Baiju with his ‘Syndicate’

This band teams up individuals with varied interests. 20-year-old drummer Abhirup, ran away from his house to travel and play his choice of music. Sujan, the bassist, shuffles his college studies and music and Vishnu the vocalist is happy fine tuning his music knowledge. The common thread among these musicians is their association with their favorite guitarist Baiju Dharmajan who is also known as ‘God of Small Strings’ by his fans.

“I like working with young and new talents. So during my tour of the solo album ‘The Crossover’, I was travelling with these musicians,” shared Baiju. And there started another musical journey with the formation of the band ‘Baiju Dharmajan Syndicate’. The band performed at Hard Rock Café on Tuesday.

Over a year of association later and after taking part in popular music festivals like ‘NH7 Weekender’, ‘October Fest’ and ‘Go Mad Fest’, the band is gaining recognition from music lovers. “Basically, it is our way to carry forward the signature sound of Motherjane, with its modified version after including elements like electronic, carnatic and rock beats,” said Hari, the band manager.

Baiju, the lead guitarist of the band, is known for blending two different musical elements-carnatic and rock. But he does not prefer to coin his style as fusion.

“I think my style is more like a free flow of my musical expressions that is a reflection of music which I have grew up with,” said the guitarist who started playing from the age of 14. He began by playing the violin and slowly shifted to the western instrument. When most of the budding musicians are busy mastering the technical aspect of playing, he emphasised on the creative part of it. “Music is the medium to express your thought. You really do not have to use thousand notes and show your technical efficiency on that; rather one note is enough,” he added.

Though Baiju is an instrumentalist, he has a unique take on vocals, “Since voice is the first sound that comes from us, we tend to get connected to it easily. Not only that, I believe vocal elements have the power to express and reach out where instrumental music has a limitation.”

The band is currently working on their debut album. This apart, Baiju is working on a musical project titled ‘Antaraka’ with some young musicians. “My message to all the budding musicians is that chase your dream. Initially you have to struggle, but the satisfaction you get in the end is worthy enough,” he signed off.