Baiju Dharmajan

Baiju Dharmajan is an Indian guitarist, music composer, producer and guitar tutor based out of Kochi, Kerala. A celebrated musician in his own country, Baiju had an extended stint during the 2000s as the lead guitarist of the Indian rock band Motherjane. He has been nicknamed the "God of Strings" by his fans. Baiju is particularly noted for his winding, Carnatic-inspired and enduring guitar solos. .

Born in Vypin Islands (near Cochin, India) to Thankamani and Dharmajan, Baiju started his musical career at the age of 14. He began with the Carnatic violin but then slowly shifted to the guitar. His father used to play the Hawaiian guitar and his grandfather was a Carnatic musician. His first role as a performer began at the age of 5 as a guitar player in a traveling troop of musicians, giving him the opportunity to play with legendary Malayalam singer Yesudas.

After relocating to his hometown in Vypin in the 90's, he started playing in a band called Instinct, followed by short stints with the bands Wrenz and Aatma. During one of the practice sessions of the band Aatma, he met John of Motherjane, who then invited him to audition for the lead guitarist position in the band.

He has cited his influences as Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Reb Beach and Brian May.

Baiju is also a big fan of Illayaraja and loves the compositions of other Indian composers like Raveendran, Devarajan, Naushad and R.D. Burman. His father had a vast collection of ghazals by Mehdi Hassan, Anup Jalota, and Pankaj Udhas and he grew up listening to Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi film music.

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