The Masvidalien: Delving Into the Mind of a Musical Innovator

At the heart of Los Angeles, veteran musician and visionary Paul Masvidal works tirelessly on his extensive array of projects, letting his ideas grow slowly and allowing his myriad influences to transport him into a unique headspace.

As his band Cynic celebrates the 25th and 10th anniversaries, respectively, of their first and second albums, he shifts his auditory eye towards an entirely new endeavour. As he works on his first solo acoustic material, he harkens back to the early days of the band, and how his unique vocal styles and their combination of jazz and heavy metal took shape.

“I wanted to embody a sad alien” said Paul, referring to his unconventional and distinct vocoder-drenched vocals.

Paul’s extraterrestrial embodiment sets a tone reflective of both his music and his unparalleled personal journey. His artistry is a culmination of anxiety, depression, happiness, meditation, experimentation, and growth, amongst the many components of his personality. His work resultantly evolves alongside himself, pushing a steel envelope as if it were paper, and his upcoming solo project is no exception.

Although he rose to influential prominence with Cynic, he first put himself on the radar through his time as one of the guitarists in the seminal Floridian metal band Death, working alongside legendary frontman and fellow visionary Chuck Schuldiner.

“We were pen pals. Chuck was like an older brother to me,” Masvidal said, referring to the origins of his tenure in Death and his friendship with the late frontman. “I actually knew Chuck before I was even in the band. I was in the tape trading scene… we would make mixtapes and send them to each other, and that’s how we discovered new music.”

Masvidal and former Cynic drummer Sean Reinert worked on the groundbreaking Death album “Human,” allowing their jazz-influenced musicality to help steer the band’s sound towards Schuldiner’s cerebral vision.

Death’s and Cynic’s forays into uncharted musical waters showcased Masvidal’s intellectual reputation in the music scene. In fact, he opened up in the regularly updated MettaMind blog on MetalSucks.com, but discontinued the blog once his schedule became too busy.

“I’d love to return to it and continue,” said Paul.

These blogs touched upon various topics, such as meditation, spirituality and Buddhist philosophy.

In addition to his reputation as a thought-provoking personality, Masvidal, alongside Reinert, publicly came out as gay in a Los Angeles Times article in 2014, much to widespread support from the music community. Despite having come out publicly recently, he never hid his sexual orientation from his bandmates or family. In fact, Masvidal’s spirituality never clashed with his sexuality, but rather, stood comfortably independent.

“I’m very happy to be gay. I wish I could be gay in my next life!” Masvidal said, chuckling heartily.

The sheer uniqueness of Cynic’s discography owed itself to the massively diverse pool of influences that shaped the playing of each member, ultimately contributing to the band’s out-of-body presentation.

Although Cynic formed over 30 years ago, the band yielded three studio albums and several extended plays, with their next album set tentatively for release sometime in 2019.

“We take our time with these songs. We like to let them grow and evolve, and not rush things,” he said in reference to the long gaps between Cynic’s studio albums.

Inspired by the local Laurel Canyon folk music scene of the 1960s and albums such as “Siamese Dream” by The Smashing Pumpkins, “Nothing’s Shocking” by Jane’s Addiction and My Bloody Valentine’s “Loveless,” Masvidal wrote volumes of music that will soon see the light of day.

Experimenting with isochronic and binaural tones, Masvidal’s work manifested a sound profile that stands as a collage of psychedelic and folk-influenced acoustic music against an ambient aura.

On Instagram, Masvidal sent a post calling for filmmakers to send footage for him to set to his music. He revealed that the post was very successful, and that the collaborations will serve as promotional material for his work.

His story is unparalleled in the realm of metal as a trailblazer of seemingly unworkable fusions of genre and style who became successful enough to make a living off of his passion. Despite this, he never expected that he would garner the surreal amount of recognition he did as a frontman.

“I didn’t want to be a frontman, I just wanted to play guitar,” he said.

While the experimental and avant garde movements have made a steadfast comeback, Masvidal remains unfettered and unthreatened. He continues to push boundaries with all of his various projects, including the long awaited new Cynic album.

Regarding the rise of new experimental artists, Masvidal said,

“It makes me want to go home and write music!”

Masvidal’s new EP Human will be released on October 11th, 2019.