here and now, he’s no one but himself.

Carpenter’s vision is to take the sense of community his music creates far beyond wherever he calls home. His upcoming tour focuses specifically on the middle of the continental United States, not just cities often overlooked by major touring artists, but places in the most vital need of queer community and spiritual uplift. The response of Medium Build’s devoted following has been overwhelming, with over a dozen dates sold-out across the Midwest and Southeast. Carpenter aims to bring that message of uplift and affirmation not just around the county, but around the world. His 2023 tour will continue in Europe, including a special sold-out solo performance at the revered St. Pancras Old Church in London, one of the oldest historical sites of Christian worship in the world. It’s a fitting setting for an artist with such a spiritual core to his music: not necessarily religious, but still searching for something joyful and sublime. That soulful passion defines the music of Medium Build, as conducive to collective ecstasy as private revelation.