TosinAbasi

Tosin Abasi

Eight-string visionary who turned slap-guitar and polyrhythm into progressive art

Tosin Abasi was born in Washington, D.C., to Nigerian immigrant parents. He came to the guitar as a teenager and progressed quickly, eventually studying at the Atlanta Institute of Music. In Atlanta he played in the technical metalcore band Reflux, whose album The Illusion of Democracy came out in the mid-2000s, giving him early recording and touring experience in the heavy underground. Those years in metal shaped his heavy, precise rhythmic foundation.

After Reflux ended, Prosthetic Records encouraged him to make an instrumental album. He briefly stepped away from music before starting the project that became Animals as Leaders, taking the name from a Daniel Quinn novel. Working with producer and multi-instrumentalist Misha Mansoor of Periphery, he released the band's self-titled debut in 2009. Built around his eight-string guitar, it became an unexpected word-of-mouth success. The record found a large audience among guitarists online, and its songs became benchmarks for technical players.

The project grew into a band with second guitarist Javier Reyes and, from 2012, drummer Matt Garstka. Weightless arrived in 2011 and The Joy of Motion in 2014, with the latter reaching the upper half of the Billboard 200. Alongside Animals as Leaders he formed the jazz-fusion side project T.R.A.M., which released Lingua Franca in 2012, and he became a sought-after clinician and signature-model artist. His teaching videos and clinics spread his techniques to a new generation of players.

The Madness of Many followed in 2016, and a live album and film, Live 2017: Unraveling the Madness, documented the band's stage show. Frustrated by existing designs, he launched his own guitar company, Abasi Concepts, whose Larada model reflects his ergonomic and multi-scale ideas. Animals as Leaders returned in 2022 with Parrhesia, their first album in six years, reasserting their place at the front of progressive metal. The band remains a touchstone for extended-range and instrumental guitar music.

The 10 greatest Tosin Abasi solos

1. 1
   CAFO

   Animals as Leaders · solo by Tosin Abasi · 2009
2. 2
   Physical Education

   Animals as Leaders · solo by Tosin Abasi · 2014
3. 3
   Tempting Time

   Animals as Leaders · solo by Tosin Abasi · 2009
4. 4
   The Woven Web

   Animals as Leaders · solo by Tosin Abasi · 2014
5. 5
   Song of Solomon

   Animals as Leaders · solo by Tosin Abasi · 2009
6. 6
   Wave of Babies

   Animals as Leaders · solo by Tosin Abasi · 2011
7. 7
   An Infinite Regression

   Animals as Leaders · solo by Tosin Abasi · 2011
8. 8
   Arithmophobia

   Animals as Leaders · solo by Tosin Abasi · 2016
9. 9
   Kascade

   Animals as Leaders · solo by Tosin Abasi · 2014
10. 10
    Red Miso

    Animals as Leaders · solo by Tosin Abasi · 2022

The sound

Abasi is best known for extended-range guitar and for adapting bass technique to the instrument. His thumping, a slap-style approach with the thumb striking downward and upward, produces percussive, funk-inflected riffs on low strings, combined with open-string pedal points, wide tapped chords and hybrid picking. Harmonically he draws on jazz and fusion, favoring lush extended chords and exotic scales, while rhythmically he works in odd meters and layered polyrhythms. His tone is typically clean-to-crunchy and articulate rather than saturated, so each note of dense passages stays distinct.

• Ibanez RG2228 (guitar) An eight-string he used in the early Animals as Leaders era.
• Ibanez TAM100 (guitar) His signature eight-string with Ibanez, released in the early 2010s.
• Abasi Concepts Larada (guitar) A guitar from his own company, reflecting his ideas on ergonomics and multi-scale necks.
• Fractal Audio Axe-Fx (amp) The digital modeling unit behind much of his clean-to-crunch tone in the 2010s.
• Neural DSP Archetype: Tosin Abasi (amp) His signature amp-and-effects software plugin.

Timeline

• 1983 Born in Washington, D.C.
• 2004 Records with Atlanta metalcore band Reflux (approximate)
• 2007 Begins Animals as Leaders as a solo project for Prosthetic Records
• 2009 Releases Animals as Leaders debut, produced with Misha Mansoor
• 2011 Releases Weightless
• 2012 Matt Garstka joins; T.R.A.M. releases Lingua Franca
• 2014 Releases The Joy of Motion
• 2016 Releases The Madness of Many
• 2022 Releases Parrhesia after a six-year gap

Facts

1. His parents emigrated to the US from Nigeria.
2. He studied at the Atlanta Institute of Music.
3. Animals as Leaders takes its name from a Daniel Quinn novel.
4. The band began as a solo project at the urging of Prosthetic Records.
5. Misha Mansoor of Periphery co-produced the band's debut album.
6. Animals as Leaders is an instrumental band with no vocalist.
7. His slap-style thumping technique borrows heavily from bass playing.
8. He founded his own guitar company, Abasi Concepts.
9. Neural DSP released a signature plugin bearing his name.
10. T.R.A.M., his fusion side project, included Javier Reyes and saxophonist Adrian Terrazas-Gonzalez.