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Mar 06, 2025 By Caleb Campbell

Long Island-based indie rock band Arcy Drive are set to share their debut album, The Pit, due out on April 18th. Bandmates Nick Mateyunas (guitar/vocals), Austin Jones (guitar), Patrick Helrigel (bass), and Brooke Tuozzo (drummer) have been building momentum over the past few years with their shaggy, grunge-tinged style of indie rock, debuting with their 2022 single, “Roll My Stone.” Since then, the band have shared their 2023 EP Beach Plum and returned last year with “Under The Rug” and “Louie,” the first tastes of The Pit.

The band released another pair of new singles from the record earlier this year, “Oak Tree (Daydream)” and “Thrift Store,” and today they’re back with another new track, “The Itch,” premiering with Under the Radar.

In contrast to the band’s recent singles, “The Itch” leans into the band’s bright and jangly side, playing with sun-dappled guitar lines and breezy chord progressions before launching into a shaggy, shout-along chorus. With the chorus, Mateyunas howls out his lyrics before the rest of the band answers, delivering their call-and-response hook with pounding drums and distorted guitars before settling into an ambling groove. The results feel like part sunny indie rock and part scrappy garage band.

Meanwhile, the track’s lyrics find the band winding their way through young adulthood, searching for direction while retaining a hopeful undercurrent: “We’re too young to be working / And too old to be bitching / Well there ain’t no use in knowing what to do or when / ‘Cause we’ll never know how / And we’ll never not care / Started weirding me out / Are we really all there? / Well don’t act confused / I’ll stand by you.”

Mateyunas says of the track, “Of the songs that made the album ‘The Itch’ has without a doubt had the longest journey. The song always embodied the energy of people in their early 20s. I wrote the first verse/pre chorus when I was 21 years old, nearing graduation and still feeling insecure about becoming an adult/starting a career.

The lines ‘Too young to be working, and too old to be bitching’ I really liked at the time. They highlighted these thoughts of uncertainty in a cool blue collar sort of way. It also rolls into the pre chorus well with the lines ‘And there ain’t no use in knowing what to do or when, because we’ll never know how, and we’ll never not care’ admitting and accepting these feelings of insecurity in a naive and carefree way. I liked what the verse had to say and the direction of the song in general. In addition, the music was brash and carried a youthfulness that I thought really complemented the lyrics. But something was still missing. The chorus needed to sum up the feeling of the song, but it didn’t come.

It took me another year to finally write the second verse. I always knew that it needed a real life experience that would give the song some truth and vulnerability. I decided to pick out a specific moment from our first tour. It’s a funny little story of the band sneaking into a hotel and eating the continental breakfast. We were young and really at the peak of our youthful rascalyness. I love the lift it gives and think it really gives the song weight.

But still I didn’t have the chorus. It actually took me until the studio to finally find the right chorus for the song. And I remember having a smile while recording the song because it’s almost as if I’m talking to my younger self from the verses. The lines “Don’t act confused, I stand by you” is a way of me telling my younger self to relax and that it’s all going to be okay… kind of. The chorus still holds the feeling of uncertainty and insecurities because at 24 I still don’t know what I’m doing. But now that I’m older I have a bit more perspective and left the chorus with ‘We’re happy as hell’ to indicate that naivety is bliss.”

Check out the song below. The Pit is out everywhere on April 18th via AWAL.