The Spill Canvas is in fact a rock project started by singer songwriter Nick Thomas. Nick Thomas a native of Sioux Falls, is a talented singer and guitar player. The first album released as Spill Canvas was in fact recorded all by him. The alt rock outfit represents a sort of teen age angst dealing with serious issues such as drugs and alcohol abuse. The band has a lot in common with other emotional rockers such as Dashboard Confessionals.

The Spill Canvas - Alt Rock Futurists

"I've just always had a passion for writing and stuff like that. If I couldn't be into music I'd wanna write somehow, something, I don't know what". - Nick Thomas leader

Painting the Canvas

The Spill Canvas is in fact a rock project started by singer songwriter Nick Thomas. Nick Thomas a native of Sioux Falls, is a talented singer and guitar player. The first album released as Spill Canvas was in fact recorded all by him. The alt rock outfit represents a sort of teen age angst dealing with serious issues such as drugs and alcohol abuse. The band has a lot in common with other emotional rockers such as Dashboard Confessionals.

Nick Thomas derives heavily from Rick Springfield and Jeff Buckley. The music of the band is very direct and straightforward. The songs like Evil Soul and Bracelet is very expressive and sentimental yet being confined to the indie rock tag. Nick Thomas is very influenced by hard core punk bands that discuss personal politics and present it in a confessional song writing style. Spill Canvas has several line up changes and one album which has charted in the mainstream US Billboard charts at 145.

The Beginning

While playing guitar and backing vocals for Metalcore band Nodes of Ranvier, Nick Thomas started The Spill Canvas. He kept doing work for both Spill Canvas and the Nodes of Ranvir. But within the year Nick Thomas felt his true calling. His songwriting abilities took over and he quit the Metalcore outfit to focus solely on The Spill Canvas project.

Astonishingly the bands first album was very much a solo affair as Nick Thomas recorded it all by himself. The album titled "Sunsets and Car Crashes" was released in 2004. It did not have a widespread release and was distributed only locally. The first album was largely a soft alternative rock but with positive lyrics which is often different from the usual emo music. The fan favorite was the track "All Hail the Hartbreaker".

Sophomore

Nick Thomas recruited a complete band and went about recording the follow-up to the first album. Released in 2006 "One Fell Swoop" by One Eleven records, the sophomore album took everything from the first album and added more elements to it. The album made it to the Independent Album chart top 50. Continuing the emo theme as it did with the first album; the band is able to create an album with guitar riffs and melodic harmonies which brings out a positive energy.

The Future

Spill Canvas generated quite a buzz with their second album; the fans demanded a new album sooner rather than later. To quell this demand the band released an EP entitled "Denial Feels so Good". The EP has two cover songs that are Fleetwood Mac's Gold Dust Women and Donavan's "Catch the Wind". The first song on the EP "Stapplegunned" is a remix version of the song which appeared on the second album

The band had a few internal disputes which are settled with line-up changes. The band goes into to the studio to record their fourth and arguably the best album to date "No Really, I am Fine". This is the first album which charts on the US Billboard 200 and goes up to 147. The album released on Sire Records in 2007 is also their most successful commercially. The album is more mainstream as compared their previous work. Nick Thomas has made a conscious effort to write more radio friends songs while staying focused on their core themes. There are many great songs on the album like "Reckless Abandonment", "Saved" and "Connect the Dots".