by Mark Kadzielawa

Cynic is a very complicated band. Its chameleon nature continues to surprise the fan base, and the band just keeps challenging themselves at all times. Cynic has a definite feel to it, it's how they deliver that feel is what makes them so unusual and exciting.
Formed in the late 80s as one of many speed/death metal bands, Cynic started its evolution even as a demo band. The band was formed by guitarist/vocalist, Paul Masvidal and drummer Sean Reinert back in 1988. Many of its members quickly grew as very accomplished players, often lending their talents elsewhere. Masvidal's and Reinert's performance on Death's "Human" is still one of the milestones of the entire genre. Despite many such appearances the heart of their journey remained Cynic. By the time Cynic released their debut album, "Focus," they were a very mature act. In many ways too mature for a public who back in 1993 simply desired a primitive-undiluted death metal. Cynic was that (partially) and much more, and it was that much more component which took the band into the unknown.
Cynic split in 1994, but its members were committed to a lifelong of musical growth. After going a full circle with other projects, the two core members found their way back to Cynic in 2006. Masvidal and Reinert are currently joined by Tymon Kruidenier on guitar/vocals and Robin Zielhorst on bass. By 2008, Cynic was back as a recording artist releasing "Traced In Air." An album showcasing an incredible progress and musical growth. Cynic became very visible on the touring circuit as well. In 2010, the band released an EP titled "Re-Traced." The EP consists of re-worked material from "Traced In Air" LP, and by far is the most accomplished and comprehensive Cynic release. At this point, the future for Cynic couldn't be brighter. Paul Masvidal, talks about the evolution of Cynic as a musical entity.

After you've made "Focus", you toured for a bit, and periodically disappeared from the public eye as Cynic, what happened?
Paul Masvidal: Well, weve made "Focus", which was released back in 1993, and we toured for about a year. We were changing pretty quickly musically at the time, and we felt very discouraged by the music industry in general. When we came back home after the tour, we were trying to make a decision if we were gonna make the new album. We decided to move forward, and started working on some new music. As we did that we realized the new music started to sound very different than Cynic ever did in the past. So we decided to call that project Portal, and we made a ten song demo, which was the pre-production of what would've been Cynic's second album. It was gonna be under a different name. We brought in a female singer, and it was just totally different sound. That's pretty much the beginning of how the band dissolved. That was around 1994/1995 when we started moving kind of into a different place, and realizing that we were just ready for a change. I think we were burnt out on the industry. We felt unloved and misunderstood as a band. We weren't really thrilled about the record company situation. We just thought we should be doing something else. We wanted to make music again, but without the pressures of the industry. Just to be a musician without having to think about the business side of it. We all went back to school at that time as well.
From the perspective of time, how do you feel about "Focus" today?
I think it's a good record. I really do think so. I know that when we made it, I gave it a 110%. I think it still works, and it did what it needed to do.
Not everyone understood "Focus" when it came out, do you think the public finally grew up enough to appreciate the album?
I don't know. It seems like it definitely spread, and it's been the word of mouth type a thing. Our peers and colleagues who would often proclaim their love for the band helped a lot too. I think that's how Cynic got more popular. It was just the respect among the fellow musicians. The influence factor was really what did it. I think in terms of getting credibility in the scene that's what did it.
Speaking of being musician, you've made a great name for yourself playing with Death, Master, and countless of other projects. How instrumental were these appearances to what you later did with Cynic?
I mean indirectly it helped spread the word about us and Cynic. We were like this big underground band before we even made a record, and that helped. Everyone was like who are these guys that are playing on all these people's records? We kept pushing Cynic in that process, and just trying to spread the word about what we were doing. Deep down we knew we were always gonna go back to Cynic. I think doing it certainly helped out the band.
One of the oddest situations was the mini-metal festival in Milwaukee back in 1990 where every member of Cynic was performing with somebody else, yet Cynic was not playing at all.
It was intentional you see. We knew what we were doing. We had the opportunities to go out there and work as musicians. We knew we were gonna do our own project so, but we had to be patient about it. It was fun, and a great experience getting out there, playing with other groups and touring.
During the time of inactivity as a band, what were you doing?
I moved to Los Angeles, and I went back to school. I studied more jazz, and got deep into jazz. I worked with different songwriters, and started producing some records. Also, I started working as a session musician for the network sitcom, and I did that for 10 years. I worked on bunch of Carsey Warner network productions, and I had a Discovery channel kids show. I was just really busy in the TV world of making music. That was pretty much a ten year process, and then I started another project. Over the years I was writing a lot of material, and I started another project called Aeon Spoke, and we released a record (the band releases two records: "Above The Buried Cry" in 2004, and "Aeon Spoke" in 2007). And then I kind of found myself in Cynic again.
What was the initial spark that re-activated Cynic?
It was bunch of synchronicities that happened. It was bunch of events that curiously all aligned around the same time. And when I started to look around at it, I felt that something was going on here, the universe was telling us to get back together. So for the first time since back in the day, I felt like it was time. It felt honest.



When you brought the band back to life, what did you intend to do? What path did you have in mind for Cynic?
I was just interested....well, when we brought it back it was just a reunion. We brought it back. We did the reunion first, and we didn't really intend to do anything too serious. We wanted to share "Focus" with everyone, and then that's it. What we discovered while doing it is that there were so many fans and people who were passionate about the music. There was a big scene for us, so we decided to go for it, and do it again. Let's give it a shot. I got a new song I brought with for the reunion. The song was "Evolutionary Sleeper" and I just brought it as an experiment, just to see what would happen. The reaction was really positive, so we just went ahead and went with the flow.
What musical vision did you try to portray on "Traced In Air"?
I wasn't really trying to do anything really, other than reflecting where I was at musically. We were just trying to make a great record. I think there was a little bit of the "Focus" as a reference point because we had been touring it for a while. And with all reunion stuff I've had "Focus" back in my biology again. But it was really about where we are at now.
Is the audience keeping up with the progress they hear on the new songs?
It seems like it. The response to Traced had been really positive, it's been really great, and we got a lot of new younger fans too. So, it's kind of spread out. That's how I figure it.
Despite the differences "Focus" and "Traced In Air" have, I think If you were to strip down both albums down you would find the same elements at the core. Did you ever analyze it this way?
Well, the music is coming from the same person. I'm probably the heartbeat of the project. I think our hearts don't change very much. And that's really the core of any creative process. I think "Focus" had a realized language, it was a realized record, it had maturity to it that we've carried on and just evolved and refined over the years. But it's all there. It's a transparent thing. I think "Focus" was made at the right time because we had enough time to kind of find out who we were. It sounds like a grown up record to some degree. It's definitely young to me, and when I hear it harmonically and all, I knew that we were onto something there. There is definitely a language there.
At this point, do you still consider "Focus" a point of reference?
Not really. Now I'm ready to move on completely. I think with "Traced..." we kind of did that, and now with the new album we're gonna abandon all reference points, and just go straight into the unknown.
The new EP, "Re-Traced", is an interesting concept in itself. What boundaries did you want to push with this release?
For us, it told us a few things. One, it told us we can stretch out even further, that Cynic has no boundaries. We can do something like that, and still sound like Cynic. And that was really cool. The response has been really polarized. A lot of the extreme metal fans don't get it at all, but the more open seem to really love it. It's been really encouraging actually. It just says to me, Cynic has a sound, and it's not necessarily related to distortion. It can be anything, it's just a feeling association versus a production.



Listening to "Re-Traced", I imagine the band really moving in the field of bands like Porcupine Tree, or even Opeth. Bands that are not afraid to take numerous left and right turns. In my opinion, "Re-Traced" can be considered a spring board to something completely new.
Yeah, I see your point. I'm just excited about the possibilities we now have.
Your vocal style had undergone huge changes over the years. How would you describe this metamorphosis?
I think I just got more secure as a singer. I actually enjoy singing now as opposed to back then where I was hiding a little bit behind the vocoder and being shy. Now I've just came into a place where I actually enjoy singing and feel comfortable with my voice. I think that's what really happened with my voice.
If you were to look at Cynic from the first demo to now, do you see a clear pattern?
No, I see a lot of zigzags, and it's really dynamic. There are a lot of big leaps, and short little walks in between.
At this point, you're getting ready to write and record the next album, what do you think will happen?
I don't know. I've written a lot of music, but we haven't played it as a band. That's gonna be what will determine where it's going. I think it's going to be very different and new. At times really heavy, at times really spacious, and at times really beautiful. It's gonna have it all. It's gonna be Cynic in a really cool way because we've been touring with this group for a couple of years now, so we really have a chemistry, which I think is really going to make for an interesting album. So I'm excited about that.

Links:
http://www.cynicalsphere.com/