FIELD MEDIC with Olivia Barton
Field Medic is the lo-fi folk project of Kevin Patrick Sullivan. At eighteen, he discovered the music of Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, who changed his perspective on what a song could be and led to him developing his own style which he describes as "freak folk/post country with an emphasis on finger style guitar and lyrics."
Sullivan initially embraced lo-fi because he felt that his home recordings were a truer method of expressing what he was creating than anything he could do in a studio. Drawing inspiration from new wave and rap, Sullivan pushed the boundaries of what a folk song could be, incorporating new elements in each subsequent release from analogue drum machines to Casio keyboards to banjo. The immediacy of that recording process and the freedom of experimentation inherent within are central to Field Medic's character, extending through his music to his freestyle, improvised mixtapes and his poetry.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Any song that's true is a good song in my mind," says Kevin Sullivan, the lo-fi bedroom folk artist better known as Field Medic. "That's why I never find it necessary to add too much stuff to my recordings. I'm just into songs themselves."
That principle is the guiding light behind Field Medic's hypnotically beautiful and fearlessly honest new record, 'fade into the dawn.' Sullivan's first proper full-length release for Run For Cover and his first since making the leap to full-time musician, the collection features ten sparse, acoustic tracks that reckon with our perceptions of success and self as they face down the inevitable complications that arise from realizing any hard-won dream. Sullivan has always written candidly about doubt and darkness and anxiety, but he digs deeper than ever before here, blending black humor and bold introspection as he weighs fantasy against reality, grapples with his relationship with alcohol, and searches for meaning in the mundane. "I used to be a romantic / Now I'm a dude in a laminate," he sings of life on perpetual tour, encapsulating at once both the tantalizing allure and endless tedium of the road.
Sullivan's ability to capture richly detailed moments of in all their messy, complicated ambiguity is a large part of what's earned him both his devoted cult following and his widespread critical acclaim. Philadelphia NPR station WXPN hailed Field Medic as a "West Coast freak-folk poet who will capture your heart," while the San Francisco Chronicle praised his "intensely emotional" voice as a "melodic quiet storm," and the Chicago Reader swooned for his "charming, unvarnished acoustic bedroom songs." Sullivan's tracks racked up well over a million collective streams on Spotify, and his captivating live performances (in which he's accompanied by nothing more than his guitar and an old school boombox) landed him dates with everyone from The Neighbourhood and Wallows to HEALTH and Girlpool.
show less
Field Medic is the lo-fi folk project of Kevin Patrick Sullivan. At eighteen, he discovered the music of Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, who changed his perspective on what a song could be and led to him developing his own style which he describes as "freak folk/post country with an emphasis on finger style guitar and lyrics."
Sullivan initially embraced lo-fi because he felt that his home recordings were a truer method of expressing what he was creating than anything he could do in a studio. Drawing inspiration from new wave and rap, Sullivan pushed the boundaries of what a folk song could be, incorporating new elements in each subsequent release from analogue drum machines to Casio keyboards to banjo. The immediacy of that recording process and the freedom of experimentation inherent within are central to Field Medic's character, extending through his music to his freestyle, improvised mixtapes and his poetry.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Any song that's true is a good song in my mind," says Kevin Sullivan, the lo-fi bedroom folk artist better known as Field Medic. "That's why I never find it necessary to add too much stuff to my recordings. I'm just into songs themselves."
That principle is the guiding light behind Field Medic's hypnotically beautiful and fearlessly honest new record, 'fade into the dawn.' Sullivan's first proper full-length release for Run For Cover and his first since making the leap to full-time musician, the collection features ten sparse, acoustic tracks that reckon with our perceptions of success and self as they face down the inevitable complications that arise from realizing any hard-won dream. Sullivan has always written candidly about doubt and darkness and anxiety, but he digs deeper than ever before here, blending black humor and bold introspection as he weighs fantasy against reality, grapples with his relationship with alcohol, and searches for meaning in the mundane. "I used to be a romantic / Now I'm a dude in a laminate," he sings of life on perpetual tour, encapsulating at once both the tantalizing allure and endless tedium of the road.
Sullivan's ability to capture richly detailed moments of in all their messy, complicated ambiguity is a large part of what's earned him both his devoted cult following and his widespread critical acclaim. Philadelphia NPR station WXPN hailed Field Medic as a "West Coast freak-folk poet who will capture your heart," while the San Francisco Chronicle praised his "intensely emotional" voice as a "melodic quiet storm," and the Chicago Reader swooned for his "charming, unvarnished acoustic bedroom songs." Sullivan's tracks racked up well over a million collective streams on Spotify, and his captivating live performances (in which he's accompanied by nothing more than his guitar and an old school boombox) landed him dates with everyone from The Neighbourhood and Wallows to HEALTH and Girlpool.
FIELD MEDIC with Olivia Barton
Field Medic is the lo-fi folk project of Kevin Patrick Sullivan. At eighteen, he discovered the music of Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, who changed his perspective on what a song could be and led to him developing his own style which he describes as "freak folk/post country with an emphasis on finger style guitar and lyrics."
Sullivan initially embraced lo-fi because he felt that his home recordings were a truer method of expressing what he was creating than anything he could do in a studio. Drawing inspiration from new wave and rap, Sullivan pushed the boundaries of what a folk song could be, incorporating new elements in each subsequent release from analogue drum machines to Casio keyboards to banjo. The immediacy of that recording process and the freedom of experimentation inherent within are central to Field Medic's character, extending through his music to his freestyle, improvised mixtapes and his poetry.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Any song that's true is a good song in my mind," says Kevin Sullivan, the lo-fi bedroom folk artist better known as Field Medic. "That's why I never find it necessary to add too much stuff to my recordings. I'm just into songs themselves."
That principle is the guiding light behind Field Medic's hypnotically beautiful and fearlessly honest new record, 'fade into the dawn.' Sullivan's first proper full-length release for Run For Cover and his first since making the leap to full-time musician, the collection features ten sparse, acoustic tracks that reckon with our perceptions of success and self as they face down the inevitable complications that arise from realizing any hard-won dream. Sullivan has always written candidly about doubt and darkness and anxiety, but he digs deeper than ever before here, blending black humor and bold introspection as he weighs fantasy against reality, grapples with his relationship with alcohol, and searches for meaning in the mundane. "I used to be a romantic / Now I'm a dude in a laminate," he sings of life on perpetual tour, encapsulating at once both the tantalizing allure and endless tedium of the road.
Sullivan's ability to capture richly detailed moments of in all their messy, complicated ambiguity is a large part of what's earned him both his devoted cult following and his widespread critical acclaim. Philadelphia NPR station WXPN hailed Field Medic as a "West Coast freak-folk poet who will capture your heart," while the San Francisco Chronicle praised his "intensely emotional" voice as a "melodic quiet storm," and the Chicago Reader swooned for his "charming, unvarnished acoustic bedroom songs." Sullivan's tracks racked up well over a million collective streams on Spotify, and his captivating live performances (in which he's accompanied by nothing more than his guitar and an old school boombox) landed him dates with everyone from The Neighbourhood and Wallows to HEALTH and Girlpool.
read more
Field Medic is the lo-fi folk project of Kevin Patrick Sullivan. At eighteen, he discovered the music of Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, who changed his perspective on what a song could be and led to him developing his own style which he describes as "freak folk/post country with an emphasis on finger style guitar and lyrics."
Sullivan initially embraced lo-fi because he felt that his home recordings were a truer method of expressing what he was creating than anything he could do in a studio. Drawing inspiration from new wave and rap, Sullivan pushed the boundaries of what a folk song could be, incorporating new elements in each subsequent release from analogue drum machines to Casio keyboards to banjo. The immediacy of that recording process and the freedom of experimentation inherent within are central to Field Medic's character, extending through his music to his freestyle, improvised mixtapes and his poetry.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Any song that's true is a good song in my mind," says Kevin Sullivan, the lo-fi bedroom folk artist better known as Field Medic. "That's why I never find it necessary to add too much stuff to my recordings. I'm just into songs themselves."
That principle is the guiding light behind Field Medic's hypnotically beautiful and fearlessly honest new record, 'fade into the dawn.' Sullivan's first proper full-length release for Run For Cover and his first since making the leap to full-time musician, the collection features ten sparse, acoustic tracks that reckon with our perceptions of success and self as they face down the inevitable complications that arise from realizing any hard-won dream. Sullivan has always written candidly about doubt and darkness and anxiety, but he digs deeper than ever before here, blending black humor and bold introspection as he weighs fantasy against reality, grapples with his relationship with alcohol, and searches for meaning in the mundane. "I used to be a romantic / Now I'm a dude in a laminate," he sings of life on perpetual tour, encapsulating at once both the tantalizing allure and endless tedium of the road.
Sullivan's ability to capture richly detailed moments of in all their messy, complicated ambiguity is a large part of what's earned him both his devoted cult following and his widespread critical acclaim. Philadelphia NPR station WXPN hailed Field Medic as a "West Coast freak-folk poet who will capture your heart," while the San Francisco Chronicle praised his "intensely emotional" voice as a "melodic quiet storm," and the Chicago Reader swooned for his "charming, unvarnished acoustic bedroom songs." Sullivan's tracks racked up well over a million collective streams on Spotify, and his captivating live performances (in which he's accompanied by nothing more than his guitar and an old school boombox) landed him dates with everyone from The Neighbourhood and Wallows to HEALTH and Girlpool.
show less
Date/Times:
The Independent
80 Upcoming Events
628 Divisadero Street, San Francisco, CA 94117
The Best Events
Every Week in Your Inbox
From Our Sponsors
UPCOMING EVENTS
Great suggestion! We'll be in touch.
Event reviewed successfully.