With its members currently spread out across different cities, Nashville’s The Medium has been in a transitional state recently. Yet despite the logistical challenges that come with being a band caught in the middle of life, they continue to create, plot and plan, proving that a forward trajectory is just second nature to them. Since the release of their “Sports!” EP in March, the band has been hard at work on what just might be their finest work to date.

This week, founding members Shane Perry and Sam Silva were kind enough to answer a few of my questions about their recent activities and what’s next in store for The Medium.

YY: In 2025, The Medium has been a consistent musical force for almost 10 years despite personnel changes, timing difficulties, and all the challenges that came with being a band on the verge of a breakthrough just before COVID. Now, The Medium is spread out across cities, yet you show no signs of slowing down. What keeps you going?

TM: It boils down to four F’s: friendship, freedom, fear, and fun. Songwriting helps make sense of life. It’s a nice thing to do. As long as we feel songwriting, recording, performing and producing are serving us, we’ll keep going. It gives us a reason to get together, and some semblance of control over reality.

I understand the band members all lived together under one roof for close to two years. What sort of advantages and disadvantages have you observed between spending presumably hours of every day together versus living apart?

It was very convenient in terms of practicing and collaboration. Being unified under one roof helped keep us accountable and involved. We would spend hours of the day together playing music or games or watching movies. It was four of us equally invested not just in music but each other's lives. On the other hand, we were liable to goof off fairly often — good for our friendship but not necessarily for band productivity.

In a March interview with Nashville Voyager, you mentioned that the band has become harder to pursue publicly with current obstacles, but you’re all playing at your best and feel that you’re producing your “finest most eclectic work yet.” Adversity can often foster creativity – do you think your upcoming album is an example of that, of is it simply a product of time and experience?

The short answer is yes. Our singular band existence was becoming more fragmented; we spread further away from each other geographically, so it had an influence on how we were able to operate as a band and the kind of subject matter we chose to write about. There are songs of change and personal growth stemming from growing up and following our individual paths.

Aptly named, the “Sports!” EP is a collection of four songs that all have something to do with sports – how did this idea come to fruition? Did you set out to write a sports-themed body of work, or did the songs precede the idea for the EP?

It started with the song “Feel The Dream,” which came to be as we just started chanting “sports!” together while jamming on a riff. It quickly developed into a song, and so we set out to write a full album to accompany it but ended up with City Life instead.

Do you believe your journey to self-production has elevated the band’s sound to a more personal level? Do you feel more connected to the final product now, or do you find yourself missing a more collaborative approach to recording and producing?

Self-producing has led to a more personal relationship with the finished product. It was initiated by financial restraints. It gave us more flexibility to work on the album over longer periods of time instead of working three consecutive days of up to twelve hours of recording, like how we did on the first two albums. The process of producing/engineering on our own had afforded us absolute control over the end result, but perhaps by striving for perfection we missed out on the more spontaneous nature of collaborating with people outside the band. We’re keen on working with some of our friends again to help produce in the future, but we decided to take the reins for a while.

Again referencing that Voyager interview – I completely share your disdain for social media, the anxiety surrounding it, the numbers games. But it’s an almost necessary currency for public entities like bands. Have you managed to strike a balance with social media use, or is it a constant struggle? What are your thoughts on social media platforms as the self-publicity tools of today?

Sam: Personally it is a struggle. Social media has obviously been integral in spreading the word of our music and giving us exposure like any artist, you can't really get around it in this digital age. But I think there is a hidden cost to this way of advertising ourselves. Seeing how many people like or share our posts gives it a weird almost transactional quality to me. I've found myself at times elated and stressed out by the potential outreach (or lack thereof) of our art.

Shane: It’s convenient, but every time I pull up Instagram, I find myself scrolling. I’d like to practice what I preach and stop altogether one day. I can’t speak on its necessity. I’m going to say it isn’t needed because I want to believe that. The Medium has a decent email list, and I am trying to use that more and cut out the Meta middle man.

You’ve talked about the un-sustainability of being a touring band – many things have to go right to pull off a successful tour. What realistically would have to happen before The Medium can get back on the road?

Someone needs to sweep us off our dang feet and take us on the road as their opener. We’ll tour the south again probably. But we don’t have an agent nor management anymore, so it's tough to get shows actively booked beyond people just asking us here and there. We were lucky to have a dedicated couple of friends for years who made up that logistical framework. Guys who believed in us and put themselves out there without expecting much in return. We’re music makers, not booking agent boys, so taking on performances has slowed down for us.

Which body of work from The Medium was the most gratifying to put together?

Sam: I'd have to say our first album gave me that feeling the most. Being in this band and finding like-minded people to play and create with was the most incredible thing. In a way, it was a test of my faith in my own abilities as a musician and writer. The time leading up to the completion of the first album showed me what I was capable of, and I surprised myself with what I could do.

Shane: First album. It was such an exciting time. Energetically, everything was going up for us then, people being drawn to us. Such a delight.

You mentioned that you’re currently working on getting the next album mixed, which is super exciting – can you share any more details on it?

Sam: We've undertaken some artistic risks we haven't indulged in until now. Stretching our sound in a way that goes beyond what I think people are used to hearing. Maybe this is me projecting, but I've often wondered if the style we've spent years developing has grown old to listeners. I feel like this new batch of songs flips that expectation on its head.

Shane: There are a couple different genres on the album. It’s been ambitious and just a flexing of the music muscle in me that just keeps needing to be pushed. Hopefully we did a good job.

What else is on the horizon for The Medium?

Shane: For the next couple of months we need to finish mixing and mastering this next LP, then put a bow on it and figure out what we feel we’re capable of putting toward it monetarily or if a label could help us back it. We’ll have a release show, or some sort of tour if something works out. We’re always writing, and have lots we still want to share and create in our lifetimes even if the band doesn’t have the infrastructure it used to.

Sam: One dream of ours is to write a score for a film or video game. How this will happen, I'm not sure. Maybe it'll have to take the right creative mind to take a chance on us. But we would rise to the occasion. It feels like an important goal for us to accomplish. We are passionate film buffs and respect the multifaceted process it takes to bring stories to life. Visual media has the potential to complement our music in exciting new ways and vice versa.