Many people would consider selling 25 million albums worldwideand earning the RIAA's Diamond Award for selling 15 million copiesof your debut CD an achievement.
But Matchbox Twenty's percussionist Paul Doucette holds adifferent opinion.
"We don't really feel that we're successful yet," Doucette said,in a phone interview from his Colorado Springs hotel room. "We wantto make our own album like a 'Sgt. Pepper's' by the Beatles or the(U2) 'Joshua Tree' CD. We feel like we've made some good albums,but we have the desire to make a (musically definitive)record."
The quintet, which includes lead singer Rob Thomas, leadguitarist Kyle Cook, guitarist Adam Gaynor, bassist Brian Yale andDoucette, has been promoting their recent "More Than You Think YouAre" CD across the country and internationally. They perform at ThePyramid Sunday at 7:30 p.m. with opening act Fountains ofWayne.
Since September, they've been to more than 13 American citiesand seven European cities.
The band hasn't toured the United States since fall 2001.
After two years of steady touring, they took a hiatus in October2001 to focus on getting closer to family and friends and workingon solo projects.
Thomas wrote for various artists like Willie Nelson and CarlosSantana. Cook spent time working with his band The New Left.Doucette and Gaynor wrote and recorded their own songs.
"We all live in different parts of the country, so when we'reoff the road it's like 'See you later,'" Doucette said. "You go offand do your own things. You get to figure out more of who you areas an individual and bring it back to the band. It made this recordmuch easier to record."
"We never see each other during our time off," Thomas said in awritten statement. "So we played each other's solo stuff we'd beenworking on, looked at each other's new I-Pods -- we just got toknow each other again."
When the band reunited at the "Willie Nelson and Friends: Starsand Guitars" concert in April 2002, they followed the performancewith a week's worth of recording in the studio to begin "More ThanYou Think You Are."
Doucette, who co-wrote three songs on the latest album, said theband began with 22 songs and somehow trimmed it down to 12tracks.
"Some of (the songs) you're just not feeling, and some of themyou can mix together," Doucette said. "It's a process ofelimination. You kinda know that some will make it on the album ornot."
"When we get together, we combine all our talents into oneincredible whole," Thomas said. "That's the beauty of this band --we make beautiful noise together."
