Medium Build to Play Free, Acoustic Show at East Nashville’s Garage Sale Vintage Tonight, June 11

In honor of his latest single, “Drug Dealer,” which dropped last week, Nashville-based indie singer Medium Build has announced a free, all ages, acoustic pop up show tonight, June 11 at East Nashville’s Garage Sale Vintage (747 Douglas Ave, Ste 101-A). Raw, confessional, and resonant, Medium Build describes “Drug Dealer” as “all about the strangers we fall in love with and the loneliness that comes along with living.” In honor of that theme, he’s added his own missed connections-style “Looking for Someone” tab to his website, which is already attracting posts from around the world. Along with the track, a live, acoustic video for the song was just released on YouTube, which you can watch below, for a little preview of what to expect tonight. While you can RSVP here, RSVP doesn’t guarantee entry, and space is first come, first serve, so you’ll still need to show up early for a chance at a spot. The show begins at 8 p.m., and doors open at 7.

Though Anchorage, Alaska is where he resided for much of his adult life, and where he lived when he first found prominence through his solo musical moniker Medium Build, Alaska is not where the singer-songwriter- born Nicholas Carpenter- grew up. Hailing originally from Georgia, first getting involved in music- as with many southerners- through church, Carpenter landed near Nashville just over a decade ago to attend college at MTSU. If you were dialed into the DIY scene at that time, you might remember his indie band Little Moses, who ran in the same circles as Julien Baker (also then an MTSU student) and her band The Star Killers (later called Forrister), with the two groups even releasing a split back in 2014 (how’s that for a Nashville indie rock fun fact?). It was upon his move to Alaska, though, that Carpenter found new beginnings and new musical direction, building upon the influence, experience, and emotional nuance of his life and musical endeavors to that point, as well as his newfound artistic community and environment, to create Medium Build, debuting in 2016 with his first LP, Falling Apart.

Forging a deeply vulnerable, emotionally resonant, confessional songwriting style and indie rock sound infused with elements of folk and lo-fi pop, Nick remained prolific over the next few years, dropping two separate full-lengths, Softboy and Roughboy, in 2018, and a perfect culmination of that earlier, bedroom pop and lo-fi indie era with fourth album Wild, in 2019, all attracting a passionate online following and helping Medium Build reach a wider audience. Things would quiet down for a little while during the pandemic, but in 2022 Medium Build returned with new single “comeonback,” kicking of something of a second chapter of his career, which has included inking a major label deal with Slowplay / Island Records, beginning 2023 with new EP Heath, and officially moving back to Nashville that same year, recording his latest LP and first major label full-length, Country, here in Music City. Still recognizably Medium Build, Country is fiery and raw and urgently self-reflective; slick and accessible yet more organic and folky than what came before. Ever prolific, Carpenter returned barely six months later with an EP, Marietta, named for his hometown, and leaning into Country‘s more introspective indie and emo side, even including a duet with former classmate Julien Baker.

Medium Build has shared the stage with some impressive artists like Lewis Capaldi, FINNEAS, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, and Role Model collaborated with X Ambassadors, slimdan, and Holly Humberstone (who he toured with overseas), and has become a must-see live performer as he traverses the world, met with increasingly larger crowds, and appearing at fests like Bonnaroo and Coachella. Medium Build is without a doubt one of the best artists making music in Nashville today, and a chance to see him in such an intimate, stripped-down setting is increasingly rare and especially cool!