Finger Pickin’, Beatboxin’, Chillness: A Conversation with Field Medic

Graphic by Kristen Lee

By Sofia Giarrusso & Nathan Hilyard

There’s a lot of things to love about a Field Medic song. Through fingerpicking, yoyo tricks, and thoroughly sewn tales of love and loss, Field Medic has constructed a catalogue of sun-baked heartache with enough quips for a stand-up set. With taste stretching from metal to Ernest Hemingway, Kevin Sullivan fills Field Medic (and his other musical ventures, lots to say about the Field Medic expanded universe later..) with flexible allusions and earnest lyricism, striking the core of good storytelling and the trials of forming an identity. Sullivan’s most recent album, boundless & true, was released in 2024, and its still-secret follow-up is expected in the coming fall. 

We were lucky enough to chat with Field Medic this past week. After thirty minutes of missed communication (always make sure that you’ve got the right Zoom room open!), his warm smiles welcomed us into a conversation about his work and upcoming show at Emerson’s Paramount Theater on April 16th. 

Milk Crate: We always ask our staff members at the top of every meeting what they've been listening to, so what's been tickling your fancy lately?

Field Medic: I just started re-listening to every single Every Time I Die album, which is a metal-core band from the 2000s. I was really – as a lot of us were – fascinated by the Drake and Kendrick beef. It’s led me to re-listen to a bunch of Drake albums that came out after Nothing Was the Same. There's just so many at this point that I’ve felt like I listened to, but I never [really did] because they're always like 18-tracks long. Also, this jazz musician named Robert Glasper, who is super sick. So that's kind of a strange rotation of music, but that's what I've been on recently.

MC: What got you into music, and what were the steps that you took along the way to becoming Field Medic?

FM: I first started playing music when my dad bought an acoustic guitar at Costco, like a Yamaha, sort of like a beginner acoustic guitar. At this time, like 2003 or something, there was a song on the radio by Howie Day called “Collide.” I don't know why; I just picked up the guitar and I sort of taught myself how to play that song because it's pretty simple, just like standard chords. 

Then, all throughout high school, I was in a couple of acoustic emo-duo groups in the MySpace era. I was then in a couple of metal-core bands as well as the ‘screamer.’ I was in a band for many years called Rin Tin Tiger, which I had with my brother. We were a street band—this is when I lived in San Francisco—we busked all the time, three or four days a week on Powell Street. It was sort of like an Americana, Bob Dylan-worship band. Not like Christianity, but like, I just worship Bob Dylan. 

In the midst of that band, I had written so many more songs that didn't quite fit the style we were going for. So then I started recording what turned into Field Medic songs, and I started busking as “Field Medic” when the band wasn't available. I started recording EPs. I think the Field Medic project really took shape when I got a four-track recorder from my friend Carlos Forster. That brought me into the lofi, drum machine, self-produced realm. 

That was in 2013. So it's been a crazy road. 

MC: When were you really like, “I’m Field Medic?”

FM: I released an EP called P E A G S U S T H O T Z in 2015. That was when I really started shooting a lot of music videos on VHS, and was very much committing to the lofi, freak-folk sort of thing. I'd spent so much time with my other band trying to – not literally, but subconsciously – get signed and be a big band, or whatever. Field Medic was this almost cathartic art project of mine. So I began identifying a lot as Field Medic, and with that music, I'd say probably like 2014 or 2015. My first Field Medic EP was just sort of like Rin Tin Tiger songs that weren't the band’s songs, whereas I feel like P E A G S U S T H O T Z  was really when the sound developed. 

MC: You frequently collaborate, like with artists Odie Leigh, cavetown, and most recently, beaming. How does working with another artist differ your process?

FM:  So beaming is a project from my best friend Derek Ted and my new friend Braden. Derek actually recorded the first Field Medic EP in 2012, or whatever. I lived with him for, like, ten years, so collaborating with him is very simple because he's been such an instrumental part of the Field Medic project. He mastered all of the lofi stuff that I made; he was an audio engineering student at [San Francisco] State. [beaming] just had this song, it’s the acoustic song from their forthcoming EP, and I was like, “I would love to be involved with your guys’ band, I think it's really good.” [“Slow Sinkin’”] kind of fit perfectly.

It was kind of similar with Odie Leigh because Derek recorded and produced Odie's most recent album, Carrier Pigeon. She had “All-Star Breakfast” kind of half-written, and the label wanted her to have a classic “follow up your album with, like, three more songs” type deal. Derek heard that song and he was like, “You should have Kev write on this,” because, I wouldn't say it's a Field Medic-y song, but it's acoustic, and it's sweet. So that was very natural.

I did a tour with Cavetown in 2019, and we wrote [“glacier meadow”] in the [Royale] green room. We wrote that in Boston. Some students from Berklee College of Music had brought me a banjo to play one song because I don't tour with a banjo. Robin [of Cavetown] was like, “Let me play with that.” We just pulled this song together. 

I feel like a shorter version to answer your question is: I like to do collabs when they are natural and with friends. There've been a couple of times where I tried to write a song with somebody random, just because, and it doesn't always work out. The collabs that I do and that come out are really genuinely built on friendship and chillness.

MC: I love “Bloom Later” [by Jesse], so I was wondering if there’s anything you have to say about that?

FM: The first people I met in LA were the Neighbourhood, Hunny, and Bad Suns, and Jesse [of the Neighbourhood] was very cool and interested in my music, which was kind of surprising because he’s so platinum and at the time, I was literally living on a futon on the ground at Derek's house. Jesse was like, “I want to have you come into the studio with me, we're working on [&].” Derek and I went to the stu—it was me, Jesse, and Derek.
I don't remember if Dylan Brady [of 100 gecs] was there, but he actually produced that song. 

Jesse had sort of an idea, and then we just kind of put our heads together for like five hours straight. I think it was actually the second session Dylan was there, that's when he put in the drums. It was so weird because we didn't really hear anything about it for several months, and then like four or five months later, I got a text from Jesse that was like, “Yo, the song's coming out on the album… and the album's coming out like next week.” I was really surprised that at the very end, it's just my voice too, and a little bit of Derek's too. That’s a really cool footnote, and I don't meet a lot of people that know that secret, so I'm glad that you asked.

MC: My first GA pit was at a Neighbourhood show, the day after my eighth grade graduation. You were also on that tour bill with them in 2018, right?

FM: I was! That was such a crazy bill. The first bigger shows I ever played were with Bad Suns, which was a crazy thing, but then the Neighbourhood was like, “We're gonna take you on this whole tour!” 
And it was, obviously, so different than playing in the train tunnel, to be playing to thousands of people.

MC: You’ve mentioned that much of your songwriting is about bearing your heart, how does your heart fare when you're performing live? Does it change when you’re right in front of the listener?

FM: The most change-of-heart feeling [for me] is that there's some songs that I wrote, you know, ten years ago that I'll still play.
There’s almost this dissociation, or–-not a conscious disassociation, but sometimes I'm just like, “Wow, it's crazy that I'm telling this story now when it actually took place so long ago.” But I find that if I'm playing something that is new, that's like bearing my heart in a dark or challenging way, it actually feels good. It feels weird, but it's more so when I have to go back and sing about stuff that's not particularly relevant. Sometimes it just feels a little odd, but I'm happy to do it; if people want to hear a certain song, I'll always play it. 

MC: Who are some of your chief inspirations? Songwriting, guitar playing, banjo playing even? 

FM: I love Joni Mitchell. I love Townes Van Zandt. I love Bob Dylan, obviously, like I said. I love John Prine. There's this Irish singer songwriter named Fionn Regan, who I am obsessed with. I love Imogen Heap AKA Frou Frou.

MC: Imogen Heap’s been having a renaissance on the liberal arts campus.

FM: It's so crazy because my dad had the Frou Frou album when it came out, so that's been a favorite forever, and it's so awesome to see Imogen Heap have this huge moment. People are finally appreciating her solo records and also Frou Frou all at the same time. She's been a huge inspo for me.

I love the Tallest Man on Earth. He's another songwriter guy.
I love acoustic finger-style singers. I also love Caroline Polachek. I think she's awesome. I listen to a ton of rap music too, I don't know if that directly influences my songwriting, but I feel like it might. At the same time I was obsessed with Bob Dylan, I was obsessed with Tupac. I love this artist named Young Dolph. I just love the lyrics. I love artists that have a lot of lyrics. 

MC: With your work under different names like Paper Rose Haiku and Protection Spell, how does it feel writing under these names? Is it all part of the Field Medic Musical Universe?

FM: That's something I think about a lot. It's so weird, especially now that I have Protection Spell. Having two side projects is kind of absurd, but that's also what I like about it. The one thing is: I feel like Protection Spell and Field Medic are, more or less, the same narrator. 
So, distinguishing between which project [each] song is going to go to is pretty easy. It's either—is it acoustic or is it hella synths? 

With Paper Rose Haiku, [it’s influenced by] the rap I like to listen to. I love Bladee as well, I think he’s the best white rapper of all time. He has such a mythical way, and it’s so original, not trying to be anything that it's not. I also listen to a lot of trap; I love Future and Lil Durk, and stuff. 

‘My ops,’ or like, ‘flexing bands’ are both things that I don't really have. If somebody is gonna take it at face value and [they may] be like, “Does Field Medic have hella bands?” Not that would be a bad thing, but that is the weirdest part for me is acknowledging the desire to flex. I've been really able to think about it recently: I think everybody in rap is sort of boasting in an almost hyperbolic way, and that's just a part of the genre. I'm allowing myself to be more fluid with it.

It’s confusing, honestly, having that many projects. I did one record called light is gone 2, which I feel like is a mix of [Field Medic], Paper Rose Haiku, and even like Protection Spell stuff. Although I really enjoyed making it, I felt like it complicated things a little bit too much. That’s why I kind of wanted to separate it into these different things. I can keep Field Medic’s acoustic songwriter-y [sound] at its core. 

MC: How do you find success as a smaller, more independent artist? What methods do you use to get people listening? 

FM: There's been periods of time where I was interested in TikTok. I did have a song, like a snippet song—“song i made up to stop myself from having a panic attack”—go viral on TikTok, which was hella random. It’s weird because, with TikTok, you have one video that goes viral, and then you post the exact same thing the next day and it's instantly shadowbanned. 

Recently, I feel like my biggest focus is just making music that I like and that speaks to me. Making the music I want to make and kind of leaving it up to the universe to see what's gonna happen with it. Obviously, I'm happy to post about it and make music videos. But, it gets me really stressed out when I get involved in the digital-attention-span-rat-race. It can also really pull you out of the reason why we create, which is for joy and for sharing. I don't want to be measuring a song's goodness in my heart based on how it reacts algorithmically. 

I don't want to say I don't think about that stuff—because I definitely do—but recently I've been really focusing on creating more and more, and then just hoping that somewhere, something random happens. Everything that's ever really happened in my career has been like hella random.
It wasn't because of something I did. It was because somebody saw me doing something, and then they told someone else, and then, you know, a game of Telephone— six months later, somebody's like, “Hey, what's good?”

MC: On that topic, how does connecting with an audience differ in-person versus online (i.e. Field Medic Mondays or Reporting Live from the Couch)?

FM: Actually that would be a good answer to your last question! I started doing a bunch of YouTube videos in the last year as a way to fill [a] gap. I was burnt out on short-form content and I thought maybe people would find it interesting if I just filmed myself when I'm working on wacky stuff in the studio, kind of keeping people updated. It feels fun for me to do that. 

I like connecting with people, I have a Discord, so I talk to some Medic Soldiers. It’s best in person because I do really like talking to people and, like, seeing them. Sometimes communicating online can be overstimulating. I feel like we have a happy medium where all bases are covered.  

MC: Can I ask, are you sitting on the couch right now?

FM: Yeah, I’m reporting live from the couch!

MC: We know you were signed with local Run for Cover Records. Any crazy Boston memories?

FM: Were you guys around when the Great Scott was open?

MC: I don’t think so.

FM: The Great Scott was this bar venue, like 300-cap.
This was like 2019. I was on a tour with Beach Bunny, and this was before they went hella viral, but they were buzzing for sure. We did a show at the Great Scott, and it was literally zero degrees outside, and the Great Scott had no green room. It was fully sold out, and I just remember standing outside, smoking cigs, and being so cold. 

When I first signed with Run for Cover [Records], we did a show at their warehouse. It was on Braintree Street, they don't have it anymore. I remember, like, I did it with a band called Bedbug and Elvis Depressedly. It was a magical moment to be like, “Damn, I'm signed and I'm at this warehouse with all this crazy merch, all these bands.” 

I spent a good amount of time in Boston, just kind of booping around. There's a video on the Run for Cover page—thrifting with Field Medic—that was just [me] at a bunch of thrift shops in Boston. I like Boston. Unfortunately, I didn't ever live there, but maybe someday. 

MC: Any favorite from the San Francisco scene?

FM: There was this amazing venue called Viracocha; it was in the basement of a super weird antique store. Literally the first night that I moved to San Francisco, my brother and I went to an open mic. It was at the 16th Street Mission BART station, and it started at, like, 11 p.m. It was outside and they drew this huge circle in chalk. It was more of a spoken-word open mic than music, but they loved and accepted us. One of the guys who was a regular there opened up this store that had this really interesting event space in the basement. So that was Viracocha. 

There was a place called the Lost Church, which I think is still open. It’s this really cute, seated venue that has really sweet owners. There's a song called “do a little dope (live)” on my record Songs from the Sunroom, and it was recorded there. That’s just, like, a great space to play. 

As far as big venues, I'd say there's Bottom of the Hill that is really awesome. The Great American Music Hall. So many crazy memories in SF, so much time spent playing on the street and just wandering around and chilling in Dolores Park. It’s crazy that it was, like, 10 years ago.

MC: You’re slated to perform on our campus in the historic Paramount Center, a restored movie palace! Do any particular films influence your work?

FM: I've been having this conversation a lot recently because I feel like, with the rise of Letterboxd, everybody is loving movies. I've always, for some reason, been more of a show guy. I love mob and gang shows, like The Sopranos, Narcos, Breaking Bad. Sort of stressful, organized crime always gets me. 

As far as movies go, I've always loved Pulp Fiction, which is kind of stressful organized crime in its own way. I’m trying to watch more movies so I can update my list because I've been saying Pulp Fiction for, like ,15 years.

MC: What can we expect from your show at the Paramount Center?

FM: I’m bringing my boom box–my bandmate of many years–although this is a new one, because they break all the time. It’ll be a mix of every album with the exception of light is gone 2, because it's impossible to play those songs on a guitar. [There’ll be] a handful of songs from the new record that will come out at some point. You know, acoustic finger pickin’, foot-stompin’, beatboxin’, chillness. 

MC: You mentioned earlier that you take inspiration from acoustic singers. You should check out a local band from Boston called Sweet Petunia!

FM: I know them!

MC: You know them?!

FM: [They’re] who brought me the banjo! They're amazing. They did a show in LA, two or three years ago at this point, but I went to go see them. They did a show with Winkler, that brat crew. [That was the] group of people I had met who brought me that banjo, and who I always see when I'm in Boston. 

MC: How circular! What can we expect from Field Medic in 2025?

FM: I have a new album that's mastered, and I'm figuring out the artwork and release plan. I just announced a tour with Richy Mitch & the Coal Miners, and that's happening in the fall. So, I think I'm probably gonna put out my album before that because I don't want the album to get lost in the winter end-of-year vibes. So that's the big Field Medic drop.

If that does come out early fall, I would like to do another EP in the winter, just for fun. That's like a dream because I've been really wanting to reconnect with cassette recording. I went hella-digi for the last, like, three years, and now I feel like I got my fill and I want to get back to just the classics. If there is a winter EP, it'll just be live to tape.

There’s going to be another Protection Spell EP as soon as I finish it, and then a new Paper Rose [Haiku] mixtape is halfway done as well. So there's a lot going on. 

—

Blossoming into each new project, Sullivan continues to explore each new frontier he creates. A real and true homegrown success story, each Field Medic song unrolls itself and zips itself back up with a smile. 

You can catch Field Medic supported by Sea Slug and Otis Shanty on April 16th at the Paramount Center. You can also catch him again in the fall on tour with Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners at the Citizens House of Blues Boston on October 17th.