New ANIMALS AS LEADERS Is In The Works

Good news! Animals As Leaders is plotting the follow-up to their 2022 record Parrhesia. In an interview with Guitar World, Animals As Leaders mastermind Tosin Abasi said he’d like to spend a chunk of 2025 working on (and hopefully completing) the new record.

“We are about to begin pre-production on an album,” said Abasi. “We do have some touring – we’re headed to Europe in a few weeks – but I want to spend a portion of this year writing the record. In a perfect world, it’ll be written and recorded by the end of this year.”

Abasi also touched on his long-rumored blues album, noting that he’s just having fun learning the genre at the moment. Which is a cool take on creativity – simply enjoying the process instead of working toward an end goal, when maybe that’s not the best choice.

“This is funny, because [Abasi Concepts COO, Ivan Chopik] is a fantastic blues guitarist, and I’d never really gotten into the genre. And there’s amazing players like Josh Smith and Eric Gales that I’m like, ‘Okay, I’ve been missing out.’

“So I had a moment over the pandemic, where I was like, ‘I’m learning the blues,’ and I got really into it, and I said I’d do an album. I gotta respect the art, and I don’t know that I’ve evolved to the point where I can [do it justice], you know what I mean? But it’s fun. It’s fun to mess around with.”

So hey, at least there’s new Animals As Leaders in the works.