Behind the Scenes with Arcalyde: How Friendship, Musical Diversity, and a Touch of Humor Shape Their Distinctive Sound

We had the opportunity to sit down with the innovative band Arcalyde. Their name hints at their creative approach – a constant evolution, a refusal to be confined by genre. But how did these musicians combine their diverse influences and occasional playful disagreements to forge their unique sound? Join us as we explore the world of Arcalyde, where experimentation reigns supreme, catchy melodies meet head-banging riffs, and Denny’s and eighties music sometimes stir up commotion within the band.

Arcalyde celebrated the release of their EP "Southpaw" with a show at Antoinette's on June 28th. The 3-song EP features "Freak Out," "On the Move," and "Mister F." We were invited by the band Impound and ended up leaving humming "Freak Out."

Last Sunday, we met up with the guys at a sketchy castle in Danbury for a photoshoot, followed by a coffee interview. We got to know them as passionate musicians eager to elevate their craft while maintaining a lighthearted approach to life. Here's how the interview unfolded.

What are your roles in the band?

Cristiano: I'm the lead singer and sometimes play rhythm guitar. 

Kenny: I’m the drummer.

Andre: I play lead guitar.

Brian: I play bass.

How did you meet and decide to form the band?

Andre: Me and Chris met a long time ago when we were kids, we started making music together in 2020 during covid, I got into guitar, then he got into bass, we started writing and composing songs together. But that didn't really work out. We had a lot of creative differences. Then Chris moved to Florida. So we stopped the band, But in 2021 we got back together. Kenny (Uncle Kenny) joined us in 2023 on guitar, then later switched to drums.

Kenny: Yeah, I saw that they were a three-piece, and I play guitar too, so I kind of just hit them up out of nowhere. I was lucky enough to have them accept me and I’ve been playing ever since. That was in 2022. I'm the drummer now.

What inspired the name “Arcalyde” for the band?

Cristiano: Okay, so it was 2020, me and Andre were in my brother's room. We were sitting down trying to think of a name, and at this point we were really struggling to figure something out, and one of us said the word arc, we liked that word. We're like, how can we use that word for something? I said the word arcalied, it kind of just popped out of nowhere. And then at first, Andrea's like, no. And then I showed him the way it was written because you would expect it to be like, l, i, d, e or something. And I was like, l, y, d, e, I thought that was cool. He was in. Since then, we've almost changed it, like, once or twice, but it ended up just sticking through.

YFG: It just sounds like a band name if that makes sense (we laughed)

Who made the logo?

Cristiano: Andre does everything.

Andrea: Because of the arc on the name, I definitely envisioned an arc. There were a few logos, but we landed on this one with the sun in the middle, just because we felt we needed some kind of center symbol. It grabs your eye, not just the word. So that's where the Sun in the logo comes in. 

What are your main musical influences and inspirations?

Cristiano: For me, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gang of Four, and Cage The Elephant, very alternative. That's like my jam. Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd. It’s definitely my stick. 

Andre: I definitely agree with that. When I write for the band, I tend to channel a lot of Chili Peppers and Arctic Monkeys. Personally, when I play guitar, I take a lot of inspiration from Zeppelin and Greta Van Fleet. Lots of bluesy folky playing.

Kenny: When it comes to the band. Zeppelin or Motorhead. With drums, it is a little easier to throw in my personal favorite stuff. I just really love a variety of music. Like jazz Miles Davis to, like, extreme shit like Megadeth and Lamb of God.

Brian: I would say my influences are mostly classic bluesy rock, like ZZ Top and Black Sabbath that sort of thing. And then sometimes I take inspiration from heavier stuff, like White Zombie. Or the other side like Todd Rungren, very slow and soft. It's just kind of all over the place.

Can you walk us through your songwriting process?

Andre: Most of the time it starts with Chris.

Chris: When we first started, It was kind of mutual, then when I came back from Florida, it was kind of the same. It is hard sometimes, like creating with that many people, because everyone has different visions of it. Then I don't know what happened. That kind of just stopped. We're like, let's just create together. We just started going there, one of us will have a riff, and then we'll kind of just build off of it. Or sometimes we'll have a fully composed song, I'll bring a three, four-minute song, like this is everything and this is how it is. Sometimes they'll change it, but sometimes it's better to leave it as it is, you know. But, for the most part, I usually bring the riff. One of my biggest strengths is improvising. I'm very good at coming up with stuff at the moment. I also write for all the songs, but compositionally, it's usually all of us. 

Andre: Especially recently. Brian has been starting to bring riffs. We've been working on two songs recently. That started with Brian on bass.

What has been your most memorable performance so far?

Andre: We played a show last week on Friday…

Cristiano: You mean a few days ago.

We all laughed because who really knows what day of the week it is at this point.

Cristiano: But It’s either that or Barb.

Andre: We played at a college in upstate New York called Bard College, and that was really cool.

Cristiano: Oh my god. This was a packed room where people were out the door and you couldn't move in there. We were the only actual band. Like, all the kids were attending this college, So it was kids playing instruments but we were the only band that did not attend this university. It was insane and so much fun.

YFG: Did anyone know who you were?

Kenny: They actually thought we were students up until, like 20 minutes before we walked in. Then they're like, Oh, you guys aren't from here. We shouldn't have been on the bill. But luckily enough, Bard College was actually popping off. But honestly our Danbury show this past Friday brought in the energy. Shout out to Impound, Body Loan, and The Tarrys for rocking that whole place.

Brian: In my personal opinion, we had a show at Antoine. It's in Newtown, like a bar, they had this balcony above where there were a bunch of people watching, it was really cool.

Can you explain the inspiration or the meaning behind your new EP’s Lyrics?

Chris: So it was kind of based on a story. The graphic design is three people. So each song was emblematic of a different emotion that is perceived as negative. So “Freak Out” is a song about anxiety. “On The Move” is a song about restlessness. “Mr. F” is a song about shame. So all three songs are different. Each song is like a person, so they represent different people.

What was the creative process like with the new ep?

Chris: I like to get a recording of the song in the studio and I'll put on my headphones. I'll be in my room, and I'll just listen to it on repeat. And then I'll try and think of an idea. I Think of it as poetry. I don't like to think of it as writing. I'll come up with a title, and then I'm like, this is what it's gonna be about, and I'll just start writing. It's like a puzzle. I'm trying to put it into pieces where things fit the best. So that's usually how I write.

How did you come up with the EP name “Southpaw”?

Kenny: Southpaw is a boxing stance. I believe you're a lefty. It’s kind of unorthodox, that's why I named it. This EP is unorthodox from what we usually put out, too. We have a lot of softer stuff, and granted, yeah, we can do that. But, this is kind of a punch-in-your-face type of EP for us.

Brian: It’s kind of representative of a change of style. You go from right-handed to left-handed, and we've kind of gone from alternative rock to a more punkier grungy side.

What's one surprising fact about your band that people wouldn’t know?

Kenny: We can be just as smash mouth and in your face but also a soft-spoken band. So we can go both ways. We have a lot of variety under our belt. We have a lot of experience, a lot of different tastes from all four of us. So like whatever genre or whatever category people think that we can fit in, I think it should be expanded at least a little bit.

Brian: I can't necessarily think of a fun fact off the top of my head, but I would love to do a show at Denny's one day. I think that would be really cool.

Sidenote: we would like to point out that we 100% agree with this idea. Need front-row tickets to that show.

Andre: Most people don't assume that we're a heavily Brazilian band. Brian is the only one who's not but he has been welcomed into the Brazilian community. Honorary Brazilian. But people usually don't assume we are Brazilian. 

Chris: Fun fact, Kenny can play literally every instrument, and has played almost every instrument besides trying to sing, but I bet he could sing if he tried. One day, I want to hop on the sticks, and let Kenny be the front man, just one song and just go hard as hell dude, I know you could.

Is there anything you guys can’t agree on funny or serious? 

Chris: There's one ongoing issue that me and Brian have, and it's about 80s music. I just don't like it, and he won't accept it. He will not accept it. I think it's corny. It's not my favorite era of music. And you know what's really funny? Andre feels the same way, but I get all the shit.

Brian: So here's the thing, I accept that he doesn't like 80s music, but every time I mention a band, it's not even pertaining strictly to the 80s. I'll bring up a band like Rush, for example, this brother cannot name more than one Rush song, and Andre understands that he doesn't know the genre very well. He's like, it's not my favorite, but I'm open to it. Chris is very hard-nosed no on bands like Van Halen, which have a very influential touch, which I do understand can be corny. It's all lighthearted. Anything serious we've been able to work through in the past. This is just something that doesn't really matter, so we just argue about it. 

How would you describe your music if someone’s never listened to it?

Chris: It's always a struggle because we can be indie, we can be alternative, we can be punk. So it's one of those three. If people ask us, what type of music are you? I'm like, what type of music do you like? And if they're like, Oh, I like alternatives. I'm like, we have some of that, or, I like punk. I'm like, we have some of that too. It really just depends. But we're very dynamic, so it is a little hard to put a specific label sometimes.

Kenny: Yeah, whenever I get asked this question, I tell them politely to come to the show and find out. It’s genuinely hard to tell them what we play. We go from some of our killer shit, like  Mister F, and then two or three songs later, we're playing Ballad to Davy Jones. 

What’s your favorite song you’ve made? 

Andre: This sounds biased because I wrote it. It's from our debut EP, "Ballad of Davy Jones”. Chris did a beautiful job. Kenny played keyboard on it. It sounds awesome.

Kenny: My favorite is definitely “On The Move”. I think as soon as we bust it down, everybody knows exactly what's gonna happen, the energy in the room just changes.

Brian: It's gonna sound like I'm just jacking both of their answers. But it's probably between Ballad and On the Move, just because those songs have very different energy to them. Our other songs are cool, like “Mr. F” and “Freak Out” but there's just something different about “On The Move” and “Ballad of Davy Jones”. 

Chris: Probably “Kilimanjaro”. It's one of the singles we released in October, and I think it was a turning point for us in regards to moving away from just indie and being a little more experimental.

What is your favorite lyric you’ve written? 

Andre: I love the lyrics Chris wrote for Kilimanjaro. He just paints such a beautiful picture. “I'm overlooking the summit of the gods' clouds at my fingertips, like Sleeping Giant, rest his head.” It's just such a cool image that he paints.

Kenny: Yeah, I'll double down on Kilimanjaro. If you really close your eyes it's there. I think that's a cool thing to have, and maybe we should do more of it. 

Brian: I don't know if it's more about the way Chris dictates his voice in freak-out, but I really like it when you're like, “Who are you to tell me”. That part goes hard, and it sounds different than something you would typically hear in a punk song.

Chris: My favorite lyrics might be from “Out of Town”. It only took me 10 minutes to write, but I really liked the way I wrote it. The first line is “Your starry eyes breeze right through me.” There's not really a meaning. I don't know what it's about. Not all songs are very purposeful and intentional. Some songs are kind of just a general theme, but there's not an exact meaning. And I kind of like that for some songs, I think that fits that way.

Any new releases for the near future?

Andre: We have five songs being worked on with a different producer. He's currently in the process of mixing. As far as dates, we are unsure. We're waiting to see how the project works out. 

What can fans expect in the future?

Chris: We’re just going to continue to progress. I don't really see any of us stopping this for a while, and this is something I'm always going to pursue, simply because I enjoy it. I like the amount of progress we've made in such a short amount of time. We have been doing shows for a year and creating for maybe two. It's just going to keep going up and up.

Andre: More live shows, more music, better music, better quality, everything.

Brian: Denny's, we're going to have a show at Denny’s. 

We are all rooting for Brian on this groupies. 

Kenny: Just a lot of energy every time we go up. We try and blow the roof off the fucking place every fucking night. 

Brian: This is completely off-topic. I just want to say, that Andre produces all of our music. He makes all of our artwork. He painted our flag. We practice at his house every time. So shout out.

That wraps up our interview with Arcalyde. It was amazing to witness their bond and sense of humor. We definitely learned a lot about them, and we hope you groupies hop on the Arcalyde bandwagon. See you next week!

All our love,

Your Favorite Groupies