Band Lineup:

Suraj

Baiju

Deepu

Clyde

John

Formed in 1996, motherjane is an explosive progressive metal act from the city of cochin. Having been a hub of rock music in the 80s Cochin’s star was in decline with the advent of the 90s and there was a dearth of high quality rock music frm god’s own city. This situation was remedied when John, Shyam, Nirmal , Clyde, Mithun & Laji formed the original motherjane in 1996. Driven by desperation after the showdown band for their college fest pulled out at the last moment, John & his friends assembled the band to save face. Call it providence or serendipity or whatever, they never looked back!

The name motherjane is a variant of Mary Jane and it reflects the band’s philosophy that music is by far, the purest drug in the world. Having won laurels in some of the biggest festivals they played in, including IIT bombay and NLS Bangalore, Motherjane was featured on channel [v]’s “out there” in 1996 in a list of India’s promising bands.

In 1997 motherjane recorded their first demo tape with three songs.

It was after this that the band underwent a line up change, with Suraj on vocals and Rex on rhythm guitar appearing on the scene. Suraj having served as vocalist for Bangalore band Stone Cold and Rex being a much sought after studio musician. This line up change saw the genesis of a new chapter in the Motherjane story. Having been primarily a cover band uptil then, and being better known for their reworkings of classcis ( their super extended version of “another brick in the wall” had us stunned, when we saw it on TV), they shifted their focus to composing originals.

In November 2002 came the time for the Indian rock scene to receive a shot in the arm as Motherjane released their debut album titled Insane Biography. Well ‘Insane’ is the apt word for the reaction of the rock community and pundits here. 6 months after the release Motherjane’s Insane Biography was chosen as the “Best Indian Rock Album :2002-03” the biggest festival in southern India – June Rock Out and got some of the most raving reviews to have been bestowed on an Indian rock band.
Motherjane’s song Mindstreet was chosen for the GIR compilation album 2003 and the band was chosen to perform at the biggest platform in the country – Levi’s Great Indian Rock 2003.
Kudos followed from abroad as well later in 2003 as the song Mindstreet was featured on US Radio in a play-list boasting of rock heavyweights like Rush and Genesis.
Currently, as on September 1, 2004, all of Motherjane’s album is being aired across 14 international radio stations.
Motherjane’s album Insane biography then became the only Indian Rock album to be featured in the Asian Rock Rising Festival in Japan on November 1,2003. Channel V could resist all this as they traveled all the way from Bombay to a small island of Vypeen in Kerala for an interview and shoot with Motherjane. Motherjane’s doorbell rang with another good news from Japan in 2004 as the song Soul Corporations became the only Indian band’s rock song to be chosen for the Annual Japanese compilation album M & I Records Motherjane’s song Mindstreet – the first one to hit the US radio stations and the one featuring on GIR’03 compilation is now an AIRTEL HELLO TUNE.

Motherjane is still equally well known for what they used to do the best – Having one of the most diverse playlists among bands in the country including some note perfect covers of Dream Theater, Iron Maiden , Metallica, Megadeth, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Rush, Steve Vai Scorpions & Pink Floyd An act that has headlined some 100+ shows from Roorkee to Trivandrum to Pune to Guwahati, Motherjane has some of the biggest festivals in its “Rocked” kitty : IIT Delhi’s – blitzkreig, IIT Roorkee’s – Thomso,IIT Kanpur’s – Synchorinicity, IIT Chennai’s Saarang, BITS Pilani’s – Oasis, IIT Guwahati’s Alcheringa, St. Stephens – Harmony and IIM Kozhikode’s Kryptonite .