Medium Build’s Nick Carpenter never planned for a career as a singer-songwriter to take him to great heights. But when it did — an ascent made possible on the merits of his razor-sharp and fearlessly reflective tunes, electrifying performances, and acerbic, hilarious wit — he certainly wasn’t prepared to end up so close to the edge.

Now, on the heels of his breakthrough 2024 album Country, years of relentless touring under increasingly brighter lights and bigger stages, and recovery from the subsequent fallout that often follows fame, comes King of Having Fun, Medium Build’s most cohesive, extroverted, and joyful record yet. An album made not in an isolated bedroom like much of his past work but live in a studio with his closest friends and collaborators, it is fueled by a fresh rock-and-roll energy paired with the artist’s familiar lo-fi-meets-indie-and-country sound yet still driven by the biting lyrical insight and potent self-examination that has endeared Carpenter to throngs of fans worldwide. Sure to bring Medium Build to a whole new level of stardom through its sheer sonic power and songwriting prowess, King of Having Fun is the sound of a fractured soul picking up the pieces out of the darkness of rock-bottom and rediscovering real love — for others, for joy, and for oneself.

Carpenter, who was raised in an evangelical household in Georgia and learned at an early age how to both perform and to be performative, credits the birth of Medium Build to two significant personal heartbreaks: once as an aspiring Christian at the hands of the Church, and once by the music industry as a member of an indie rock band called, fittingly, Little Moses.

“Most of my upbringing was spent learning how to perform the act of existence,” he says. “Being a good boy at church or school was how you got ahead, so the church was a place for me to perform this sort of existence to earn praise and perks. But when I found out how fucked up its inner workings are, the church dream died. And my experience in Nashville for music was very similar. So, Medium Build was created to be a place where no one could ever take anything from me. It was born from a kill-all-accessibility perspective: Say the darkest, nastiest thought you’re otherwise afraid to say; don’t filter — all the shit you weren’t allowed to say at church, say it here. I just wanted a place where I could be ugly.”