Tosin Abasi, acclaimed for his work with Animals As Leaders, has released a brand-new original track titled "In Umbris." Abasi both wrote and recorded the piece with his new Córdoba Abasi Stage 7, which looks pretty damn cool.
The track was mixed and mastered by his bandmate Javier Reyes, while the accompanying video was directed by Ivan Chopik.
Outside that, no word on new Animals As Leaders outside a 2025 interview with Guitar World, where 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."
