A dreamy and sun-kissed celebration of life’s simple pleasures, Arcy Drive’s “Oak Tree (Daydream)” invites us to step away from the noise, embrace nostalgia, and find joy in the present moment.
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Stream: “Oak Tree (Daydream)” – Arcy Drive
Somewhere along the line, the so-called ‘Information Age’ evolved into an age of information overload.
The constant access to everything, everywhere, all the time, combined with nonstop notifications, inevitably fried all of our brains, destroyed our attention spans, and made life, on the whole, more toxic and less enjoyable.
But all hope is not lost, and I’m a firm believer that art can save us – especially music, and especially songs like “Oak Tree (Daydream).” Arcy Drive’s first single of the year is a smile-inducing folk rock reverie basking in warm light. It’s three minutes of sonic sunshine – an acoustic jamboree embracing life’s simple pleasures and reminding us that true joy and satisfaction won’t come from any doomscroll, but they might just come from logging off, going outside, and touching grass.
Told my feet, I’m sitting by the big oak tree
Cardinal’s, jay’s all singing for the yellow bee’s
Sitting by the big oak tree,
yelling ollie oxen free
The red swing chair they’re saying it’ll never break
I know I don’t ever want to leave this place
Dreaming of the big oak tree,
and yelling ollie oxen free
So high I feel I think like I’m grounded
Sun shines light, moves life, surrounded
So take me higher and higher
“‘Daydream,’ ‘Oak Tree,’ whatever you want to call it is by far the weirdest song Arcy Drive has made together to date,” frontman Nick Mateyunas tells Atwood Magazine.
“The song has taken such a journey in its time and has connected me with people I never thought in my wildest dreams I would meet or see again. I wrote the song in Buffalo, in my grandpa’s backyard where I spent most of my best childhood memories with my brother, sisters, and cousins. I was on a trip alone visiting my grandpa for his birthday. During the slow days I would sit outside in the sun looking around reflecting on all those green years that seemed to be gone. I felt my youth slip a bit on that trip to Buffalo.”
“I honestly didn’t think much of the song, but for some reason it was the first one the band pulled out of me when we went to write together this last winter. We all sat around by the piano and jammed the tune, and in the spur of the moment I started singing, ‘What a day for a daydream’ over a new section. I knew what I was doing, but for some reason those words felt so right for the song and that moment in time.”
Someday I’ll go back to
playing children’s games
I’ll take my kid to cardinals
and the yellow days
I’ll take him to the big oak tree
and teach him ollie oxen free
What he’s talking about and we’re hearing – what Mateyunas and his bandmates experienced in writing and recording this song – is authentic cathartic release.
It’s the acknowledgement that times are always changing, but we don’t have to lose ourselves within the chaos of that change; we have the ability to ‘opt out’ and chase that ever-elusive bliss.
“‘Oak Tree’ is a dreamy song,” Mateyunas adds. “When I sing it I can feel my childhood and picture my future… It was the first time as a band that I felt like we achieved something great. When I heard one line in the song, it made me think of my grandma, and that mixed with everything all at once was too much to handle – I had to leave the studio because I felt myself breaking up… I’ve never felt so weightless in real time. The sun had such a unique light to it, like how you would picture it in an old memory when it’s all hazy. I just remember drifting through the fields laughing and crying, telling my gram I loved her and missed her.”
“That was one of the happiest days of my life. I remember coming back into the studio and just loved every person standing in there.”
So high I feel I think like I’m grounded
Sun shines light, moves life, surrounded
So take me higher and higher
Oh take me higher and higher
Released January 10th, “Oak Tree (Daydream)” is the sweet, sun-kissed celebration 2025 needed.
It’s going to be a long year, and we’ll need music filled with love, light, and laughter to help see us through.
Arcy Drive – together with special guest John Sebastian (founder of The Lovin’ Spoonful) – have, with this song, given us not just a balm for the hard times, but also a guide back to our own happiness – the places and spaces that center us, giving us meaning and purpose. Tune out the noise, turn on “Oak Tree (Daydream),” and find your euphoria.
Arcy Drive’s debut album The Pit is set to release April 18th via AWAL.
And what a day for a daydream (so he said)
What a day for a daydream (yeah)
What a night for a daydream (so he said)
What a day for a daydream (yeah)
I get up, I get up, I get up
I get up, I get up, I get up again
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Stream: “Oak Tree (Daydream)” – Arcy Drive
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