ELISSA NADWORNY, HOST:
I found out about singer songwriter Medium Build through his dog. This summer at the Newport Folk Festival, I was at a charity baseball game. And as I watched one songwriter after another strike out, this dog ran up to me.
(CHEERING)
NADWORNY: I learned that his name was Stanley and that he belonged to Nick Carpenter, who makes music as Medium Build. So during the festival, I went to Nick's set, and I thought, thanks, Stanley.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOME DEPOT")
MEDIUM BUILD: (Singing) He's at the Home Depot, buying all the stuff to build a house. He's storming into plumbing, talking with a toothpick in his mouth.
NADWORNY: Nick Carpenter's new album is called "King Of Having Fun."
NICK CARPENTER: So you met Stanley without me.
NADWORNY: That's right.
CARPENTER: Were you - OK, I - he - you know, he wanders off, so I can't always record what he gets up to, but I love that he was making a good impression.
NADWORNY: (Laughter) Wait, does he wander off and make friends for you? Like, is that a thing?
CARPENTER: I mean, I have three dogs. Stanley is the newest. He's a puppy. He kind of made a splash at Newport. He's opening doors in my career. I mean, this is - I knew it - I knew he was doing good stuff, but this is proof.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOME DEPOT")
MEDIUM BUILD: (Singing) Hey, Steve, been building walls since you were seventeen. Hey, Steve, hammered watching movies on repeat. Hey, Steve, is this how you pretend to keep it cool in a world so mean?
CARPENTER: That's why I love the dogs. They remind me - you know, you wake up, and you think it's all about you. And they're like, hey, I have needs. And that's good for me. I actually do better when I'm working. You know, I'd rather be serving than be served.
NADWORNY: Ooh. I want to go back to a pretty big decision that you made. You were in Tennessee, studying music. You were engaged. You ended the engagement. You left school. You moved to Alaska. Why Alaska?
CARPENTER: My older brother moved there when I was 18, and we grew up, you know, in a pretty suburban, kind of, like, conservative bubble of North Atlanta. And I had never been anywhere. You know, I'd been on, like, mission trips, but I'd never really traveled. And so when my brother moved to Alaska, I went up for six months when I was 18, and it changed my entire worldview. First time I'd seen non-Christians, like, living in community.
And, like, the suburban bubble I grew up in was so one thing. To go and find out that the world was completely spinning for 1 million other types of people, I was just like, oh, my goodness. This, like, godless, lawless, beautiful, like, connected-to-nature place will help me find whatever is really clicking inside of me.
(SOUNDBITE OF MEDIUM BUILD SONG, "PERCEIVED")
NADWORNY: You have a song on the new album called "Perceived." I wonder if we could listen to it together.
CARPENTER: Yeah, let's do it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PERCEIVED")
MEDIUM BUILD: (Singing) Overall, its been a decent winter. I've been laying low, working on my heart. But the crippling weight of my own thoughts keeps me up at night.
NADWORNY: Tell me a little bit about that song and what was going on when you wrote it.
CARPENTER: Winters in Alaska are really grounding. I remember that lyric of, like, everything's going as normal, right? Like, the town hall is still happening on Twitter. Like, the day cook at the diner is still outside smoking a cigarette after his shift. Like, everything in Anchorage is so kind of, like, dependable. Everything's going fine. It's been a decent winter. But my brain, my brain is the enemy here - like, not the darkness, not the snow, not the temperature, not my job not giving me enough hours. It's like, my brain is the thing, like, the crippling weight of my thoughts.
And this career that's happening for me - now I'm on stage, and these people want to know all my thoughts and want to hear all my takes. And I just - I had a mental breakdown. I really - I had, like, a panic attack on stage. Here's all my dreams of playing music. And then you get in the business of making yourself consume, right? Like, I objectify myself. I made a product of myself. Like, you become the suit. You become the evil guy selling you. And that's a hard thing to realize.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PERCEIVED")
MEDIUM BUILD: (Singing) And I don't want to be right. And I don't want to be wrong. No, I don't want to be anything at all. And I don't want to be here.
CARPENTER: Do you really want this? Do you really want this? What would you give? Would you give up your privacy? We give up your friendship? Would you give up your relationships? That's been my biggest struggle with the career thing is trying to go back to being the servant.
NADWORNY: That's got to weigh on you.
CARPENTER: We're at a rehearsal studio, and I'm in this office, and there's all these posters of these bands, Santana and Aerosmith and Guns 'N Roses. Yeah, Steven Tyler in 1985 - like, could he go anywhere? I don't know, but now he's fine. No one's going to stop him. No one cares. We have this idea that these people are gods or demigods. No one cares.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PERCEIVED")
MEDIUM BUILD: (Singing) And I don't want to be right. And I don't want to be wrong. No, I don't want to be anything at all. And I don't want to be here. But I don't want to be gone. No, I don't want to be perceived. No, I don't want to be perceived. No, I don't want to...
NADWORNY: I want to listen to a little bit of "King Of Having Fun."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KING OF HAVING FUN")
MEDIUM BUILD: (Singing) I used to be the king of having friends over Friday night, pet snake, black light, DVD, PSP, GTA, GTG. Sick stuff, stuffed crust, Mountain Dew, sugar rush. Now and then, now and then, I wish I could go back again.
NADWORNY: Wow. There is a whole childhood in that song - pet snake, video games, stuffed crust pizza - oh, the best.
CARPENTER: I remember when stuffed crust came out. That was a crazy day.
NADWORNY: Have you done anything lately that gave you that feeling of being a kid again?
CARPENTER: It takes more now. I've been riding my bike a lot this year. And, like, the other day, I rode my bike downtown for a concert, and everyone, when I walked in, was like, are you OK? Like, what are you - are you kidding? And I don't know why it just felt like - it felt so playful. It was like, there's something childlike about being like, these two wheels will get me there.
And you know when the wind gets in your hair and the salt and the - like, almost feels like you're flying, where if you're not in pain - if, like, you're not thinking about the pain or you're not thinking about your lungs, like, you just almost feel like you're just floating? That's kind of...
NADWORNY: Yeah.
CARPENTER: ...Why it's so sweet for me
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KING OF HAVING FUN")
MEDIUM BUILD: (Singing) And half of me is fully jealous of the younger me, a kid who saw the light in little things, hadn't had a reason yet to run.
NADWORNY: Nick Carpenter makes music as Medium Build. His new album is "King Of Having Fun." Thank you so much for talking to me, and thank you to Stanley.
CARPENTER: Wow, he really got our friendship off the ground here. Thanks, Stanley.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KING OF HAVING FUN")
MEDIUM BUILD: (Singing) But half of me wonders if I'll ever get the chance to be... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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