As Nick Carpenter looked back on the biggest year yet for his solo music project Medium Build, he also admits that, before 2025 concluded, he had “hit this giant spiritual wall.”
Carpenter, 34, had been on a three-year hot streak: after years of refining his sound and grinding out gigs, a deal with Island/Slowplay in 2023 had yielded a major-label debut, prime festival gigs (including at Coachella) and enviable touring opportunities (including an opening slot on Tyler Childers’ 2025 tour). Yet the singer-songwriter felt himself wearing down as 2025 came to a close. He needed a break.
“From 2023 to 2025, we were just saying yes to everything,” he tells Billboard. “It doesn’t feel too long ago that I was afraid that it was all just a flash in the pan, and that I had to take advantage of different opportunities. But then eventually you’re like, ‘Well, I’m gonna burn out.’”
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To that end, the past month has played out perfectly for Carpenter — who’s been able to decompress at home in Nashville at the same time as a recent single has become a surprise, momentum-building hit. “Last Time,” a lilting, lightly funky slice of romantic melancholy, gave Medium Build his Billboard chart debut in December, and in six weeks has climbed to No. 30 on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart.
The ode to a literal kiss-off (“It might be the last time that we kiss/ You always take for granted what you have until it’s missed,” Carpenter laments on the chorus) resulted from a chance run-in during a trip to London last spring. “I was there to see some friends, and write — and, mainly, eat scones,” he quips. “I went to Paddington Station, to try and find that sculpture of the bear, and I ran into an ex. She doesn’t even live in London — I just saw her riding a bike past me, and it was a total jump scare. It brought up all this stuff, and hit me in a weird place. I thought I was over [the breakup], but I guess there were some things that I hadn’t put away.”
Carpenter has spent a decade untangling his insecurities since forming Medium Build in 2015. A Georgia native who grew up in a religious household and eventually moved to Nashville to study songwriting, he began absorbing some of the sonic and lyrical tropes of modern country, while also sporting an R&B-adjacent croon, as a pavement-pounding indie artist.
“Everything felt so raw and unfiltered,” says Kathryn Callahan of LoyalT Management, who began working with Carpenter in January 2020 after stumbling upon a video of him playing guitar for another artist and tracking him down. “He doesn’t write with long metaphors, but in short, potent statements. The most specific references still felt relatable. Attending a show, it was very apparent that Nick was raised in the church and on the worship leader path when he was younger.”
After independently releasing four studio albums in the back half of the 2010s, Carpenter began prioritizing eye-catching performance clips when he started working with Callahan. “In the first couple of years, we took the approach that if we could get traction on live videos, we were one step closer to someone buying a ticket,” Callahan explains. “If they’re going to buy a ticket, then they’re definitely streaming the music.”
The strategy worked — a December 2022 video of Carpenter performing the yearning anthem “Never Learned to Dance” in his backyard has earned 1.2 million YouTube views to date — and led to his label deal the following year. Carpenter released his Island debut, Country, in 2024, and toured relentlessly, mixing headline shows with opening stints for artists like FINNEAS, Holly Humberstone and Lewis Capaldi, among others. Last year, he made his Coachella debut, played amphitheaters in support of artists like Tyler Childers and Rainbow Kitten Surprise, flew to Australia for a five-date run with Role Model, and co-headlined 10 dates with Petey U.S.A.
Amid that breathless schedule, a new single wasn’t supposed to break through — but “Last Time” quickly grew a following after being released last August as a standalone track. “It’s a loosie song that we put out just because we liked it and Nick was on the road,” Callahan explains. “It’s a reminder that sometimes that’s enough of a reason to put out music.”
While “Last Time” debuted on the charts, Carpenter was at home in Nashville, coming up with song concepts and lyrics for his nearly finished next album on walks around town (“I’ll have a thought, text it down, then figure it out later that night on piano or guitar,” he explains). And while he’s encouraged by the song’s success, he doesn’t believe its chart run will dramatically alter the direction of his follow-up to Country.
“Even with ‘Last Time’ doing well, it hasn’t changed who I am — it’s not like I’m getting more recognized in my coffee shop,” Carpenter says with a laugh. “I know what I do naturally, which is groovy, bummer folk. And this new record has some ‘90s Alan Jackson-sounding country stuff, and there’s also some big, Weezer-y, Harvey Danger-style alternative, too.”
As he puts the finishing touches on his next album, Carpenter does acknowledge one decision that has helped clarify his creative process: getting sober last year. “I never was super inspired when I was drinking — but now, I have my nights back,” he says. “Last night, I was watching a YouTube video on the history of the Boxer Rebellion. It made me start writing, and after 45 minutes, I had what might be a new song. Before now, I would have had four beers and fallen asleep. But now, I have something to take to tomorrow.”
A version of this story will appear in the Jan. 24, 2026, issue of Billboard.