Greetings, denizens of Bnet. As you're no doubt aware, it is now the first day of February which also marks the start of Black History Month. Rather than sitting here being an ironic edge lord bemoaning the holiday(?), I figured I'd celebrate it by shinning the spotlight on Black guitarists and bass guitarists each day for the rest of the month (or every other day until I don't feel like it, Idk I'm lazy and my threads get zero replies regardless of topic anyways so, no promises). I could start this off with someone more *well known* (*read cliché), but -blam!- that, they'll be gotten to when they get gotten to, so today's spotlight will be on one Tosin Abasi. [b][i][u](Full disclosure; as noted above, I'm a lazy -blam!-, so some of the info will indeed be copy / pasted from Wikipedia.)[/u][/i][/b] Born in the State of Washington D.C. on the 7th of January, 1983, Oluwatosin Ayoyinka Olumide Abasi, better known simply as, Tosin Abasi is a Nigerian Prince (American) guitarist and founder of the instrumental progressive metal band, Animals As Leaders. 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 the mild profanity in certain tapes. Prior to starting Animals As Leaders, he was briefly in a band called PSI before later joing the metalcore band Reflux. During one of their shows, Tosin was noticed by some guys from Prosthetic Records and they offered him a deal as a solo artist, however, he declined the offer, stating he didn't feel comfortable with his skill level to write his own record. Afterwards, Abasi enrolled at the Atlanta Institute of Music and upon graduating, he contacted Prosthetic Records asking if the offer still held. Thus started the "solo" project Animals As Leaders. In 2009, he recorded the first Animals as Leaders release with Misha Mansoor (of Periphery), who produced and recorded the album with Tosin, as well as programming the drums. (criminally underrated) guitarist, Javier Reyes and OG drummer Navene Koperweis joined after the completion of the album, turning the "solo" project into a full touring band. During this time, Tosin also toured as a stand-in guitarist for former member Matt Pantelis of Chicago based progressive Illuminaticore band, Born of Osiris, whilst they were auditioning for a permanent replacement. In 2011, Tosin started putting together material for a new band, T.R.A.M., consisting of his Animals As Leaders bandmate Javier Reyes, Suicidal Tendencies drummer Eric Moore, and former The Mars Volta wind instrumentalist Adrián Terrazas-González. "T.R.A.M." stands for Terrazas, Reyes, Abasi, Moore. Tosin explained that he formed T.R.A.M. as a trio consisting of himself, Javier and Adrian as an outlet for some ideas he had written which he felt did not fit with Animals as Leaders. Eric Moore was not added into the line-up until the recording phase of the album, and wrote and performed all the drums on the album within a few weeks. On the 8th of November, 2011, the band released their second album, [i] Weightless[/i] and in the years to follow, a third album, titled, [i]The Joy of Motion[/i] with new drummer, Matt Garstka, on the 25th of March, 2014. Their fourth and latest album, [i]The Madness of Many[/i] was released on the 11th of November, 2016. Tosin, as most professional musicians has had several endorsement deals with various companies. A long time Ibanez player, Tosin has had two signature guitars with the company. The Ibanez TAM100 and its budget model, the TAM10. For a time, he used DiMarzio pickups and had a signature HSH set called the Ionizer. Like most modern guitarist, Tosin is never one to settle. Despite being endorsed by Ibanez, Tosin regularly plays and owns several different guitars from boutique custom shops, notably .Strandberg* and Rick Toone. He left DiMarzio and briefly experimented with Seymour Duncan before switching to Fishman, which he now has a signature set with. This years NAMM show also marked a new change for Tosin as he has left Ibanez to start his own line of guitars, built by luthier Frank Falbo. Tosin has noted a number of different styles, genres, artists, bands and what not as influences on his style, including Steve Vai, Allan Holdsworth, Fredrik Thordendal of Meshuggah, Thom Yorke of Radiohead, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Mike Einziger of Incubus, and Dream Theater. Tosin regularly notes bass legend Victor Wooten and his "thumping" technique as playing a major role on his playing and it shows as much by Tosin's (and even Javier's) frequent use of the bass technique on guitar. Such examples can be heard on the songs, [i]The Woven Web[/i], [i]Ectogenesis[/i] and many others. [spoiler]I don't feel like typing or cooy / pasting anymore shit, this is already pretty lengthy as it is and if I do continue to do this, I'll try to make them shorter to match your attention spans. :^) Was also going to include songs and a couple of interviews, but I'd rather not waste my time any further on something that's going to be ignored. Anyways, If you enjoyed this, be sure to smash that lik- I'm -blam!-ing joking. I don't care about that shit.[/spoiler] [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/242695836?page=0&sort=0&showBanned=0&path=0]BHMGSL#2[/url]