Going from griddle jockey at a McDonald's to the cover of Rolling Stone in little more than a year sounds like a rock 'n' roll fantasy.

For the Vines, it's reality.

Australia's Vines have been anointed - along with the White Stripes, the Hives and the Strokes - by the likes of Spin, Rolling Stone and the ever-hyperbolic British music press as the vanguard of a new, back-to-basics movement that will do no less than save rock.

Breathless rock critic gushing aside, the Vines do have a gold debut record, Highly Evolved, under their belt, and a bona-fide alt-rock radio hit, "Get Free". The quartet has also been chosen to headline MTV2's Handpicked Tour.

We chatted by phone recently with Vines bassist-vocalist Patrick Matthews, arguably the cutest member of the group and certainly, as you'll see, the most responsible.

Matthews, who met Vines front man Craig Nicholls when both worked at a McDonald's in Sydney, gave up his dream of becoming a doctor to be a rock star. We know, it's usually the other way around.

Q. England's New Musical Express called the Vines "the future of rock," and other music mags have been just as quick to herald your band as the Next Big Thing. What's it like to be in the middle of all that hype?

A. It is twisted. You spend a lot of time thinking about yourself, answering questions about yourself over and over. Sometimes I wish it would stop, that I could just walk away.

Q. While the band was recording Highly Evolved, did you ever think, "Hey, this record is going to sell half a million copies"?

A. At one point when we were recording, I thought, maybe it would be a popular record. We're a band that would usually only be popular among a small group of people, the kind of people who go out and buy a lot of records every year. But I thought the record had a broad appeal, so maybe it would also appeal to grannies and young girls (laughs). Once it sold 50,000 copies, which is a massive number, selling 500,000 didn't seem like, well, it didn't seem like that big of a difference, you know?

Q. Actually, we don't know, since none of the bands we were in during high school got signed or even played more than three gigs. Was there a moment when you did realise, "Hey, I'm a rock star?"

A. We were on the red carpet at the Video Music Awards (in August). I was a bit overwhelmed. I didn't want to get caught up in the hoopla because we were playing later that night, but it was overwhelming being among all the big shots.

Q. Are the Vines considered big shots in Australia now?

A. No, we got roasted in Australia. We sold more albums there than anywhere else, per capita, but the press hated us. There was the suggestion that we were a fake band, one part (White) Stripes, one part Strokes, one part You Am I. I think the press reaction was a question of "Why did this band that didn't play a lot of shows in Australia make it big overseas?" We didn't let Australia shape us. We didn't do it the way they wanted us to. We ignored them for a long time.

Q. So, now that you're big everywhere else, are you going to kiss and make up with your home country?

A. Well, we'll be doing an Australia tour as part of Big Day Out, a big festival over there, and then a Japanese mini-tour and then recording the new album. (pause) That's what I've been telling every music journalist, so I guess I'll stick to my story.

Q. Hmm. We sense a (degree) of "putting us on" in your reply. Yet your publicist told us you're not only "the nice one," but also "the responsible one." Discuss.

A. I don't think I'm so much the responsible one. I'm more the citizen. When we were recording, we didn't have a manager really because we couldn't afford one, so we were looking after ourselves. I wound up getting food for them, doing their laundry. They're hopeless, really. We were together all the time for something like four months straight, and we were just sick of each other. But every band goes through that.

Q. Was it a pain to be the one keeping things together, fetching pizzas and washing people's dirty socks?

A. (laughs) My burden wasn't that I was going to collapse from it, but more that I wanted to punch Craig (Nicholls) in the head.

Q. Do we detect some animosity between you and Craig (the band's songwriter, lead vocalist and guitarist, who's also becoming famous in his own right as a brat of Gallagher Brothers proportions)?

A. (thoughtful pause) I just take my cues from him. It works. I know what I'm doing and I do it. ... Craig will keep writing songs - that's what he does. But I'd like to go back to doing something else, to being Craig's sideman and still going off on my own. Not even musically. But things like being a doctor, or just living in one city for more than three days. Now, it's just so full-on band all the time.

Q. Hmm. You get stuck doing band mates' laundry, gave up going to medical school and have to deal with hometown press calling your band a Strokes rip-off - an assessment we disagree with, by the way, since the Vines rock far more than the aforementioned New York pretty boys. But has there been anything positive about the past year?

A. (another pause) It's been good to go travelling, to see the world. I'm the sort of person who probably wouldn't go overseas otherwise.

Q. What's been the low point for you?

A. The worst thing that's happened in the past year has been that my focus of thinking has narrowed incredibly. I'm almost always thinking about myself now.

Q. It's a nice change to hear a guy in a band worry about being too self-centred. Let's talk about something besides you, then. How about that new album? What will it sound like when the Vines finally get back into the studio?

A. I guess this album could be better, and it will be, in some ways. But it's hard to recapture the energy of doing music because it's fun and not feeling the pressure. Pressure's not the right word. There's pressure from within (the band) more than pressure to fit in a marketplace, but it's ... well, I guess it is pressure.