Niles Hollowell-Dhar (born October 6, 1988), known professionally as Kshmr (pronounced "Kashmir" and stylized in all caps), is an American musician, DJ, songwriter, record producer, former rapper, and singer.[Riddhy Chakraborty (January 2, 2017). Kshmr: 'India Has Been a Large Part of My Success'. Rolling Stone India. Retrieved June 29, 2020.] He was ranked 23rd on DJ Mags 2015 Top 100 DJs poll and was awarded highest new entry for the year.
Early life
Hollowell-Dhar was born in Berkeley, California.
His father is a
Kashmiri Pandit who emigrated from India, while his mother is American.
He got his stage name from the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, where his paternal side hails from. His singles "Jammu" and "Kashmir" also derive their names from the state.
Career
2003–2013: The Cataracs
Hollowell-Dhar was originally part of the hip-hop production duo
the Cataracs with high school friend David Singer-Vine, releasing hits such as "Like a G6" with Far East Movement and "Bass Down Low" with DEV, and co-producing others such as
Selena Gomez's second song off her debut album
Stars Dance.
Following Singer-Vine's departure from the duo in 2012, Hollowell-Dhar continued producing music with the name the Cataracs until 2014.
2014: Transition into Kshmr
In 2014, Hollowell-Dhar started making
electro house music under the alias of Kshmr.
Under this name, he charted on
Beatport. Before he released songs under Kshmr, he co-produced tracks like 'Tsunami' by
DVBBS and
Borgeous, as well as 'Stampede' by Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike,
Dvbbs, and
Borgeous.
Hollowell-Dhar released his first single "Megalodon" on February 24, 2014, through Spinnin' Records. A Kshmr and R3hab collaboration resulted in the single "Karate" that charted in
SNEP in March 2015.
Most of Hollowell-Dhar's songs are released under Spinnin' Records. Hollowell-Dhar started raising attention when his single "Burn", a collaboration with DallasK, debuted reached the Top 40 chart on Beatport then eventually reached No. 1. The song has been released on 3 labels: Revealed Recordings, Spinnin' Records, and
Ultra Records.
2015: Secrets
Until Hollowell-Dhar was introduced at Ultra Music Festival 2015 by Tiësto, his identity was relatively unknown. His song, "Secrets", a collaboration with Tiësto and Vassy
was largely successful, streaming through buzz charts, and reaching the top of the Beatport Chart. In June 2015, Hollowell-Dhar announced he would host with Spinnin' Records a remix contest for his track "Jammu"
– the first prize being a collaboration with Hollowell-Dhar on a new track. The contest was held on Spinnin Records' Talent Pool platform and the first place went to Kyfra, who won the collaboration with Hollowell-Dhar. In July 2015, Hollowell-Dhar released his highly anticipated debut sound pack exclusively with Splice Sounds.
After the contest, Hollowell-Dhar announced his first live performance,
at the Fonda Theater, Los Angeles, which took place on September 19, 2015.
2016: The Lion Across the Field
He released his first EP, "The Lion Across the Field" on May 13, 2016.
On July 23, 2016, he performed his first set in the Tomorrowland music festival, on the mainstage. On September 5, 2016, he collaborated with Tigerlily to release his new single, "Invisible Children".
Hollowell-Dhar said "The project was already a great start. I added my ideas and it came together pretty quickly. The name comes from a term referring to slum kids in India and places around the world where poverty is so rampant that people begin to stop noticing".
Two weeks later, he was awarded "Best Live Act" category on
DJ Magazine 2016. His place elevated from 23rd to 12th in
DJ Magazine 2016 Top 100 DJs list.
On October 24, 2016, he collaborated with
Bassjackers to release their single "Extreme" featuring Sidnie Tipton via Spinnin' Records.
In an emailed statement, Bassjackers said "Besides a musical connection, we also developed a friendship outside of music. We think that friendship contributes to what makes this song so special".
In October 2016, he released his new song with
Will Sparks titled "Voices" as a free download on Spinnin' Premium.
2017: Dharma Worldwide and Power
In March 2017, Hollowell-Dhar released "Back To Me" with Crossnaders featuring Micky Blue.
He performed at Ultra Music Festival on March 24, 2017, with
Timmy Trumpet and played with live musicians throughout the whole set for the first time in his career, as he wrote:
On June 16, 2017, "Harder", a collaboration between Hollowell-Dhar and Tiësto, was released via Spinnin' Records.[Kat Bein,
]
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> "R3hab & KSHMR's 'Islands' Sets Sail on Waves of Neon Gold: Listen", Billboard, December 1, 2017. Retrieved December 30, 2017. on Dharma Worldwide with electro house producer R3HAB. Within the same month, Hollowell-Dhar worked with producers Marnik and the Golden Army to release a psytrance influenced big room house track titled "Shiva" on December 29, 2017.[Alexander Costello,
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> "Kshmr & Marnik – Shiva (Feat. The Golden Army) (Sunburn 2017 Anthem), WeRaveYou, December 29, 2017. Retrieved December 30, 2017.]
2018: House of Cards, Carry Me Home, and Magic
Kshmr released "House Of Cards" on February 16, 2018, which features Sidnie Tipton, who provided vocals to "Wildcard".
Lacking Hollowell-Dhar's notable big room elements, the track is influenced by
pop music and
acoustic music components such as guitar riffs in the song's break.
He also played the mainstage of Ultra Music Festival Miami with a set presenting new tracks and many of his well-known productions.
On May 18, 2018, Hollowell-Dhar released "Doonka" which incorporates elements of both big room and trap music as a free download with Mr.Black.
Hollowell-Dhar collaborated with
Jaap Reesema to release "Carry Me Home" on June 15, 2018, a progressive house song originally premiered at his 2018 Ultra Music Festival performance.
Commenting on the track's production, Hollowell-Dhar stated, "Carry Me Home started with the drop melody. I was scared I wouldn't find a vocal I loved just as much, but Jake Reese and co-writer blew me away with what they wrote."
He released Greek-influenced single "Opa" with Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike on July 22, 2018,
and "Neverland" with 7 Skies on August 3, 2018, which combined elements from the genres of
bounce music and big room house.
The duo had previously worked together on a sample pack titled Symphony-Serum Hybrid Orchestra on music creation platform Splice. His next single titled "Good Vibes Soldier", co-produced with Israeli
psytrance duo Vini Vici and comprising elements of
reggaeton and
rap music, was released on August 24, 2018.
On November 2, 2018, he released big room single "Magic", which features uncredited vocals by Vassy.
lauded the track as a return to Hollowell-Dhar's older era sound, together with its vocal resemblance to
David Guetta's "Bad".
Regarding the song's backstory, Hollowell-Dhar revealed that "Magic" was originally produced with
Adrian Lux two years prior, with the duo failing to bring the track into the right direction then. Lux eventually gave up on the song, but Hollowell-Dhar continued working on the song until its final release.
2019: No Regrets and Devil Inside Me
Hollowell-Dhar's first release of the year was a collaboration with Belgian producer
Yves V and American band
Krewella titled "No Regrets".
Released through Dharma on March 1, 2019, the track's chord patterns and drop were favorably compared to Alan Walker's signature sounds and style.
In the same month, Hollowell-Dhar released 'Devil Inside Me' with Swedish producer Kaaze and vocalist Kaara.
[Katie Stone (May 25, 2019). "Kshmr and Kaaze Link Up on "Devil Insite Me" Ft. Karra". Edm.Com. Retrieved July 29, 2020.] The melody of the song samples some elements the Jewish ballad, "Shalom Aleichem".
[Ross Goldenburg (May 25, 2019). "Kshmr and Kaaze sample a historical melody to rejuvenate bigroom with Karra on 'Devil Inside Me' ". Dancing Astronaut. Retrieved July 29, 2020.]
On June 24, 2019, Hollowell-Dhar announced the release of a new educational Dharma Worldwide platform consisting of tutorials, templates, and samples.
Following that, a big room collaboration with Australian producer
Timmy Trumpet, titled "The People", was released on June 28, 2019.
[Katie Stone (June 28, 2019). " Kshmr releases his first compilation EP, Dharma: Sounds of Summer". EDM.com. Retrieved July 1, 2020.] The next day, he released "Lies" with Dutch producer B3rror featuring the vocals of Luciana. Hollowell-Dhar then released "My Best Life" with Australian singer Mike Waters on July 12, 2019. Regarding the song, Niles said, "This song, made by me and Mike Waters, is about social media and how it has become a tool for measuring ourselves. We talked about how it can be freeing to submit to the fact that somebody will always have nicer things and from there the lyrics came together".
[James Todoroski (July 12th 2019). Kshmr drops summer single My best Life with Mike Waters. We Rave You. Retrieved July 8, 2020.] The track sparked some controversy with Indian rapper Emiway Bantai's song "Machayenge" as they both sampled some portions from Hollowell-Dhar's sample pack
Sounds of Kshmr Volume 3.
2020: One More Round
On October 15, 2020, Hollowell-Dhar released the single "One More Round" featuring Jeremy Oceans. It was released on Spinnin' Records and is a collaboration with Singaporean game developer
Garena for their game Free Fire in celebration of the game's "Booyah Day" event which ran from October 16 to November 1. As a result of this collaboration, Free Fire introduced into their game a new character based on Hollowell-Dhar named K.
2021: Harmonica Andromeda
Hollowell-Dhar released two songs: "The World We Left Behind" featuring Karra and "Around the World" with producer Noumenn and uncredited vocals by Ivy on January 15 and February 26 respectively, as the first and second singles from his debut studio album
Harmonica Andromeda.
The rest of the album was released on March 19, featuring 11 songs and 3 interludes. On June 11, a deluxe version of the album was released with 5 new songs, amounting to 19 tracks in total.
On May 24, 2021, Hollowell-Dhar, along with Armaan Malik and Eric Nam, released their new joint single, "Echo," in celebration of Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month.
On August 5, 2021, Hollowell-Dhar released the psytrance-influenced big room house track "Winners Anthem" with Zafrir. Later that month on the 24th, he along with Alok and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike released a slap house track for Garena Free Fire's 4th anniversary, titled "Reunion".
He then released "Close Your Eyes" with Norwegian artist and music producer Martin Tungevaag on November 19.
2022: Lion Heart
On February 25, Hollowell-Dhar released the single "Lion Heart" in collaboration with Indian rapper Divine and Argentine freestyle rapper
Lit Killah featuring Jeremy Oceans and frequent collaborator Karra.
2023: Karam
In November 2023, KSHMR released his third studio album,
KARAM, marking a significant departure from his previous works. This concept album, rooted in themes of ambition, greed, and retribution, tells the story of a young man who navigates a life of crime and the consequences of his choices. The album features a diverse range of musical styles, blending KSHMR's signature electronic dance music with Indian
hip-hop .Over 20 Indian hip-hop artists collaborated on the project, including KR$NA,
Raftaar,
Ikka Singh,
Raja Kumari,
Seedhe Maut,
Yashraj, Yungsta,
Riar Shaab,
Talha Anjum,
Munawar Faruqui, and
Altaf Tadavi.
[ KSHMR 3rd studios album KARAM, translates to "action" or "deed" in Hindi, reflecting the central theme of choices and consequences. ]
Musical style
Hollowell-Dhar had a number of Beatport hits, such as "No Heroes", "Burn", "Dead Mans Hand", "Kashmir", "Dogs", "Karate", his remix of duo Nervo's song "It Feels", and "Jammu". His logo, artist name, and tracks like "Delhi", "Jammu", "Kashmir", "Bazaar", "Dharma" and his
Extended play "Paradesi" are based on and/or inspired by his half Kashmiri ethnic descent:
In 2015, Hollowell-Dhar was ranked number 23 on DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs of the year poll,
Hollowell-Dhar currently uses Ableton Live 10 as his DAW. While part of the Cataracs, he used Reason.
In 2023, Hollowell-Dhar expanded his musical style with the Indian hip-hop album Karam.
Discography
-
Harmonica Andromeda (2021)
-
Karam (2023)
Accolades
| 2015 | DJ Mag | Himself | Top 100 DJs | 23 |
| 2016 | 12 |
| 2017 | 12 |
| 2018 | 18 |
| 2019 | 15 |
| 2020 | 12 |
| 2021 | 11 |
| 2022 | 12 |
| 2023 | 15 |
| 2024 | 14 |
