Unmatched Phenomenon In Its Short Existence, Matchbox 20 Has Found A Devoted Audience For Its ‘Power Folk’ Sound

If you’ve listened to the radio then you’ve heard Matchbox 20. And if you’ve heard this band’s songs then perhaps you’ve thought, “hmmm these guys seem so very serious, so very sincere.”

Their songs, after all, are loaded with lyrics that explore bruised emotions, lonely places and dysfunctional relationships.

But guitarist Adam Gaynor is far from morose. Today he is a firecracker or maybe a bag of poprocks. He’s goofy. He’s funny. And he’s in a darn good mood.

And why not. This guy who worked as a receptionist for eight long years is now a rock star. So there couldn’t possibly be anything to make him unhappy.

Or could there?

“Don’t you understand how this hurts me?” he says, his voice amping up for the protest in a recent interview.

“I was the greatest receptionist ever to live on the face of the earth. Not only could I make coffee and make it well and quickly, but I was friendly and I had a great phone demeanor. Maybe only once in eight years did I misdial a number and it was probably because I was on cold medicine. Now I’m in this crazy rock band and I still can’t get over the fact that I’m not answering phones. It hurts me. Don’t you understand I was doing something that I was the best in the world at?”

Uh, we feel your pain … but seriously?

“This is something I’ve dreamed of doing forever and it took me forever to get it and I think I’m enjoying it that much more because it took that long,” Gaynor says, decidedly thrilled with this bit of good fortune that just keeps getting better.

Indeed, the success of Matchbox 20 has been rather meteoric. Formed a mere two-and-a-half years ago, the band has, of late, found itself on top of the music world.

Their first album “Yourself or Someone Like You” has scrambled hand-over-fist up the Billboard charts where it sits at number nine. In January, the Rolling Stone readership named Matchbox 20 the best new band.

Their singles “Push” and “3 a.m.” have invaded the radio airwaves. And a few less-than-politically-correct lines in “Push” have managed to stir up even more interest in this five-man band from Florida.

“I wanna push you around, I will, I will/I wanna push you down, I will, I will/I wanna take you for granted.”

Seems some women took offense.

Misogynistic? No way, says Gaynor.

“It has nothing to do with violence,” he insists. “It’s about mental manipulation in relationships. It’s just about dealing with other people. It’s not about punching someone upside the head.”

Frontman Rob Thomas had been playing in Florida for a couple of years with drummer Paul Doucette and bassist Brian Yale before forming Matchbox 20 with two more guitarist/vocalists — Kyle Cook and Gaynor.

Gaynor says he knew from the first time watching Thomas play that he wanted to be part of the band.

“When he played me “Push” I knew that was a hit song. People ask me if I’m surprised at the success and I don’t like to sound obnoxious, but I’m really not. I think Rob is a brilliant songwriter.”

They are songs all about guitar-driven melodies and pop rock with maybe just a hint of the South thrown it. It is a sound that finds them often compared to The Counting Crows and Sister Hazel. Gaynor likes best to call it “power folk.”

“Yourself or Someone Like You” pushes and pries into relationships of all kinds, often finding oozing wounds underneath.

“It makes you think,” Gaynor says in the spry voice of a man who loves the topic at hand. “It’s about people. It’s about us. I don’t mean to be obnoxious but it’s about yourself or someone like you. Thank you, I had to go there.”

Matchbox 20 serious? Morose? No way.

“I just want people to come away with the fact they can hum some of our songs and have a good time listening to them. At the end of the day I want them to know that we’re working really hard to make sure that they’re really happy.”

And so is Gaynor. Although it’s been a long time coming (Gaynor is 34), this band has been a dream come true for the kid who picked up the guitar as a teenager for reasons that foretold his future as a rock star.

“I used to watch my sister play guitar and everybody was checking her out and she was getting all this attention. I had to do something to get the attention back to myself,” he says with a wicked laugh. “It was either play guitar or go out and start being a serial killer. I figured playing the guitar would be a lot safer.”

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