Oluwatosin Ayoyinka Olumide Abasi (born January 7, 1983), is an American musician, best known as the founder and lead guitarist of the instrumental progressive metal band Animals as Leaders. He has recorded and released five albums with Animals as Leaders: a self-titled debut, Weightless, The Joy of Motion, The Madness of Many, and their most recent album, Parrhesia. Abasi was ranked #97 on the Guitar World list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of all time. Life and career Background Tosin Abasi was born in Washington D.C. to Nigerian immigrants to the United States. His brother, Abdul Abasi, is a former drill sergeant in the United States military and is currently a fashion designer. Abasi is a mainly self-taught guitarist. He first picked up a guitar at his friend's house, simply strumming it and making up basic licks on the spot. At this time, he was being exposed to some music through learning the clarinet in elementary school. He later began to rent hair metal guitarists' instructional video tapes from his local music store, saying that some "were videos you did not want to be caught watching" due to racy material in certain tapes (e.g. women in bikinis). Abasi said that when he decided to learn the guitar, his father was "totally liberal about the whole thing and encouraging and proud" and in fact, bought him his first guitar. However his mother initially held a more conservative outlook. Tosin said in an interview, "My mom definitely represents more of the traditional immigrant mentality of education and conventional channels being way more important than a creative endeavor". Early career He was the guitarist for the Silver Spring, Maryland-based metal band PSI before moving on to join the technical metalcore band Reflux in the early to mid-2000s. During a Reflux show, Prosthetic Records noticed his skill and offered him a record deal as a solo artist. At first, he refused, saying he didn't feel comfortable with his skill level to write his own record. Afterwards, Abasi enrolled at the Atlanta Institute of Music and Media, a for-profit college. After graduating, he contacted Prosthetic Records asking if the offer still held. He then formed his "solo" project, Animals as Leaders, the name loosely being derived from the book Ishmael. Success with Animals as Leaders and onward In 2009, he recorded the first Animals as Leaders release with Misha Mansoor (of Periphery), who produced and recorded