Rising artist Medium Build releases beautiful 'Marietta' EP following triumphant UK tour

“Medium Build uses music to create the community he was always searching for” - NME

“A defiantly raw lyricist” - Rolling Stone UK

“Tender and transcendent, a real cinematic tearjerker” - Wonderland

“A gut-wrenching new single” - The Line of Best Fit

“It’s the coming together of two incredible parts, both with a genius knack for articulating sombre feelings…this was always bound to be great”- Far Out Magazine

“Carpenter brings a fresh, magnetic presence to the stage” - The Rodeo

Following a triumphant UK headline tour which wrapped at London’s Islington Assembly Hall on Wednesday, Medium Build’s highly anticipated ‘Marietta’ EP is out now via Slowplay/Island Records UK. Listen to the record HERE.

‘Marietta’ is named after the town outside of Atlanta, Georgia where Nick Carpenter, a.k.a. Medium Build, grew up. The songs cover the central tenets of his time there: his parents looking for opportunity, his relationship with the church and the angst and longing of his adolescence. “Marietta is more so a zoom out of my childhood,” explains Carpenter. “Extending grace to my family. To myself. I just wanna thank myself and my parents for surviving my childhood.” The images from the EP’s artwork were all shot at a series of hometown locations by Silken Weinberg (artistic director for Ethel Cain), including the street where Carpenter grew up and the abandoned Sears where his father once worked.

Leading up to the release, Carpenter shared the singles “Triple Marathon” and “Yoke” featuring longtime friend Julien Baker (of boygenius), which The Line of Best Fit called “A gut-wrenching new single”, while Wonderland hailed the track as “Tender and transcendent, a real cinematic tearjerker”. Nick and Julien have been friends for over a decade—since their college days at Middle Tennessee State—where they bonded over music and shared experiences of growing up queer in the Southern church. “Yoke” reflects on this experience of belonging and the pain of leaving behind a community that may not accept you.

Zane Lowe has been spinning both singles on his Apple Music 1 show, and ‘Triple Marathon’ has picked up support from Sian Eleri and Tara Kumar at BBC Radio 1’s Future Artists. Watch Carpenter and Baker perform “Yoke” together backstage at The Bellwether in Los Angeles HERE.

The Marietta EP comes on the heels of Medium Build’s critically acclaimed debut full-length, Country, which is out now on Slowplay/Island Records UK. The record continues to see praise from NPR Music, Billboard, NME, Rolling Stone UK and more. Country finds Carpenter wrestling with the idea of home across the album’s twelve songs. Born in Georgia with a close relationship to his Southern roots, the artist now splits his time between hometowns in Anchorage, Alaska and Nashville, Tennessee. “I wanted this album to have my goddamn DNA on it,” Nick details. “I wanted Country to have a human touch. I want Country to be something you love with and dance with and cry with and sleep with and lean into.”