Success not too complicated for The Matrix. (Talent).

As the creators of all of Avril Lavigne's hits to date--Complicated, Sk8er Boi and new single I'm With You (released this week)--the two-thirds British writing and production team The Matrix are quickly finding themselves thrust into a new world where artists from all over the world are knocking on their door wanting to work with them.

But having struggled as songwriters and performers for more than 12 years, no-one can accuse The Matrix of being an overnight success story.

"It does take a while getting used to success," says Lauren Christy, a British musician who now resides in Los Angeles, who is The Matrix along with her Scottish husband Graham Edwards and St Louis-born musician Scott Spock. "It's strange finding ourselves in meetings with record companies. We have to remember that we don't have to keep trying to convince them about what we can do."

Before the decision to become full-time writers, Spock and Edwards played together in a band called DollsHead, while Christy pursued her solo career. "Then I got to that point in my life when I realised the chances of actually making it as a performer were quite small," admits Christy. "That was around four years ago, when it was decided to change the focus to penning tracks for other people. One of the first songs created after that point was This Year, which went on to be recorded by Christina Aguilera on her Christmas album.

One of their next projects was a handful of songs for Ronan Keating, which were released as B-sides. The Matrix's contributions for both artists, and others, were not singles in their own right, but the trio--who are managed by Los Angeles-based producer manager Sandy Roberton at World's End Productions--noticed things changing around them. "The fact that our showreel had names of that calibre on it started opening more doors for us," says Edwards.

Their new path eventually led them to the door of Arista Records, which introduced them to Avril Lavigne, who was sounding very different back then to how she does now. "She had these two styles going on," says Edwards. "One was a country Faith Hill-type sound and the other was thrash metal, neither of which really worked." After meeting the teenager, the trio began to form the songs that ...