Motherjane

Motherjane is music from progressive India. Spiritual, intelligent, proudly ignoring its roots and fearlessly questioning its rules.

Consisting of Suraj Mani, John Thomas, Deepu VS, Clyde D’Rozario and Baiju MD, Motherjane was formed on Jan 24th, 1996 to fill in at the ‘Pro Nite’ at the College Festival of St.Albert’s College, Cochin, as the professional band due to play dropped out. Drummer John Thomas, who was the Arts Club Secretary of the college, put together the first line-up of Motherjane consisting of Laji on vocals, Mithun on guitars, Clyde Rozario on bass and himself on drums. The band’s name originates from a variant of ‘Mary Jane’, and voices their belief that music is by far the purest drug in existence. This was also a strategy by the band to draw attention to the fact that none of the band members believe in drugs, and are against drug consumption.

After a few gigs, Laji quit the band to pursue higher studies abroad and Mithun followed suit soon. It was somewhere in 1997 that the mercurial Baiju Dharmajan was invited by John to fill in as the guitarist for a gig. John immediately took a liking to Baiju and asked him to join Motherjane. Baiju accepted his offer and the trio of Baiju, Clyde and John immediately started practicing. A temporary vocalist filled for a few gigs, and later they found Suraj. In addition, the rhythm guitar section was filled by an extremely talented Rex Vijayan, who later on became an integral part of the genre-blending band

Since then, Motherjane has been making waves in the music circuit and carving a name out for itself in the international music scene. Five Motherjane songs from their album ‘Insane biography’ got airplay on fourteen US and five Mexican Radio stations and generated a growing global fan base for them.

Their next album ‘Maktub’ has been endorsed by Rolling Stone as the No. 1 Indian album of 2008-09, by Rock Street Journal as Album of the Year 2009 and also as the Rock Album of the Year ’08-’09 at the Unwind Center Live Awards. Apart from that Motherjane has been named the Best International Rock Act at the Asian Voice Independent Music Awards 2009 (the largest Independent music awards in the world)

Motherjane has performed with several International acts like Mr. BIG, Third Eye Blind, Secondhand Serenade and MEW. They have also played with Megadeth, Ensiferum and Opeth at various festivals like Rock in India 2008, Mood-i-2008 and Saarang 2009. And they have been honored by MySpace to launch the renowned MySpace Secret Shows in India – joining the ranks of U2, Oasis, Slayer and Neil Diamond who have done similar high profile launches.

Their songs have also gotten recognition from many sources. Another feather in their cap was when, for the 1st time in Indian rock history, one of Motherjane’s songs, ‘Maya’, written by Suraj was published in the Indian Book of Chronicles alongside works of top contemporary literary greats. With their song ‘Soul Corporations’ they also become the 1st Indian Band and one among the only 3 Asian bands whose song was featured on a compilation album ‘Geki Teki Metall’.

Motherjane has not just performed but also conducted workshops for Seunheiser’s launch and Soundcraft’s Vi6 launch in India. Because of this, they have been recognized and honored as India’s 1st endorsee of World leaders in professional sound equipments.

Listed below are a few more of their significant achievements:
Baiju MD – Best guitarist (2007), Jack Daniels Rock Awards
John Thomas – Best Drummer (2008), Jack Daniels Rock Awards
Suraj Mani – Best male Vocalist (2008), Jack Daniels Rock Awards

Don’t forget to catch them all this month, only on myopusradio.com