How To Play Like Animals As Leaders
Animals As Leaders' Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes on taking the maximalist "more is more" approach to their spectacular new album, Parrhesia
I call information technology 'sharpening the knife,'" says Tosin Abasi, describing the arroyo he and his longtime Animals As Leaders guitar partner Javier Reyes adopted when recording the group's super-aggressive fifth album, Parrhesia.
"On the past couple of albums, we explored a lot of different directions; we got very experimental and nosotros did some fusion-y stuff. This time out, Javier and I consolidated the elements nosotros wanted to incorporate and we went for a more bludgeoning feel." He laughs. "That sounds pretty adept, doesn't information technology?"
For Javier Reyes, the determination to operate at this maximum intensity was a no-brainer. "We did the more ambiguous thing, then this anthology is our way of telling people, 'Don't become things twisted – we tin still go hard,'" he says. "We like the fusion-y jazz stuff; otherwise, we wouldn't have written information technology. Simply at the finish of the twenty-four hours, our roots are in progressive metal. That'southward the core of our fanbase – metal fans. So we wanted to go back and proceed that train of thought."
It's been six years since Abasi, Reyes and drummer Matt Garstka issued an Animals As Leaders album (their concluding effort was 2016'southward The Madness of Many). That's the longest stretch between records since the band'due south 2009 self-titled debut.
Abasi and Reyes first started compiling demos for the new ready ii years ago, during the first wave of the Covid pandemic, and they spent six months recording the album – 4 tracks were self-produced, while the remaining cuts were done in collaboration with the band'southward long-serving producer (and founding member of the D.C.-based prog-metal band Periphery), Misha Mansoor.
When asked if the pandemic'southward on-again, off-again lockdowns contributed in any style to the relentlessly belligerent nature of their new music, Abasi says, "It's cipher we talked about, per se. I don't think the album relates to the pandemic, only maybe some pent-up frustration came through. Basically, we just started molding the music, and we found that it was heavier than usual."
Indeed, the nine tracks on Parrhesia contain some of the virtually vicious moments Animals As Leaders have e'er recorded. Disharmonize Cartography and Monomyth come at you lot similar battering rams, with eight-stringed wonders Abasi and Reyes set on ii modes: intense and high-octane intense.
The aptly named Micro-Aggressions is a string-skipping punisher, with hot beams of blitzing riffs firing off in every conceivable direction – before you lot have a second to duck, another fierce salvo is on the way.
Gestaltzerfall – now there'due south a mouthful – flies across the sonic spectrum every bit the two guitarists summersault over each other while trading spiky, meticulously targeted body blows.
The thought of existence centered on truth and existence committed to that has ever been a compass we've used to direct how we write music
Tosin Abasi
There are brief reprieves in the assault – the whacked-out and woozy guitar lines of The Problem of Other Minds float over a rippling, hypnotic rhythm bed, and Asahi is a surprisingly gentle mood piece highlighted by graceful, legato soloing – but for much of the ride, Parrhesia will have listeners gripping their seats for dear life.
For those who have even so to Google, the definition of "parrhesia" is "boldness or freedom of speech" and, in some instances, "to speak the truth." Abasi admits he idea it was "a cool give-and-take that encapsulates our approach to making sounds," but he besides sees information technology equally a metaphor for the band's philosophy.
"There's kind of an iconoclastic element to what we do that cuts confronting the grain, but it's true to the states. Because the cultural discourse right at present, there's so much being said, and I think just the idea of being centered on truth and being committed to that has always been a compass we've used to straight how nosotros write music."
As virtuosos, do yous two feel a responsibility to push button yourselves on the guitar at all times? Do you lot ever find information technology a burden?
ABASI: "For me, information technology is. One hundred percent. The competitive element to playing guitar is a driving forcefulness, but it also can be a curse, considering the likelihood that you're 'the best' is going to exist pretty depression. There can be an abrasive element to virtuosity.
"Permit'southward say you want to express yourself a certain way in a song, but then you feel similar the idea yous wrote is too simple because you're known for writing complex things. And so that might mean you lot won't go in that management because you feel locked into this thought that your musical value is musical complexity."
Sounds frustrating.
ABASI: "Sure. For me, as a lead guitar player, I see so much insane talent in the world right now. It almost makes you go, 'Why even attempt information technology?' When that happens to me, I have to remind myself that it's obviously more than about unique contributions.
"I feel like I take some musical ideas that are worthwhile, and they're more most individuality as opposed to some competition for cleanliness, speed and stuff like that. [Laughs] Not that I haven't been guilty of participating in all that myself. I merely call up it tin be a double-edged sword, for certain."
Two of your get-go videos from the album, Monomyth and The Problem of Other Minds , featured dance troupes interpreting the music. Do you have whatever kind of visual component in mind when you're writing?
REYES: "There's no visual component in mind during the writing procedure, simply I think we've always wanted to have some blazon of visual that's equally as strong as the music. Some of our past music videos haven't been of the same caliber as the ii you mentioned, just we were simply kind of following forth with what the label wanted.
"This fourth dimension effectually, we wanted to have something very compelling that partnered with the music, merely that came later on the writing. It'southward not like Tosin shows up and says, 'By the manner, when I'm playing this riff in 11/sixteen, I recall nosotros should take a video with gimmicky dancers.' [Laughs]"
Information technology'southward non like Tosin shows up and says, 'By the mode, when I'm playing this riff in 11/16, I call back we should have a video with contemporary dancers'
Javier Reyes
ABASI: "My partner is a visual artist, and we piece of work together on some stuff – not for Animals Every bit Leaders, but I exercise think nosotros approached her about doing the anthology artwork. Then she had some ideas for a music video, and I retrieve a lot of the Monomyth and Problem of Other Minds were visual ideas she already had.
"In the by, Javier and I talked about getting dancers to practice something to visually represent the music, but I retrieve nosotros were thinking more gimmicky, equally in urban, where it was very rhythmically synced. We thought that that would exist fun. Simply then it took on a different, more loftier art direction."
How practice you 2 go virtually complementing and contrasting your guitar tones? With so many strings to piece of work with, I imagine in that location are a lot of frequencies bopping around.
REYES: "In the writing process, we don't necessarily worry too much well-nigh our tones ambivalent. It's all very section focused. If the rhythm guitar needs more low stop, nosotros'll put more low end on it. Things change a lot with us.
"During recording, Tosin might play i office and I play another, simply when we get on stage, information technology can be completely contrary. So we're more focused on only what the song needs and what the recording needs, every bit opposed to what our private needs are."
When nosotros were in the studio, my buddy had a bunch of relic guitars. He pulled out a Les Paul, we hooked it up, and it sounded great
Javier Reyes
ABASI: "It's interesting to me, because equally a guitarist your tone is super-personal. Jav has certain amp styles he likes – certain pickup voicings and all that stuff. And, of course, I practice too. They're similar, just they differ in small means.
"When nosotros get together, we take a pretty utilitarian, greater-good approach of 'I know that'due south your favorite overdrive pedal, merely information technology sounds weird in the mix, so nosotros're going to use this other matter.' We're very objective during mixing. Whether you like this or that, it's all about how it sounds in the end."
You've worked with Misha Mansoor in the past, and he'southward obviously a very simpatico ear in the studio. I'm curious, though – have you ever considered bringing in somebody completely outside your wheelhouse?
ABASI: "That's a actually bully question. A few years ago, we were really interested in that. There'south a Norwegian band called Jaga Jazzist; they remind me of progressive bands from the '70s, merely they have horn arrangements and hammered instruments and stuff. Anyhow, the main guy in that band [Lars Horntveth] was someone who stood out to me as a potential producer.
"We've considered other people also, simply it's just never worked out. Nosotros self-produce a lot, which has its benefits every bit far as defining the sound for ourselves. Every once in a while, though, nosotros do reach out for outside influence, just to get some different results. Mayhap in the future we'll end up working with some other producers."
REYES: "Given the complexity of our music, I think there's some business organization with finding somebody who tin understand what's happening with the guitar and pulsate parts. That'south been one of the benefits we accept with Misha: he gets what we're doing, one,000 pct. In a lot of ways, he's partly responsible for our sound. He and Tosin wrote the first album together, and so that kind of gave Animals As Leaders a habitat to exist."
At that place are and so many playing aspects to impact on in your new songs – almost besides many. In Monomyth , there are these chugging chords at the end. They don't fifty-fifty sound similar a guitar; they audio like a door slamming.
ABASI: "We're probably just palm muting. Correct, Jav?
REYES: "Yeah, it'due south just those chugs. I recollect it's a combination of the amp tone with how nosotros're playing. It'southward just a very ambitious chug. There's nothing likewise crazy most it, but information technology is a lilliputian sick."
Reddish Miso starts out dreamy and soothing, and and so it turns super-scary. Did you ever retrieve of simply standing the first mood and letting it be that?
ABASI: "Information technology's funny, only like I said, we set something in motion and we're not really e'er sure what's going to happen. On that showtime sequence, I was using an Eventide H9 pedal that has a stutter filibuster. I was simply messing around with a make clean tone and that delay, and that was the seed of the song.
We set something in motion and we're not really e'er sure what's going to happen
Tosin Abasi
"When we tracked it, that's when we made musical decisions in real time: 'OK, try this. Permit's add this. Try this section and accent these parts with heavy guitar.' The song is a bit of a linear journey from dreaming to very aggressive. It could have concluded upwards in a multitude of ways."
REYES: "We try to call back of how to get dorsum to that beginning section and bring the song full circle, but things just happen naturally. With Blood-red Miso, by the time nosotros got to that crazy part in the middle where it's just linear and aught repeats, we were like, 'OK, there's no returning back.' The song kind of merely started directing itself at that bespeak."
Gestaltzerfall and Asahi accept moments of beautiful legato playing. Between the two of you lot, who is the big legato guy?
ABASI: "I feel like possibly Jav is, considering he's got some classical slurs, similar left-manus stuff."
REYES: "Yes. I don't actually alternate-pick that well, really, so I rely on my legato."
In that location's an anxious quality throughout Thoughts and Prayers . Is the contrast to the title intentional, and is it supposed to exist a flake of social commentary?
ABASI: "At that place's a cynical take on 'thoughts and prayers' in that yous take these events that are by the easily of men, only there's this uniform entreatment to something that isn't man. I think at a point it started to but ring hollow.
Nosotros're maximalists. More is more
Tosin Abasi
"Information technology'south a layered thing, considering the intent is one matter – you're sending thoughts and prayers – but in outcome, are you lot even doing anything? It's kind of similar the intentions there, merely is it a way to non actually accept to exercise more than?
"I think the juxtaposition is about a type of helplessness. Whenever y'all hear 'thoughts and prayers,' it's because something terrible has happened. The song has a bit of a complex; the vibe of it is slightly off.
"There's this cyclical tune that is almost major, just there are intervals that are slightly outside of what you'd await, and it's kind of mildly anxious. At that place'south an energy to it – it's slightly nighttime, merely it's likewise hopeful.
On Micro-Aggressions , every 20 seconds there's something new to listen to. Just there'due south one section with this blazing rock chord and some harmonized soloing. It sounded vivid. Did y'all ever recall of building a song from just that role?
REYES: "No."
ABASI: "Nosotros're maximalists. More is more."
REYES: "It's like an creative person working in front of his canvas. We tin can remember of having the ane part considering that's what's going to exist played live, merely at the same time, we're just on this mentality of what the song needs. 'Does information technology sound improve with a harmony that perchance we tin can't play alive?' In the finish, it'due south well-nigh the recording."
Let's talk near the guitars you used on the album. Tosin, are you pretty much using your Abasi Concepts guitars?
ABASI: "Yeah. I would say, except for possibly one solo, all my parts were tracked with my guitar."
REYES: "There's a few solos on which we ended upwards using a Gibson."
ABASI: "Oh yeah, the Les Paul."
REYES: "Which is very random – there were sprinkles of it. It'south kind of what we were talking well-nigh earlier – 'What does the recording need?' In a perfect situation, we would have i guitar for the entire affair, but in the process of what's best for the mix, when nosotros were in the studio, my buddy had a agglomeration of relic guitars. He pulled out a Les Paul, we hooked it up, and it sounded bully."
Javier, how about you? Did y'all mainly use your ESPs?
REYES: "No. All the rhythm stuff is with Tosin's guitar. Again, it'southward more than of a utilitarian procedure. 'Does the song need this or that, or are we going to add more than difficulty by including another guitar and tone and whatnot?'"
Past your own access, you both push button yourselves to make things complex. At the end of the day, though, exercise you ever just kick back and unwind by playing – oh, I don't know – something like Taking Care of Business ?
REYES: "No. [Laughs]"
ABASI: "I've been kind of getting into the dejection, but like a fun…"
REYES: "By blues, he means Eric Gales."
ABASI: "Yeah, Eric Gales and Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith. But obviously, look, if I'1000 playing a type of music that has three chords, and each chord gets an equal number of beats, and those beats make up an fifty-fifty mensurate, I'm playing something a lot simpler than Animals Every bit Leaders.
"That's a dissimilar type of musculus, and it'southward relaxing because there'south parts of my brain that aren't counting complex time signatures. You get to limited yourself in a different way. For me, perchance playing classical guitar is how I unwind and play something that is only a different energy."
- Parrhesia (opens in new tab) is out now via Sumerian Records.
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Source: https://www.guitarworld.com/features/animals-as-leaders-tosin-abasi-javier-reyes-parrhesia
Posted by: morrisonthaven.blogspot.com
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