Alternative emo act
the Spill Canvas rose out of South Dakota in the mid-2000s with an aggressive, yet deeply melodic sound based around the songwriting of frontman
Nick Thomas. Commercially, the group hit their stride with 2005's
One Fell Swoop and 2007's
No Really, I'm Fine, the latter of which notched an impressive number two showing on Billboard's Heatseekers chart. Heading into the next decade, the band's activity began to wane and following 2012's Gestalt, they entered a recording hiatus while continuing to tour sporadically. In 2021, nine years after their last LP,
the Spill Canvas returned with
Conduit, their sixth album.
Much like
Bright Eyes and
Five for Fighting,
the Spill Canvas initially started as the pseudonym for a solo artist before transitioning into a traditional band. Sioux Falls native
Nick Thomas played in a variety of local punk bands in his early teens before transforming himself into a solo acoustic emo act along the lines of
Dashboard Confessional. At the age of 19, he signed with the indie label One Eleven Records and recorded
Sunsets and Car Crashes almost entirely on his own, save for a few guest musicians. Following the album's April 2004 release,
Thomas put together the first full-time touring lineup of
the Spill Canvas, with himself on vocals, guitar, and keyboards;
Dan Ludeman on guitar; Scott McGuire on bass, and
Joe Beck on drums.
The first collaborative album by
the Spill Canvas,
One Fell Swoop, was released in August 2005. One year later, the band signed with Sire Records and began recording new material, with newcomer
Landon Heil replacing the departed McGuire on bass. The
Denial Feels So Good EP arrived in early 2007, marking the band's first release for Sire, and
the Spill Canvas spent that summer on the annual Warped Tour, where they drummed up some buzz for their upcoming third album.
No Really, I'm Fine was released toward the end of that year; emo vets like
Anthony Green and
Andrew McMahon made cameos on the album, and a series of additional tours kept
the Spill Canvas busy until late 2008. Although most of 2008 was spent on the road, the band also found time to release an EP titled
Honestly, I'm Doing Okay. A pair of EPs,
Abnormalities and
Realities, arrived in 2010, followed by
Formalities which included acoustic version of songs from both EPs as well as new material. After a brief hiatus, the band returned which what would be their final only album of the decade, 2012's Gestalt. With
the Spill Canvas on the backburner,
Thomas released a 2014 solo album, Shadowars, and toured as a solo artist backed by
Heil on bass and newcomer
Bryce Job on drums. Over the next several years
the Spill Canvas, which now included
Job and lead guitarist
Evan Pharmakis alongside
Thomas and
Heil, toured occasionally and eventually broke their silence with the three-song 2018 EP, Hivemind. This same lineup made a full return three years later to launch
the Spill Canvas' next phase with the 2021 full-length
Conduit. ~ Stewart Mason & Andrew Leahey