ANIMALS AS LEADERS // Method To The Madness

It’s been nearly ten years since the birth of Animals As Leaders, a project originally devised as a solo project for virtuoso guitarist and former Reflux shredder Tosin Abasi. In that time, it has expanded out to become a fully-fledged band, serving as perhaps the most popular instrumental band in contemporary heavy metal. Even after several releases and extensive touring, the band is still pursuing what’s to come—as far as they’re concerned, there’s still plenty of work to go.

“I don’t think that it’s about wanting to be as different as possible, but we definitely don’t want to repeat ourselves,” says Javier Reyes, who has served as a guitarist in the band for nearly its entire lifespan. “We don’t need to rewrite CAFO. We don’t need to make our first album [2009’s Animals As Leaders] over again. Our main goal as a band is to use our current influences to advance our writing—it reflects who we are now, and we want to be in our element as musicians and music listeners. I think that there’s definitely a conscious effort to be more current, rather than dredging up the past.”

Most of it was actually started in my apartment— just the three of us, as well as the watchful eye of my very angry neighbours.
[Javier Reyes ]

The band’s latest effort is The Madness of Many, the fourth studio album to bear the Animals As Leaders name. Its creation stems from several key sources of inspiration, one of which arrives in the unexpected form of Melbourne funk-fusion band Hiatus Kaiyote. “We’re in awe of their music,” says Reyes of the Australian outfit. “We’re just fans—we think what they do is phenomenal, and we tried to borrow elements of that to fit into the context of this band. They were definitely a big inspiration when we were making this album, as well as stuff like the latest Meshuggah album [The Violent Sleep of Reason]. We’re also really into stuff like Tigran Hamasyan, Faith, NOISIΛ and Kurt Rosenwinkel—and that might seem like a pretty random assortment, but that’s exactly the kind of music fans that we are. We draw inspiration from so many different places.”

The band have already begun what is an extensive run in support of The Madness of Many, which will include an Australian visit coming at the end of February. In the meantime, the band are still figuring out how to navigate each composition from a live perspective, as the record was quite literally homegrown. Only a select few out of the band actually heard any of the new songs before they reached their final form—whether they wanted to or not.

“This album was completely incubated—none of the songs were played live before we’d recorded them,” says Reyes. “Most of it was actually started in my apartment— just the three of us, as well as the watchful eye of my very angry neighbours.” Reyes laughs at the thought. “We weren’t even that loud!” he continues. “It was just a lot of guitars being played for most of the day for a few weeks. One day we were doing some drum programming, and the next day my landlord tells me I got a noise complaint from a neighbour who said I was having a band practice in my apartment. It was cool once I explained, but yeah… the album’s called The Madness of Many, and it’s actually named after my neighbours.”

The Madness Of Many is out now via Sumerian Records.

Animals As Leaders will be touring Australia in February 2017.
Tickets available here.

Saturday February 25, The Triffid, Brisbane QLD
Sunday February 26, The Metro Theatre, Sydney NSW
Tuesday February 28, 170 Russell, Melbourne VIC
Wednesday March 1, The Gov, Adelaide SA
Thursday March 2, Amplifier Capitol, Perth WA