Ben Thomas

Guitar and guitar was the beginning of my musical life. I used to sit in front of the TV all night, only because that's where the family stereo was, and I'd have headphones on trying to play along to everything.

At school I set up a band with some friends and we used to rehearse every weekend, mainly for something to do and as an excuse for a party every weekend. This grew into my first band and we performed at a little Melbourne venue call 'The Club' when we were all just 17. This was followed by gigs at a string of old worn out pubs, like the Town Hall Hotel in Richmond, which had a strip bar in the front and burnt down a few years after we stopped playing there.

Then I found jazz and classical music, putting all my spare time into learning new scales and chords. I found myself performing in a few jazz bands for cash, while writing songs of my own and working towards having a full set of solo (Kanvas Grey style) tunes.

Performing in a bunch of small cafe venues around Melbourne, the KG sound was developed and slowly a band was formed. It was then that I realised I had to really learn how to sing, to give meaning to the songs I was writing. I found an amazing opera singer who was impressively good at making the voice all about emotion. It was then that I truly say I became a singer, and not just a guitarist who sang.

The last two years of KG have been the most interesting and exciting, mainly due to the new songs, and a tour through the UK at the end of 2006. 25 shows in 5 weeks made the whole experience a bit of a blur, but amazing to be able to perform the KG sound to a completely new audience, and for many of them to really 'get' the songs and the emotion in them.

I love playing music because it's who I am, and performing with Kanvas Grey is really an extension of my life. The songs have changed as my life has changed and I am now at what I believe to be the best song writing stage so far. I hope you'll enjoy the new sounds, and let me know what you think.