There are few contemporary players with a reputation as weighty as Tosin Abasi. The Animals As Leaders guitarist, and the man behind gear firm Abasi Concepts, has revolutionized the instrument through selective picking and by bringing thumping — a technique previously reserved for bass guitars — to the fore, all while showcasing the magic of heavy riffs with low gain tones.
Abasi recently fielded fan-written questions with Guitar World, and his answers serve as a reminder that our guitar heroes so often have very humble beginnings.
Animals As Leaders’s self-titled debut arrived in 2009, but it wasn’t until years later, when Steve Vai confessed his love for his music, that he felt he’d made it as a musician.
“Meeting Steve Vai and having him express liking my music. That was pretty… I mean, I used to play his signature guitar,” he remembers. “This is a guy that basically spearheaded the genre that I’m participating in.”
Vai has always kept his ear to the ground, paying attention to the latest talents to break onto the scene. As a result, many players, from Abasi to modern acoustic wildcard Marcin, have benefitted from his support and tutelage.
“Just as a person, he’s got this guru vibe,” Abasi says. “The Guitar World cover that I was on with Steve [in September 2012] was a big deal, too. And getting a signature Ibanez guitar is ridiculous. Those three instances have been, like, ‘Oh, this is a real thing!’”
Today, Abasi is a full-time musician and luthier, but it didn’t always use to be like that. As streaming services have changed the music industry landscape, it’s a lot more difficult for musicians to make a living wage from their bands alone. But little is often said about how many musicians make ends meet while chasing their musical dreams.
Asked by one reader what he did for work before launching Animals As Leaders, Abasi had a surprising reply.
“Dude, when I was going to the Atlanta Institute of Music, I worked at a dog kennel,” he reveals. “It was a boarding facility, and I was cleaning up shit and piss in a concrete room with 40 dogs barking at me at the top of their lungs.
“I also worked at a fish cannery in Alaska, where I processed salmon for, like, 16 hours a day. That’s actually how I saved up to buy my Steve Vai guitar.”
Abasi had already moved onto eight-string guitars by the time Animals As Leaders turned heads, but it underscores Vai's influence on his development as a player.
In 2016, he shared stages across North America and Asia with Vai as part of the all-star Generation Axe. That also saw him locking horns with Zakk Wylde, Yngwie Malmsteen and Nuno Bettencourt as he went from looking up to his heroes to keeping up with them.
The tour was Vai's chance to unite his favorite guitarists, and in 2019 Abasi admitted to Guitar World that he didn’t think he belonged in that bracket when he got the call off Vai.
“It's beyond an honor,” he said. “Steve is a huge influence on me as a player, but beyond his music, he innovated in the guitar space as well. There's tons of products that he's at the center of. The idea that you could have more than six strings on a guitar, you could credit Steve with bringing that to the mainstream.
"And so to be selected — I remember when I got the call, I didn't think it was real. These dudes are the guys who I learned to play guitar watching. It's a dream come true.”
Abasi has since built on Vai’s extended-range legacy, helping make eight-string guitars more popular than ever. But he doesn't suggest six-stringers make the leap to eight strings all at once.
“I recommend getting a seven-string first and working on things like octave identification and recognizing patterns on the fretboard,” he advises. “This will help you better integrate the extra string.
“Another cool thing is to practice six-string material while avoiding the seventh string; then, once you’re comfortable, start writing material that incorporates the seventh string.
“You should also learn seven-string music by other musicians and take chord voicings for six-strings and translate and revoice them on the seven-string.”
In related news, Joe Satriani has spoken about how the next generation of players are keeping the electric guitar alive, with Abasi a prime example.
