Although Adam Gaynor is not the 'face of the five-piece', he is a key member of this power-folk machine, as the rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist. A spirited and good-humoured guy, Matchbox 20's 'senior' member put his laundry struggle aside to express his obvious thrilled-to-bitness with the band's success and the upcoming Aussie tour.

"Well, it's our home away from home! If we had to run away from home, I think we'd come over there. I think we're very fortunate and it's just amazing how everything took off out there," muses Gaynor. "It's the only place on the earth that when they tell us we have to go to, we're like, 'yeah, hell yeah, let's go!"' laughs Gaynor as he describes his love of Australia where the band's debut album, Yourself or Someone Like You, has gone quadruple platinum.

Australia is Matchbox 20's most successful territory outside their homeland, the U.S, although their story, internationally, has been flooded with success."I mean it's a wonderful thing, sometimes it's a little surreal, but I think we're all pretty grounded and our heads are on pretty good, so I don't think it's too crazy," Gaynor enthuses. "It's something we're very proud of, we've all worked really hard and everything's kind of fallen into place for us. A lot of leg work we've put in has paid off, y'know?"

Matchbox 20 were named the Best New Artist at the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards and were recently named Best New Band in the U S Rolling Stone Readers Poll. So, surely such success has some amazing highlights: "Hanging out with Puff Daddyl It's a joke, but it's true! We got to meet Puff " says Gaynor with a huge guffaw as he reflects on the perks of fame. "Real highlights are we got tomeet Mick Jagger and we got to open for the Rolling Stones. There are so many little highpoints. Just having your family and friends able to enjoy and share all those things with you, it's great.
After riding such a tidal wave of success, it seems Matchbox 20 could hardly avoid feeling the pressure to deliver once again, the second time around. But Gaynor assures me that if the pressure's there, the boys choose to ignore it. "The truth is, we're just gonna go in nd have a good time and record this album," he explains. "It's kind of laughable, because what can you do, y'know? You go in and you record another album and either it's gonna be good or it's gonna suck, y'know, and all you can do is put your best effort in," continues the affable Yankee. "There's nothing you can do about it, so you just go ahead and you record the best shit you can, because if you did it once, then you can do it again!"

Rob Thomas, the band's singer/ frontan writes the song's lyrics, teling intricate stories with genuine passion and directness- from the serene introspection of Hang to the catchy refrain of Real World. "All the writing came from Rob's experiences in life, y'know, whether they're real or whether they're thought up or contrived, they're just experiences that he's gone through. That's why the album's done pretty well, is that a lot of people can relate to them, y'know?"

As is the case with many popular bands, it seems that only the frontman is well-known as the face of the group. Thomas certainly fits that role, but I wondered whether it was a case for conflict? "I think it's a very overwhelming situation to be a frontman. I thought probably perhaps when I first joined this band that you would want as much attention as humanly possible. But you know what? The more successful you become and the bigger, I think the more you want to hide and withdraw because it just gets a little too much," comments Gaynor more seriously. "It's like he can't go anywhere now, he can't go to a shopping centre, he can't go to a train station, he can't go to the dentist's office without having to stop for an hour to sign papers and autographs and pictures. I don't think that I would really want to be a frontman frontman. I don't envy him in that situation. I'm very proud of him and I'm very proud of the way that he handles himself. But to be in that kind of a situation is a lot more than I thought that I would ever want."
Gaynor started to play the guitar to divert attention from his already guitar-playing sister when all of a sudden became something he really loved and he decided he wanted to make a living out of music. "I still play like I did when I was 18! 1 still suck, but I really, really enjoy playing a lot and I think it was something that I wanted to do for a living since I was really young."

Something that always tickles my fancy is the story behind the. chosen band name and in this case I was in for a very dramatic reaction: "Paul's [drummer] dad was a submarine and lots of people don't realise that he was actually in a submarine that was diving, I think it was off the coast of California, they were on a training mission. 80mething happened where they couldn't stay afloat and they were sinking. He was thinking about if they couldn't get out, if they couldn't be rescued, what was going to happen. All he had with him was a pack of matches and a picture of his wife, and all he had was 20 matches. So Paul took the whole Matchbox 20 thing out of that." There's a long pause for dramatic effect as Gaynor lets the tragedy of the tale sink in. Then suddenly there's a loud cackle. "I made that whole thing up! I love that story. That's one of my favourite stories by the way," he whoops as he hassles me to insure that I'll print the fable. The real story's too boring to even mention, it's got something to do with a guy with patches and stickers On his jacket - no wonder Gaynor thought up his own version!

I couldn't help delving into the issue of over commercialisation and to be mainstream, or not to be. "One thing we don't worry about is the music we write, 'cos our sound and what we do is what we do. If it's poppy, if it's alternative, if it's commercial, then we're guilty, 'cos that's the kinda shit we do!" comments Gaynor defiantly. "What you need to be concerned about as an artist is the fact that you don't want to kill people by overexposing them."

Now all that's left is the plans for the future: "1 can't think of anything other than taking a nice break!" Gaynor sighs. "I would never ever bitch about myjob because I'm so fortunateand I'm so blessed to have this job," he adds quickly. "But there is the side that a lot of people don't understand, that it is a job. It's a lot of work, it's a very fatiguing job, but forget it, y'know, you're not gonna hear me bitch about it!"

Matchbox 20 are joined by The Feelers at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on October the 29th and 30th, then the Newcastle Ent Cent on Oct 31.

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