Thomas is currently backing the set during a US tour with OneRepublic and Carolina Liar. Dubbed "Cradlesong Tour '09," the outing marks Thomas' second full-fledged solo tour and the first in support of "Cradlesong," which hit stores June 30.

Thomas spoke with LiveDaily about the album, his family atmosphere with Matchbox Twenty and his fans' interpretation of his music.

LiveDaily: Where are you calling from today?

We're in San Diego tonight. We're having one of those days where we're parked on the campus. It's just a beautiful day so all the bands are out on the lawn playing Frisbee and soccer.

I saw you perform in Tempe, AZ, and you mentioned that Matchbox Twenty was really where your heart was.

I think that's just where everything started for me. Those guys are my family. Like, we played in LA last night and Paul [Doucette] from Matchbox was there, giving me my notes on how the show should go. It's just what I'm really comfortable with.

What was your songwriting process like for "Cradlesong"? Had you been writing material for this album at the same time you were writing Matchbox Twenty's last record? How do you differentiate between the two?

I really don't. I just write all the time. When it's time to work on something, I see what I've written. This album, I started writing when I got off the road from my last solo record. Then I was writing while we were working on the Matchbox record, touring the Matchbox record and after that. I had, like, 40 songs to go through. We recorded 25 of them and narrowed it down to 14 for the record.

I think that "Cradlesong" is the ideal name for the album based on the subject matter of the record.

I'm a pop/rock artist. As a writer, my only real job is to be honest. If I want to write a country song, I can write a country song. That's what's great. It's more about the subject matter of the songs. It kind of covers everything from life to death and all the fun stuff in between.

It seems like some of the lyrics on the album would be kind of difficult to sing. A lot of it is dark.

I don't know. I think there's something really cathartic about it. To me, in a way, if I write about something that happened, I really write about how that thing makes me feel and not the actual thing. When I do that, it seems more universal. If I write a song like "Her Diamonds," it's about something that I'm personally going through. [His wife Marisol was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease similar to lupus.] I run into people now, now that the song's kind of out there, that are going through a loss in their life, or just getting out of a relationship. For them, it means different things. I've run into a lot of [people] that are going through the same thing I am in different ways, living with people who have different illnesses and things like that. And this song kind of becomes their song. I think it's good because it feels universal. When I sing it, I have the ability to go out there and sing something really, really personal but still have the sense of anonymity between me and what I'm doing.

It must be interesting to hear the different takes people have on your songs.

All the time. Sometimes, they're much more interesting than the actual story. I wrote a song called "Dear Joan" once that I put out on a supplemental record when I put my first solo record out. A lot of people thought it was written as a suicide note. When I listen back to that, I was like, "I totally get that. That's totally cool." [Thomas is momentarily distracted.] Oops, I'll be right back. My dogs are about to bark at me. I have to get off the bus.

You bring your dogs out on tour with you?

Yeah, when we tour the states, I can bring them on the bus with me. I have a terrier mutt and a Pomeranian.

Are there any songs you wrote for your solo albums that you wished you had saved for Matchbox Twenty or vice versa?

No, because, with Matchbox, it's a little more collaborative now. We get together and we'll write stuff together, or I'll bring in some ideas that I have. I think the way that I always look at everything [is that] you never know what's around the corner for you in the future and what's going on. You don't know what you're going to be able to do. If I write a group of songs that I like, I want to get them out on a record any way that I can, whether it's somebody else singing them or me or Matchbox. Hopefully, I'm continuing to write so when it's time for another Matchbox, I'll have another group of songs that I like. It is my only job.

Do you see another Matchbox Twenty album in the future?

Oh, definitely. We've already kind of started doing some writing and getting some stuff together.

TOUR DATES

November 2009
4 - Toronto, Ontario - Massey Hall
6 - Atlantic City, NJ - Borgata
7 - Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun
9 - Boston, MA - Citi Performing Arts Center
10 - Fairfax, VA - Patriot Center
12, 13 - New York City, NY - Beacon Theatre