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Tosin Abasi, guitar player and founder of the band Animals As Leaders, is the latest craze in modern guitar playing. Surprisingly, Abasi is mainly a self-taught guitar player who attributes much of his success in learning the instrument to rented instruction videos from his local music store. Abasi is mainly associated with crazy guitar aerobatics on a 7 to 9-string guitar.
Although Abasi is well versed in guitar theory in general, he describes himself to be much more of compositional player as apposed to a fierce improvisational player. “Compositionally, you can set a bar for yourself that is a bit higher than where you are at the moment”. Executing his music live on stage has been a bit of a challenge because of the intricacy. “A lot of the leads I would build in pieces. I’d have one section of the lead, track it, then listen to it and then I’d decide what I wanted to do next and then track the next portion. But it doesn’t mean that I’d played it all through, so when it came time to actually perform it, I had to go back and learn my solos and then I had to be able to execute them. It’s actually made me a much better guitar player, to learn the stuff that I could think of, but not necessarily do at the time. Now I can do it all and set the bar even higher”.
He describes his practice regime as mainly contributing towards his live performances. “My practice regimen is refining things that I have to do live. A lot of that stuff is at the peak of my technical ability, so I have to keep up my chops and it could always be cleaner. I work on a lot of the parts that might give me trouble live or that I don’t feel are as clean. Then I try to keep new concepts coming in, so right now I’m working on a lot of pentatonics because they’re really useful as far as improvisation is concerned; you can use pentatonics over a lot of different chords. I’m learning pentatonics in all different positions and I’m writing eight-string pentatonics, like three notes per string kind of things. And then, I’m working on a lot of thumping cause that’s kind of a newer technique for me—like all the Victor Wooten-type slapping kind of stuff. And then, I also write. I’m constantly writing little riffs and parts of songs, so that’s kind of what I’m doing now.”
Abasi has always been a big supporter of the now very popular Fractal Audio Axe-Fx. In fact, when tracking guitar parts he uses the Axe-Fx primarily and therefore he doesn’t require a tracking studio. 
“Listening to a recorded tone is one thing, but playing an amp has a very specific response – specifically tube amps. The Axe-Fx does the most accurate job of feeling like a real amp that I’ve ever encountered. The harmonic content, everything about it feels right.” The Axe-Fx has also become very prominent in Abasi’s live guitar rig, which he uses straight into the PA system. “I’ve been running a Mackie HD1521 monitor – it’s a 2-way speaker system, just for my own reference on stage. But honestly, most of these venues have sidefills, and if you put yourself heavy in the monitor mix, you’re there. It feels like you have an amp”.
Apart from his impressive guitar abilities, Abasi would also like to see more people attending his performances because of showmanship in the future. “I would like to get to the point where fans want to see us live because of the show, not having a lead singer really gives us that open space. I just want people to feel like they are somewhere else, escape the mundane.”
Sources:
http://www.theaquarian.com/2010/11/24/interview-with-tosin-abasi-from-animals-as-leaders-caged-beast/
http://www.guitarmessenger.com/interviews/tosin-abasi-interview-animals-as-leaders/
http://puregrainaudio.com/interviews/interview-with-animals-as-leaders-guitarist-tosin-abasi
