‘They Don’t Care About What’s Cool’ (Exclusive)

• Medium Build, born Nick Carpenter, launched his album Country in April
• “These songs are autobiographical,” the musician tells PEOPLE. “I didn’t edit it too arduous”
• Medium Build’s headlining tour kicked off within the U.S. final week

Singer/songwriter Nick Carpenter — the groundbreaking artist generally known as Medium Build — lives in Alaska in a basic ’60s split-level home.

“You stroll within the entry and then you definately go 5 steps down to a degree and also you go 5 steps up to a degree,” says Carpenter, 33, throughout a latest go to to Nashville. “Everything is constructed as low-cost as attainable. It’s essentially the most hideous infrastructure I’ve ever seen, subsequent to essentially the most stunning mountains and rivers you’ve got ever seen.”

It’s a spot that Carpenter now calls dwelling, even whereas he is nonetheless getting used to a number of the space’s apparent nuances. “My suburban Atlanta mind cannot comprehend that you’d transfer 1000’s of miles away from civilization after which share a wall with somebody,” admits Carpenter with fun. “It appears so insane to be so near nothing, however then you possibly can hear your neighbors watching Breaking Bad. Not my thought of an excellent time.”

Nevertheless, he discovered himself in Alaska for the primary time in 2009, after his brother Jack had moved there to take a fishing job.  

“I had simply graduated highschool,” remembers Carpenter. “I imply, I had by no means been in snow. I completely bought my ass kicked. I bought chewed up after which ran. I tucked my tail between my legs and stated, ‘Mom, I’m coming dwelling.'”

But the person that quickly would grow to be Medium Build would return a handful of years later. “I needed to get to the ripe outdated age of 24 earlier than I may absolutely admire Alaska,” Carpenter displays. “At that time, I had a bit extra consolation cash and had extra abilities so I may afford a down jacket and gloves. But our first winter there, we did not also have a automotive.”

But Carpenter made it work, and stated he started to flourish within the surroundings the place, not like Nashville or Atlanta, folks actually didn’t care in regards to the life anybody else led.

“They do not care about what’s cool,” he says about life in Alaska. “I actually thrived in that as a result of I’m not very cool, and I did not actually get pleasure from making an attempt to maintain up with developments once I was within the decrease 48, as they name it.”

It’s this all-encompassing surroundings that Carpenter created his fifth studio album Country, a physique of labor that includes the present single “Stick Around” that appears to lastly hit on Carpenter’s true DNA. 

“These songs are autobiographical,” says Carpenter. “I didn’t edit it too arduous. I attempt to chase wherever the extraordinary emotion comes from. I then attempt to doc that, after which I let it go. Sometimes it is sort of embarrassing as a result of perhaps I felt sort of cringey and emotional that day, and I wrote one thing actually intense, and now I’ve to sing it for the remainder of my life.” He laughs. “But yeah, I stated what I meant after which I bought out of the way in which.”

This method works superbly on the observe “Crying Over U.” “It’s a enjoyable little type of exhuming of a deep-seated type of friendship and wishing there was extra, but in addition realizing perhaps it’s going to by no means be,” he explains of the track he wrote alongside Jacob LiBassi and Jeremy Schmetterer.

Not surprisingly, there’s additionally strains of nation that may be heard all through the songs of Country, an apparent nod to Carpenter’s household historical past. 

“My mother is from the Midwest and my dad is from rural South Carolina, so I’ve bought this type of mixture of cultures,” says Carpenter, who has opened for the likes of Holly Humberstone, Finneas and Lewis Capaldi. “I grew up sort of devoid of nation tradition. And then once I moved to Tennessee for songwriting in faculty, abruptly, I used to be simply blasted with all this stuff. It felt so acquainted.”

It felt acquainted as a result of it was.

“My dad has all this ache connected to listening to George Jones on the radio when he was 5 years outdated and questioning in the event that they have been going to have breakfast,” explains Carpenter, whose Medium Build headline tour kicked off final week. “And so, I’ve spent the previous 10 years simply going by means of nation music and studying for the primary time in regards to the stuff that might’ve been on the radio throughout my childhood had my dad had a greater relationship with his childhood. And so, I really feel like nation is deeply in me, whether or not I need it to be or not.”

He lets out fun, then reconsiders the purpose. “There’s a number of respect and love for nation music in my bones, however I’m extra of an indie folks man…indie queer folks s—.”