Medium Build: Chelsea Studios 2026

This  FUV Live session is also available as a podcast, "FUV Live Sessions." We're elevating WFUV's long history of live sessions and interviews via a podcast that you can find on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.  This session contains explicit language.

Medium Build, who is Nashville singer-songwriter Nick Carpenter, recently released his sixth album, King of Having Fun – a record that tackles big emotions with big energy, blending genres (twang-tinged, pop-dusted indie-folk) while delivering doses of wit and healthy hits of humor. 

Carpenter is a master storyteller – whether taking us to hardware stores or back in time – and the new record is ripe with world-and character-building specifics and a total trove for lyric lovers. In “Home Depot,” Carpenter introduces the emotionally stunted Steve, a sympathetic protagonist ignoring his feelings while prowling the plumbing aisle ("His heart's the only project he ain't got the tools to figure out"). On the titular track, Carpenter laments his current struggles while yearning for sweeter, simpler times with a roll call of Spencer’s Gifts-era boyhood bedroom essentials ("Friends over Friday night, pet snake, black light"). And the artist wields and works his words playfully, as exemplified by lines like those in “In My Gut” ("When the appetizers come, nobody says nothin’ / Just chewin’ on a problem"). 

Beyond Carpenter’s craft, the release is a triumph in terms of timeline, and to fully appreciate the new album – as well as the artist that Carpenter is now – it’s necessary to take the context, as well as some personal history, into account. Following the release and momentum of his 2024 album Country, Carpenter was an artist on the rise who nearly crashed and burned. Consumed by his sudden success, touring and partying too hard, he eventually had the awareness to recognize he was at a breaking point – and to ask for help. The artist made the decision to step back, get sober and start medication. And in the following “pink cloud” phase – a period of new sobriety characterized by newfound energy and euphoria – he recovered while doing what he does best: making a record.

King of Having Fun is a work by an artist who appears to be having the time of his life. While previous records had been solo efforts, this album was made with Carpenter's band and designed with live in mind. And whether boot-scootin’ across the floor at Newport Folk, opening up for Mumford & Sons at MSG or rockin’ on a stool during his FUV solo set at Chelsea Studios, it’s clear from every performance that the stage is exactly where Carpenter is meant to be. 

Before the album’s release, Carpenter played a fantastic (and yes, very fun) set for FUV Marquee members, which included three of the songs you’ll hear in the session: “Last Time,” “My Gut” and “King of Having Fun.”

He was one of the most generous, genuine, and entertaining interviewees I’ve encountered. Ahead of the show, we sat down in the green room to discuss the heartbreaks that led to the genesis of Medium Build, the quick turnaround of the latest album, and his new music-making experience – sober and surrounded by friends.

[Recorded 8/18/26. Engineered by Sammy Druker for Chelsea Studios. Post-production mix by Jim O'Hara. Produced by Meghan Suma. Videographers: Alena Godas, Gina Slavin, Danny Cifelli and Dylan Duong.]