Tosin Abasi: ibanez interview

Ibanez: What has Reflux been up to lately?
Tosin: I guess we're not really a band anymore [laughs]. We never officially released anything, but the drummer and I decided that we wanted to go to school for music. So we were just going to take a year off to finish the program that we were doing, and our bassist ended up playing for Animosity. Our singer, Ash, started a record label, and he books other bands full-time. Interestingly enough, Prosthetic Records is going to launch another label for instrumental guitar-oriented music in the vein of the old Shrapnel and Magna Carta stuff, and I'm going to be the first release off of that label. So I've been working on that solo album, and I'm just about done. We're going to start mixing in about a week or so.

Ibanez: How has the approach on that been different from when you were in Reflux?
Tosin: Stylistically, it's way more adventurous. The guitar I got from the Ibanez custom shop is synth-equipped, and I've been using a lot of weird unison synth effects. It's going to be interesting. Just from going to school, I've got way more comprehension of harmonies, and there's more extensions in the chords. They're more colorful. Before with Reflux, I was just playing by ear.

Ibanez: Did you take any kind of lessons when you were younger?
Tosin: No, no lessons. I'm completely self-taught, but there are all sorts of videos like the REH videos and Hot Licks videos from the hair metal days that I would watch. I had all the old videos of Ibanez players like Paul Gilbert and John Petrucci, and that's all that I worked on. I've also always been really into writing, so I would work on the technique stuff and just concentrate on writing riffs. That's where I was, but that's kind of a limited standpoint.
full interview

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