Baiju Dharmajan is an India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n guitarist

Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

, music composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, producer and guitar teacher. He is widely considered as one of the best guitar players to have surfaced in the country from the last decade. He achieved fame and huge popularity in India, as the lead guitarist for the Indian rock band Motherjane

Motherjane

Motherjane is an Indian rock band from Kochi, India, formed in 1996. The band consists of Suraj Mani , John Thomas , Clyde Rozario , Deepu Sasidharan and Santosh Chandran . They have released a total of two studio albums, and three singles...

. Often referred to as 'God of Small Strings’, Baiju has been particularly noted for his winding, carnatic

Carnatic music

Carnatic music is a system of music commonly associated with the southern part of the Indian subcontinent, with its area roughly confined to four modern states of India: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu...

-inspired & enduring guitar solos.

Among other awards and felicitations, Baiju was twice voted as the best guitarist at the Jack Daniel's Awards(India).

Biography

Born in Vypin Islands (near Cochin, India), Baiju started his musical career at early age starting first with carnatic violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

 but then slowly shifting to guitar. His father used to play the Hawaiian guitar and his grandfather was a Carnatic musician. He used to play guitar in a travelling troop of musicians from a early age and has even played with the legendary Malayalam singer Yesudas.

After relocating back to his hometown in Vypin in the 90's, he first started playing for a band called INSTINCT, following it up with bands such as WRENZ & ATMAA. With WRENZ he played all over south India

South India

South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...

. In 1993, they fired him from the band after which he stopped playing guitar for a couple of years. Then he was invited to play with fusion band called ATMAA, formed by ex Wrenz drummer Nirmal. From the practice session of that band, he met John of Motherjane, who then invited him to audition for the lead guitarist position for the band.

He has cited his influences as Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...

, Jimmy Page

Jimmy Page

James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...

, Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck

Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...

, Steve Vai

Steve Vai

Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....

, Joe Satriani

Joe Satriani

Joseph "Joe" Satriani is an American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations...

, Reb Beach

Reb Beach

Reb Beach is an American rock guitarist. He is a member of the bands Winger and Whitesnake...

, Brian May

Brian May

Brian Harold May, CBE is an English musician and astrophysicist most widely known as the guitarist and a songwriter of the rock band Queen...

.

Baiju is also a big fan of illayaraja and loves the compositions of other Indian composers like Raveendran

Raveendran

M. Raveendran , fondly called as "Raveendran Master" was a popular South Indian music composer and Playback singer from Kerala. He was always referred to as the aristocratic music director of Malayalam who had a distinctive style of his own. He composed more than 150 films primarily for the...

, Devarajan, Noushad and R.D. Burman. His father had a vast collection of Gazals by Mehdi Hassan

Mehdi Hassan

Mehdi Hassan is a Pakistani ghazal singer and a former playback singer for Lollywood. He is famously known as the 'King of ghazal' . He has ruled the Pakistan film industry along with Ahmed Rushdi...

, Anup Jalota

Anup Jalota

Anup Jalota is an Indian singer/musician, best known for his performances in the Indian musical form, the bhajan and the Urdu form of poetry: ghazal.He is popularly known as the Bhajan Samraat .-Early life:...

, and Pankaj Udhas

Pankaj Udhas

Pankaj Udhas is an Indian singer, credited in the Indian music industry, along with other musicians like Jagjit Singh and Talat Aziz, with bringing the style to the realm of popular music. Udhas rose to fame for singing in the film Naam , in which his song Chitthi Aayee Hai became an instant hit....

. He grew up with all these Malayalam,Tamil and Hindi film music.

Motherjane era

Motherjane played an important part in Baiju's career. It was here that he was catapulted into the legions of great guitarist as he helped them compose, produce and played the leads for two of their albums. He also travelled the entire length and breadth of the country, playing in several college gigs and other festivals. This helped to create an almost iconinc image for him, among the rock loving youths of India..

Insane Biography (2002–2003)

Motherjane

Motherjane

Motherjane is an Indian rock band from Kochi, India, formed in 1996. The band consists of Suraj Mani , John Thomas , Clyde Rozario , Deepu Sasidharan and Santosh Chandran . They have released a total of two studio albums, and three singles...

 released their debut album, Insane Biography in 2002 under Kan & Will Records. The songs "Maya" and "Soul Corporations" had strong Indian musical elements which would continue in later albums. "Soul Corporations" was featured in Geki-Teki Metal, a compilation album

Compilation album

A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

 released in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 in 2004. Soon after the release of Insane Biography, rhythm guitarist Rex Vijayan left the band in 2003, and was replaced by Deepu Sasidharan. Sasidharan at that time, was playing with the Kochi based hard rock band 13AD. Insane Biography was the only Indian album to be featured in the Asian Rock Rising Festival in Japan on November 1, 2003. The band also headlined Levi’s Great Indian Rock 2003.

Baiju has credited the song 'Broken' from this album as changing his music direction completely. This was the song were he experimented by combining carntaic style shredding with normal rock style 'guitaring.

He has stated that "After I recorded the lead part of ‘Broken’ and went home, this uneasy feeling of “Something gone wrong” kept on coming back to haunt. Even though the pattern that got recorded was good ,I knew that I could have done better. I composed another lead part in carnatic style and the next day it was recorded. That turned out to be brilliant and I have won the best guitarist at Jack Daniel Awards"

Maktub (2008)

Maktub which was released in 2008, marked a change in Motherjane's musical style. Influence of Carnatic music was prominently seen in the guitar, vocals and percussion, and native instruments like the chenda were used. Strong Carnatic guitar leads by Baiju were instrumental in growing Motherjane's fan base exponentially and provided a new musical direction to the band. In 2009, Rolling Stone India named Maktub as the album of the year.

Post-Motherjane era

Post the Motherjane era, Baiju Dharmajan is more focused on his solo album which is due to release later this year. Baiju is also part of multiple musical projects with different musicians as well as concentrating on music production for upcoming bands. Currently he is part of 'Kashmir' Cofounded with Sanjeev Thomas and other initiatives with prolific musicians such as John Antony of the jazz fusion

Jazz fusion

Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...

 experimental band 'Karnatrix' and 'Bluefire' -a brainchild of classical violinist Harikumar Sivan.

Music producer

With his expertise in producing two full length hugely acclaimed albums for Motherjane, Baiju Dharmajan is now spending time on helping young bands produce music records. His first project was for the kochi

Kochi

-Places:* Kochi, a city in the state of Kerala, India, formerly known as Cochin* Kingdom of Cochin, a former feudal city-state on Malabar Coast, India** Fort Kochi, one of the three main urban components which constitute the present day city of Kochi, Kerala, India...

based new Instrumental act Kaav.

The band's EP consisting of three songs produced by Baiju was rated as the best EP to have released in India during 2010 by the music web portal Indiecision. Presently he is in the process of guiding kaav again for the band's full length album of eight songs as well as in talks with several other bands across India to take charge of the sound production.

Equipment

Ibanez RG320,epiphone prophecy,Yamaha Compass series Acoustic guitar,epiphone sst classic 2.0, DIGITECH GSP1101 and ART SGX 2000 PRE AMP

Discography

• Insane Biography - Motherjane - 2003
  • Production - Baiju Dharmajan - Kan & Will Records
• Maktub - Motherjane - 2008
  • Production - Baiju Dharmajan - Aumi Artiste
• By the Moonlight - Wrenz United - 2011
  • Production - Baiju Dharmajan - indie

External links

• http://rollingstoneindia.com/artists/motherjane-2/
• Motherjane Official Band Profile
• "Baiju JD Awards"
• Interview
• "Baiju Profile"
• http://rollingstoneindia.com/all-access/10-best-indian-albums-of-2008/
• http://rollingstoneindia.com/features/motherjane-an-indian-tale/
• http://www.hindu.com/2007/10/08/stories/2007100858600300.htm
• http://nh7.in/indiecision/2010/11/24/motherjane-guitarist-baiju-dharmajan-quits-band/
• http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/03/23/stories/2008032350200700.htm
• http://www.hindu.com/2009/01/18/stories/2009011856061100.htm
• http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune-times/Pune-rock-gets-into-the-studio/articleshow/33618180.cms

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/tabloid/glam-sham/guitar-juggler-591