After playing for a few years in the "straight" music world as a member of the uniquely virtuosic Washington, D.C.-based metalcore band Reflux, seven- and eight-string guitar wizard Tosin Abasi was asked to record a solo album by the group's then record label, Prosthetic Records, once the group disbanded. At first, Abasi declined on the grounds that to do so would be "egotistical," but he eventually relented and founded a new entity named Animals as Leaders (inspired by Daniel Quinn's 1992 anthropocentric novel Ishmael) to function as this solo project. An eponymous debut album followed in April of 2009 and saw Abasi handling all guitar and bass tracks, while drums and other synthesized sound effects were programmed by engineer Misha Mansoor.