Here is the new single from Medium Build, also known as singer-songwriter Nick Carpenter. The poignant ‘Yoke’ captures deep emotions and channels them into a spellbinding song. There’s subtlety and grace to the songwriting; musically, it’s beautifully textured and mellow tones reflect the personal introspection. Carpenter’s lyrics are particularly affecting, specific details blended with universally understood and complex feelings. The video, directed by Ben Arduino, uses grainy hometown footage to reinforce the sense of memory that runs through the song. The excellent Julien Baker supports Carpenter’s vocals, adding further depth and resonance. The collaborators have been friends for many years, since their college days at Middle Tennessee State, having bonded over music and their experiences of growing up queer in the church in America’s south and the feeling of not being accepted in their own community. When they sing together, their words are infused with great meaning and power: “Plenty wanted more than us // Always a roof, always food to eat // Plenty of dogma stained love…I gave them my youth // Made some lifelong friends // Who no longer acknowledge me.”
Carpenter says of collaborator Julien Baker: “I met Julien Baker outside a venue in Murfreesboro, Tennessee when she was 17. She and her band, the Star Killers, were on a bill with my old band, and they were too young to be inside during the other sets so they waited outside, huddled around with giant X’s on their hands. Julien played a telecaster with a rainbow guitar strap and practically unhinged her jaw when she screamed. All of us in the room knew there was something special going on with her and her boys. They had passion and treated each other like family. The music was human and angry and hopeful and sad. We became friends and the star killers invited us on our first tour. I learned that Julien was a person of deep faith, albeit complicated by queerness and addiction and family trauma. I felt a kinship with her. I had been raised in evangelical spaces myself, and by that time, I was losing my faith. Julien stood out to me as the realest Christian I had ever met. Someone who read the Bible but loved sinners. We didn’t agree on everything, but we agreed on love. And we shared a deep love of music. We bonded over Circa Survive and Pedro The Lion. We shared songs with one another and pushed the other towards more honesty in our songs, the ugly kind of honesty that we were drawn to. When Julien’s first solo record blew up and she was whisked into the limelight, none of us were surprised. I was excited—and definitely jealous. She was living out the dreams of our scene. she was the one who made it. Years later, after my first tour, I texted her an apology. I said this job sucks and people treat you weird. I’m so sorry I ever coveted your spot. I should have checked in more. Over the past decade, Julien and I have shared a drift in and out of faith and sobriety—two of the things we’ve always met on. When I sent her this song about deconstructing my relationships with church and the people around it, I knew she would understand. I’d been scared in the past to release songs this niche and heavy, worried about the people from my past I would offend as I heal my inner child. Julien’s presence on this track feels like a friend holding your hand as you share your testimony or open up at an AA meeting. This industry is lonely and the value of long-lasting friendships cannot be overstated, but having a friend in this business that you look up to, admire and adore is a godsend (pun intended). I love you JB. Thanks for showing me the path so many times and allowing me to walk with you.”
Baker says of Medium Build: “When you meet Nick Carpenter (a.k.a. Medium Build) he will probably make you laugh…and then make you think. Carpenter’s is a mind hungry for beauty, for music, for understanding; fiercely curious, determined, but importantly never above laughing at himself. It’s that lack of self-seriousness which gives his songs a uniform earnestness, the freedom to speak in new styles, to try on a cast of costumes, vary the art of the telling without sacrificing the story. His music reports from the borders of the absurd with humor and grace—with allowance for, of all things, fun—unafraid of ugliness but always begging the merit of levity. May you enjoy the talent of one of the most gifted, wisest fools I know, as I have.”
‘Yoke’ is the second single taken from Medium Build’s brand new EP, ‘Marietta’, which is out today 15th November. The EP is named for the town just outside Atlanta, Georgia, where Carpenter grew up and the songs draw on those youthful experiences of family life, his relationship with the church and the challenges of adolescence. He notes: “‘Marietta’ is more so a zoom out of my childhood. Extending grace to my family. To myself. I just wanna thank myself and my parents for surviving my childhood.” The EP follows the full-length release of ‘Country’ earlier this year, a critically acclaimed album that comes highly recommended. Explore both the album and the new EP, but start here with the insightful, authentic, lyrical ‘Yoke’.
