Quick-fire Questions: 10 minutes with Arcy Drive
I have said to many people, many times over, that in my next life, I’d like to come back as a rock star in a band. Sure, I could be in a band right now if only I’d stuck with those YouTube guitar tutorials for a little longer as a kid and had any level of musical skill or talent. But now the dream has morphed. It’s gotten more specific. In my next life, I’d like to come back as a boy in a band with my long-term best friends who get to record an album in Woodstock. In short, in my next life, I want to come back as Arcy Drive.
They’ve got it all, and honestly, I’m sick with jealousy. The music feels imbued with the legacy of the place it was made in. It has the hypnotic coolness of the 1960s and ‘70s spirits still hanging around in Woodstock, all the minds that were left there from the sheer amount of drugs taken at the 1969 festival. But it embodies that without becoming cliche or too bogged down with nostalgia.
Instead, it lands right in the sweet spot, somewhere between utterly timeless and excitedly new. Their debut album, The Pit, feels like a tour of legendary corners as they weave from folk moments into heavier indie rock sections, from Neil Young to Led Zeppelin and back again. Crafted during the band’s many jaunts around the states, driving from venue to venue in the classic old school style of touring, they’re living the true dream, and the music sounds like that.
I was super, super cordial and managed to put my desperate jealousy aside a second to push through my passive-aggressive upset that they’re living the life I hope to earn with the correct karmic change on my next go round in order to ask their singer, Nick Mateyunas, some questions. However, at first, I thought I’d have to start really cashing in on the good deeds until I read one of their answers…
Trigger warning for this one: Beans on toast slander ahead.
Quick-fire Questions with Arcy Drive:
Arcy Drive – Where’s that? What goes on there?
“That’s for us to know and for you to never find out! Oooo.”
You recorded your album in Woodstock. If you’d been at the 1969 festival, which act would you have wanted to see most?
“Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, mainly to see good ol’ Uncle Neil in his prime.”
You’ve been playing in the UK. What’s your favourite thing about the place?
“Driving by the countryside never got old, we had to pull over to take it in a couple of times. It’s just so green and beautiful, and the old English style villages/homes were really new to our eyes. We also did a hike in Scotland and ate steak pies after. That was a highlight for sure.”
And what’s your least favourite?
“Beans on toast, you guys are out of your minds for that one.”
If you were the most famous band in the world and could be as diva-ish as you wanted, what would be on your rider?
“Having a pool table in every green room would be pretty sick! If I had to guess the rest of the band’s picks, I would say Brooke, massage therapist. Patrick, hot tub. Austin, personal chef”
What’s your favourite release of 2025 so far?
“Fontaines DC put out Romance in 2024, you got the year wrong.”
And what album are you most looking forward to?
“Our next one!”
What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?
“I just recently got to see Wunderhorse in NYC, and they were incredible. So much heart in the music and performance. I was a big ’90s grunge fan growing up, and I felt like their set was probably what it felt like to see an emerging band from that era. They’re massive. All time though, probably Bob Seger at Jones Beach, I was prob the only guy under 50 years old ther,e but it was pouring out and Bob was playing the hits. That was epic.”
If you weren’t musicians, what would’ve been the backup dream job?
“I would have been a sailor. I went to a merchant marine school, so I’d probably be somewhere in the Atlantic. Brooke would have stayed in music. Pat would have been a carp. Austin probably would have gotten abducted by aliens.”
If you could take credit for writing one song by someone else, what song would it be?
“‘Old Man’ by Neil Young. It’s the first song I learned on guitar.”
And if you could wipe one song from the face of the earth, what’s being deleted?
“‘Old Man’ by Neil Young, maybe, this way I could make question ten come true.”
What’s the best venue in the world?
“Headlining a festival. Doesn’t matter where!”
What are you gonna have for dinner tonight?
“I heard my brother is throwing some sausages on the barbecue, so I might get in on that.”
What’s your favourite song to play live?
“As of late, ‘Desert Song’ has been the band’s favourite song to play live; it hits the soul.”
Are The Beatles overrated?
“I actually used to ‘hate’ The Beatles just before I played guitar and was a little angsty teenager. Honestly, only because my friends liked them, and I was kind of the anti-culture guy. But I look back and laugh now, they are the best for a reason. No matter what phase of music I’m in now, The Beatles will always have a spot in my rotation.”
