The Spill Canvas started as a side project for lead singer, Nick Thomas, who at the time, was guitarist and backup vocalist for Metalcore outfit Nodes of Ranvier . As time passed, Thomas resigned from Nodes, and went full-time with The Spill Canvas. The band's first widespread album, Sunsets and Car Crashes, which was written, produced, and performed by Thomas, was released by 111 Records on April 20, 2004. Thomas was joined by members Joe Beck, Ross Wheeler, and Brandon Aegerter to tour the release of "Sunsets and Car Crashes". Wheeler and Aegerter later left the group and were replaced by Scott McGuire and Dan Ludeman. The four members collectively wrote what would be The Spill Canvas' second album, One Fell Swoop. The album was released August 9, 2005 by 111 Records once again.

On their official page in late 2006, the band announced a change of label through a news post by bassist Scott McGuire; "Also, did I mention that there is a new record label in the picture? That's right, we have signed to Sire Records."

In early 2007, McGuire declared that he was no longer a part of the band, stating, "The Spill Canvas has decided in order to make music to its fullest potential, they must do so without me." The temporary replacement for McGuire was Landon Heil, the guitarist of another band known as The Glass Atlantic. Being a better creative fit than McGuire, Heil quickly became a permanent member of the outfit.

On May 1, 2007, the band released an EP entitled Denial Feels So Good, to hold their fans over until their new album arrived. The EP consisted of three original songs and two covers. Marc Sheaffer, a keyboardist from Sioux Falls, played keys on "Gold Dust Woman". Following the release of the EP, the band played on the entire summer 2007 Warped Tour, promoting the upcoming release of their third album and first major label debut No Really, I'm Fine. The new album was recorded in March and April 2007, and in Alternative Press Issue 229, it was confirmed that Anthony Green of Circa Survive and Andrew McMahon of Jack's Mannequin would be guests on the new album. Anthony Green sang backup vocals on the song "Bleed, Everyone's Doing It", and Andrew McMahon played keyboards in the re-recorded version of the song "Saved", a song originally recorded for the soundtrack of the motion picture, Superman Returns.

On July 26, 2007, No Really, I'm Fine was rumored to be the title of the upcoming album. This agreement lasted for two years. Soon after, however, websites such as Amazon.com and Best Buy, had listed the new album with the title Conduit. On August 28, 2007, the band posted a Myspace bulletin stating that the album was going to be titled No Really, I'm Fine. The album was released under this title on October 2, 2007.

The band went on a Fall tour across North America in the Fall of 2007, named "All Your Favorite Spots". The tour was supported by Meg & Dia, Playradioplay!, and Treaty of Paris. On January 23, 2008, it was confirmed on Yellowcard's official MySpace that The Spill Canvas would be touring with them in a spring acoustic tour. In February 2008, they headed to Europe with Plain White T's and The Fold. This past summer, The Spill Canvas headlined a national tour, supported by Steel Train and Ludo. Up-and-coming pop-punkers Sing It Loud joined them for the first half of the tour, with Liam and Me joining for the end. They were joined by Motion City Soundtrack for the final leg of the tour.

In late 2008, they toured with OneRepublic, The Hush Sound and Augustana. On this tour, most vocalists from all of the opening bands, including Nick, came up during Augustana's set to perform Traveling Wilbury's hit "Handle With Care", trading off lead vocals.

In early 2009, The Spill Canvas toured the UK supporting You Me at Six alongside Emarosa

Abnormalities, featuring new music from the band, was released on January 12, 2010 through The Spill Canvas store and digital retailers. Their next EP, Realities, was released shortly thereafter on April 13. On July 27, 2010 their newest album, Formalities, saw digital release. The album contains songs previously seen on both Realities and Abnormalities, along with acoustic versions of songs from those EPs and two brand new songs. They spent the summer of 2010 touring with the Goo Goo Dolls and Switchfoot.

On January 13, 2011, an article in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader stated that the band may be on a temporary hiatus and there was no indication when, if ever, the band would return.

On May 15, 2011, after a long time of being inactive on Twitter, "Someday soon" was tweeted from The Spill Canvas.

On August 11, 2011 the band posted, "Tell your friends to follow @thespillcanvas we are going to be posting lots of interesting news and announcements in the coming weeks!" on Twitter.

The Spill Canvas played a "reunion show" in their hometown of Sioux Falls, SD on October 28, 2011, during which they announced they are no longer on a label and plan to record a new album, with a Kickstart campaign raising funds to record it. They played a new song at the show.

On January 21, 2012 The Spill Canvas posted a studio update on YouTube

The Spill Canvas will release their new album, "Gestalt" on May 22, 2012 according to their Facebook account. The song "Parallels and Money" will be included on this album. On April 20, 2012, The Spill Canvas released the first track off of their upcoming album "Gestalt", called "To Chicago" on their PureVolume account. The song reached number one on Pure Volume.

After a hiatus lead singer Nick Thomas released a solo record funded by kickstarter called "Shadowars" in 2014. The singer has been touring the record nationally with spill canvas bassist Landon Heil and new drummer Bryce Job.

Thomas and Job embarked on a brief east coast acoustic run with another South Dakota band Paradise Fears and William Beckett of The Academy Is.

Then the full Nick Thomas band toured in November with co-headliners Deleasa and Cassio Monroe spanning the east coast.

In December the NT band headlined a tour including Midwest and West coast dates with openers My Body Sings Electric from Denver, CO.

The Nick Thomas band has most recently been seen on the Radio Revival Tour with Secondhand Serenade and Ryan Cabrera.