Attic Rock Band Arcy Drive chats with Off Record Media at their Sips & Sound appearance to discuss style and inspiration for upcoming debut album titled The Pit.
The four-piece indie rock band called Arcy Drive from New York just played their biggest crowd yet at the Coca-Cola Sips & Sounds Music Festival in Austin, Texas. Boosted by social media virality, the group has released live album Attic Sessions in 2022, EP Beach Sessions in 2023, and is now preparing for the release of The Pit on April 18. Members include vocalist and guitarist Nick Mateyunas, drummer Brooke Tuozzo, guitarist Austin Jones, and bassist Patrick Helrige.
ORB: What was the inception of your debut album?
Nick: These songs have actually been around for quite some time, and in the past we’re always touring and doing something else that we haven’t really had time to write together. We took three months and looked at all the songs we had and just kind of chipped away. Our first album was done live in three hours. Our next EP we wrote in the midst of a tour. So now we just wanted to give ourselves time and really focus on the right way to record a full-length album.
ORB: I noticed a lot of your songs include different characters. How are you coming up with those characters? If they’re inspired by real life, how do you choose those characters?
Nick: A lot of different people are involved that have stories worth telling. There are a lot of real-life people too, a lot of people close to me. If you want to take song by song, they’re all different people, different stories. It’s not really a conceptual album. They’re all real except “Thrift Store” is a very fake story- that one I dreamed about.
ORB: Arcy Drive describes themselves as “Attic Rock.” Can you explain more what that is?
Brooke: We started playing in an attic and we felt like our sound was very scratchy. You don’t like the things you might find in an attic. It’s kind of like things you don’t want to throw away, but because they still mean stuff to you.
Nick: It holds sentimental value. So it always stays up there. It’s always there.
Patrick: It’s perfectly imperfect.
ORB: How do you think your sound is changing for this new album?
Austin: So I think we’re just learning our instruments more and we’re learning how to be a band more. We started in the attic and we were learning how to play music for the first time, and now we’re just a year or two into learning music. It’s a natural progression for a group of friends figuring out how to like, really- we want to be a great band and we’re just trusting the process.
Nick: There’s still so much art in it but truthfully- I think I 100% agree with what he said that we’re still learning and I feel like my melodies aren’t what they could be. So a lot of them are a little talky. It gives off a punkier, energetic, raw kind of feel to it. So I think this album is pretty garage-y and kind of roots-y to attic rock for us and just us playing together and feeling the live energy.
But moving forward, we’re gonna fill out a wider sound. I think all of us are very independent people, all bring something different to the table. So when we get in the same room together, Brooks adds her own influences on the drum. Pat has a lot of groovy, rhythmic stuff that he likes to throw in. And then I write a certain way and when we all fuze it together, it’s a very weird sound.
ORB: Your first album was live; this album you got to do in this in the studio. Was there anything that you made in the studio and then you had to adapt to live performance?
Austin: To the point of the attic sessions, it really is us. We’re really all capable of playing in the same room. We’re getting better at filling more space now with our music. But yeah, there’s not too many production things we couldn’t all play on the stage together. We experimented with a sound that wasn’t something that we normally play for the first time, and it’s just a little knock on under the rug and stuff. Our producer found this cool toy and he knocked on it and we’re like, oh, this is cool, it suits the vibe.
Nick: We really just want to keep it pure. It’s basically four track with a few other things, but we kept it pretty basic. And we honestly recorded it pretty live anyway- we were all in the room together. Our producer is a very old school person. He did a lot of the Kings of Leon projects and he’s amazing. But he hammered down how he wanted to find the right bones to the song and the right rhythm at the basic level. So a lot of the beginning of the studio time was us just playing the songs together and finding good drums and bass and singing.
Check out Arcy Drive on all streaming platforms.
I am an Austin, TX-based photographer and filmmaker. I moved from Houston to attend the University of Texas at Austin, where I graduated in 2022. I'm a lifelong music lover and spend tons of time attending shows and making music. Some current favorites are Sophie May, Farmer’s Wife, and K. Flay.
