Borderless Promotions had the chance of a lifetime to sit down with Good Charlotte bassist, Paul Thomas, on their recent club tour with The Pink Spiders and Young Love. Paul is a genuinely nice person and we're glad we had the chance to sit down with him.

Read on for some juicy information on their upcoming album - you'll be sure to enjoy it!

BP: Why don’t you introduce yourself?
My name is Paul Thomas. I play bass for Good Charlotte.

GC's style has changed over the years - what/who are your influences now as opposed to when your first album came out?
Good question. They've totally changed. On this album we come across as though we've been influenced by dance music and club music, just like The Faint and Block Party where they take rock music and mesh dance beats with it or something like that. We really like that kind of stuff and that comes across in a lot of our songs.

It goes all over the place. There are also influences like older artists such as the Rolling Stones. We have a song where the lyrics are pretty much dedicated to them. We're big fans of Cold Play. There are definitely some Cold Play elements.

Your new album is rumored to be dramatically different from your past albums. What can fans expect? How do you feel about it?
Yes, dramatically different. It sounds a lot more adult than any of our other albums. Even though we kept growing up a little each time, this one is an obvious jump. There’s a big difference between being 27 and being 21, you know? The lyrics come from different places. It comes from living on your own in a house instead of poorly in an apartment, things like that.

We worked with a different producer and he just brought a whole bunch of different elements that have never been in our band. We wanted to utilize Billy and his whole electronic thing and playing keyboard on stage and stuff like that. We wanted to bring in electronic elements to certain songs and we had never done that.

The producer is the same guy who did our first album, but we didn't try to do any of that kind of stuff with it, but he had done Linkin Park and stuff like that. He's a genius at it. Those elements definitely make it drastically different than any previous Good Charlotte album, but we're still playing the old GC music live and it sounds good.

With the new sound, are you afraid that Good Charlotte might lose some fans?
Well, fortunately, our fans seem to love us endlessly [laughs a little]. That's what this tour has been. We took a break for a long time and we're playing club shows. It's cool just to see how all these fans are all still die-hard just like they were when we played here for the first time. It's really awesome. I think it's the best stuff that we've done and it seems that whenever we feel that way about the music that our fans do, too. I have complete faith that everybody who is a fan is going to love this CD.

Good Charlotte has been labeled many different genres of music. What is one genre GC will *never* be?
Probably polka or country [laughs a little]. MAAAYBE country, though. Country is that one genre that seems to slip in when the artist gets over 30, when the artist goes on a solo career and starts sounding all country.

What genre would you like to dabble in?
We've been doing this for awhile, but we still feel like we have so far to go. This is only our fourth album. We want to be able to do this as a career, so we still have a few more albums where we feel we have to prove ourselves before it's solidified, like Green Day or even 311, or just that cult following where you just go wherever and your fans will always come.

Which album, to date, is your favorite?
The Young and the Hopeless and the new album.

What are some of the sacrifices you’ve made over the years?
They keep getting less and less. However, having been with twins and with the two of them being the main songwriters, I've kind of sacrificed my dream of wanting to sing and stuff like that. Everybody has that dream of being the lead singer, but when you play bass for years and years and don't ever work on singing, it's not going to happen. I'm just not a singer.

You’ve spent years with the rest of the guys, is it weird to adjust to the times you’re not with them?
It's fine. It's not like "ehhhhhh." It's cool. We're all adults and even though we've been together, we're all separate people - completely separate. I think the reason the band is still together is because we get along great and respect each other each other's individuality. That's why we just had the year long break. I went to LA a few times to see the guys, but I don't live there. They all live there, so they hang out with each other all of the time.

You’re a role model to many of your fans – does that ever influence your decision when doing certain things?
No. I wish it did. I would probably be better off some days if I thought that way, but I totally live for myself. I definitely don't view myself as a role model. Most aspects of my life I'm a very moral person and I don't do a lot of wrong. But I do a lot of wrong to myself with drinking and partying and stuff like that. Maybe I'm a role model, a rock-and-roll role model, like the role models I grew up with, that didn't kill themselves [laughs a little].

How do you think the music industry has changed over the years?
Well, it keeps changing. The whole Internet changed it first and now it's changing it again with MySpace and YouTube. It's actually like we're involved in that right now. We have a song that's only on MySpace and we're about to put a video up that's only on YouTube and MySpace.

Our album isn't coming out until March. We figured it's a great way to get something out there, where a lot of people will see it. It needs to have a good buzz. And there are so many people that are going to see it.

We’re thinking that we are going to put out a DVD. Although we shot this DVD awhile ago, we’ve just been having a lot of difficulties getting it finished, with things like release forms and stuff like that. Hopefully, we'll have a DVD out for Christmas.

As you said before, you guys have been gone for a year or two.
Well, America two years.

What have you been doing?
Right after we toured America, we toured South America and Mexico. It was AMAZING. We discovered a whole new market down there and we're going to make sure we tour there every album cycle now. It's so cool and it's so beautiful down there. And then, yeah, we took a break.

We worked on the album kind of leisurely over six months. Then, the seventh and eighth month we started working a lot harder and more frequently. We were going over to each other’s houses and got some studio time on our own and went in and worked until Don Gilmore was available, because he was working with Dashboard Confessional on their new album.

You've toured with many bands. Who has been the most influential and why?
Goldfinger. We didn't tour with them actually. Well, we did, but it wasn't until after we toured with them that they inspired us. Just the way that their energy is when they play live and how they get the crowd going. The craziest concert I ever saw was them in New York. We toured with them later and I got to see it every night. It was great, but it wasn't the same lineup. They had another guitarist. The first Goldfinger concert was when the four of them came out on stage in costumes. It was so cool.

Which song gets the best crowd reaction during your live performances?
It’s funny, because it's different in every country. The last album was bigger elsewhere than it was here. "I Just Want to Live" drives them crazy over in other countries, whereas it only gets good reaction here.

You guys are on a club tour now. How does that compare to your previous arena tours?
I like it. There are a few things that are different, like some of these clubs don't have very good PA's and monitors, so it’s always a challenge to get the sound good. For arena shows, you bring your own equipment so it's the same every night and it sounds great. However, the crowd is so much better in a club. There are fewer people, sure, but they're right there and you can see them and the energy is more unified.

After being on tour for months on end, what do you feel is the most comforting thing about going home?
My girlfriend. That's one of the best parts of going home. She’s what I miss the most when I'm gone. I've got to be a softy and say that.

With the fame GC has reached, do you ever think you'll be "normal" again?
Yeah. I already get that. I totally live that life up in Oakland right now. I get recognized once every four months. It's really cool. That's the other thing that's cool about not being in LA. It's like escaping - nobody expects me up there. It's cool.

I'm meeting normal people and I'm hanging out like I'm normal, and when I tell them that I’m in Good Charlotte, they're like "Really?" They just think I don't have a job, because when I'm there I'm off [laughs].

If you had to do everything over again, with the knowledge you have now, would you change anything?
No, not really. Maybe the way the whole drummer thing has been with our careers, but it is the way it is. There's nothing I think I could've done to change that. That's the only thing that's been the hardest part.

There are many bands that would love to reach the level of success Good Charlotte has. Do you have any advice?
Play shows. Play as many shows as possible. Just play shows, meet people, kiss the boss’s ass [laughs a little] and love your fans. Go out after your set and talk to your fans, meet every single one of them, and make them fall in love with you.

Last, but not least, do you have a message for your fans?
I love you. I love our fans. Thank you so much for coming to the shows and making me remember how bad ass my life is.

Thanks for your time!