Medium Build is more than a criminal profile...
Article by Music Fan Magazine Writer: Justine Brown
Photos by : Jim Brown (some with a 1988 Nikon F4 Film Camera baby!)
Medium Build: Not Too Big, Not Too Small… Just Right for Fairwell Festival
Nick Carpenter talks putting your foot in your mouth on a first date, touring with Tyler Childers, and surviving an Alaska winter in his Chacos.
On the third and final day of the Fairwell Festival, fallout from the Crowdstrike IT meltdown created some travel issues for artists attempting to get to Central Oregon. As a result, the schedule changed significantly, and Medium Build got pushed from mid afternoon to late afternoon. When they finally took the stage, a thunderstorm rolled in just in time to cut their set short. Ever the optimist, lead singer Nick Carpenter rolled with the changes and took the opportunity to move into one of the barns where many of the spectators were sheltering in place to finish out his set acoustically. That says a lot about Nick and his approach to life: He’s down to earth, authentic and--let’s not forget--an incredible musician. MFM was lucky enough to get a few minutes with Nick before his set.
Here’s what we found out:
MFM: You’ve spent a lot of time in Alaska. How did you end up there?
Nick: I followed my brother there after high school. He went up to work in the fishing industry and did well, so I thought I’d give it a try too. But when I got there they took one look at me and said, “this kid's not a boat boy. [laughs]. Let’s get this guy in the restaurant. He's charming. We'll let him pour beers.” I don't think anybody would ever trust me to pull fish.
MFM: Being from Georgia, what was your first Alaskan winter like?
Nick: I had never seen snow. I had this fantasy about winter, and then when it actually came, it was a bit different than that fantasy. We didn't have a car, so we were walking to work. Somebody gave us a truck, but it only ran half the time. I didn't own gloves. I was in my Chacos (sandals). We were bussing tables for eight bucks an hour plus tips, and we were just drinking all the free beer we could.
MFM: Is Alaska where you started Medium Build?
Nick: I eventually left but my brother stayed, got married, bought a house, had a kid. I went to school in Tennessee for songwriting, but I dropped out after a couple years. I was like, “why do I need to go school for this?” And I moved back to Alaska. I went to Alaska at 24 years old to sort of restart my life. And that was where I built this whole Medium Build thing.It’s been a really good place. My parents even ended up following us up there. It’s very much part of my heart.
MFM: What's the genesis of the name Medium Build?
Nick: [laughs] I went on a first date and there was a guy there doing sketches. You were supposed to describe someone and he’d draw it. We didn’t do it because we thought it’d be awkward. Then we got in the car to leave, and she asked how I’d describe her to the guy? I said “brown eyes, medium build …” Before I could even get to things like high cheekbones and beautiful brown hair, she was just like, “What? What does that mean?!”
MFM: Yikes That’s like guessing someone’s weight, right? Don’t answer that one.
Nick: Yeah. She told my roommates when we got home and they were like, “you're such an idiot.” [laughs] Never again. But we ended up getting pretty serious and then breaking up and when I started this project I of named it Medium Build as a little bit of an honor to her.
MFM: I know you toured with the incredible Tyler Childers. How did that happen?
Nick: One of my best friends from college is his tour manager. So it was about seven years of him sort of poking Tyler like, “Hey, you should listen to my buddy.” And I think one day he finally heard us and asked if we were good live. He gave us a shot.
MFM: What was it like touring with Tyler?
Nick: Over the past two years we've grown very quickly, and we've had a chance to meet a lot of people and open for a lot of people. But Tyler … I was just learning from him the entire time. Just watching how he treats his team, watching how he sets serious boundaries for his personal time, watching how he plays, watching how he interacts, watching how cares about his own show. I was starstruck. It was an honor for us. He watched our set one of the nights and I was thrilled. It's just brushing up against people that you respect--that's how you get better.
MFM: Is the Fairwell Festival your first gig of this size?
Nick: All of our growth has happened very recently. Bonnaroo last month was our first festival. But once you get on some people's radars, they'll just keep kind of giving you these gigs. But the festivals are also spread out. So you can do maybe only six to 12 festivals during the summer. Then you have to kind of build tours around that. We like festivals, but we’ll keep playing the little shows too.
Visit Medium Build’s site to see where you can catch them on tour.