Photo by Randy Edwards
Animals As Leaders frontman Tosin Abasi is excited to announce that he has officially launched Abasi Guitars. The company’s instruments, which were conceived and designed by Abasi, will be manufactured by veteran luthier Frank Falbo, with all marketing aspects being handled by Andy Alt. In an exclusive new interview with Guitar World, he goes into detail about the new company, his partners, and his vision. Below are some excerpts:
Tosin on his partners, “Andy and I were brainstorming, and he said why don’t you have Frank build your guitars? I’d already commissioned an eight-string fanned-fret classical from him and worked with him with Fishman’s Fluence pickup line, so I knew he was into innovative ideas that actually pushed the guitar forward as opposed to being arbitrarily different. I knew he was an extremely smart guy who’s shown his abilities in very different ways. So the fact that he had the capacity to do the guitars, he’s local and we already had a relationship, it was this perfect epiphany moment where I realized I had all the moving parts to take my design and do it the way I wanted. And it turns out I’m even more drawn to the processes of making guitars than I initially thought.”
On his vision, “From a creative standpoint, it’s fulfilling to collaborate with an amazing luthier and all the available materials and tech and to listen to our fan base and respond to consumer desires and produce what we think are really good answers to those needs. Moving forward, we’d like to have a whole line of guitars and signature artists as well.”
He adds, “I think I have a fan base that also would love more conceptual designs and things that are more catered to their needs. As a member of that guitar community, I’m in a perfect position to make the dream guitar company that’s most concerned with those players that really access the designs they want from other places.”
Check out the first guitar below, and for more information, head to Guitar World!