Animals As Leaders and Jonathan Scales Fourchestra

After the disbandment of his previous technical metalcore band Reflux, Tosin Abasi was asked by his then record label Prosthetic Records, to create a solo album to which Abasi refused on the grounds that it sounded ‘egotistical’. A year later after expanding his technical guitar skills he took the label up on the offer and Animals as Leaders was born, the name drawn from Daniel Quinn’s 1992 anthropocentric novel “Ishmael”.

The band’s first album the self-titled “Animals as Leaders” was recorded in 2008 with Abasi laying down all the guitar and bass tracks and engineer Misha Mansoor adding the drums and synths. The album was released on April 23, 2009 on Prosthetics Records and saw guitarist Javier Reyes join the band.

On the success of the album Animals as Leaders enjoyed an extensive tour schedule including the illustrious 2010 Summer Slaughter Tour alongside acts such as Decapitated, The Red Chord, The Faceless and since then supporting more mainstream acts including Dredg, Underoath and Thrice.

The band was able to headline their own tour for the first time in mid 2011, enlisting Dead Letter Circus, Last Chance to Reason and Intronaut as support acts and announced on July 27, 2011 at a show at the Masquerade in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., that the gig was being recorded for a live DVD. November 8 of that year marked the band’s sophomore released entitled “Weightless”.

2012 brought in drummer Matt Garstka to replace Navene Koperweis, and an impressive European headlining tour. In the same year Animals as Leaders signed to Sumerian Record who subsequently released the band’s third album “The Joy of Motion” on March 25, 2014.