Kshmr

Niles Hollowell-Dhar (born October 6, 1988), known professionally as Kshmr (pronounced "Kashmir" and stylized in all caps), is an American musician, songwriter, DJ, record producer, former rapper, and singer.

Following Singer-Vine's departure from the duo in 2012, Hollowell-Dhar continued producing music with the name the Cataracs until 2014.

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.

He was ranked 23rd on DJ Mag's 2015 Top 100 DJs poll and was awarded highest new entry for the year.

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.

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.

In the same poll he elevated to 12th in 2016 and 2017, and again in 2020.

He was ranked 11th in the same poll in 2021; and in 2022 in same poll he ranked 12.

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 Mag 2016.

His place elevated from 23rd to 12th in DJ Mag's 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.

In July 2017, he launched Dharma Worldwide, a sublabel of Spinnin' Records.

Kshmr performed live at many music festivals like Coachella, Tomorrowland, EDC, Ultra and Sunburn.

Hollowell-Dhar was born in Berkeley, California.

His father is a Kashmiri Hindu 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 former state.

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.

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:

This was a special show for me, playing with live musicians throughout the whole set for the first time in my career.

Respect to them and my good friend Timmy Trumpet for stopping by and bringing his magic as well.

On June 16, 2017, "Harder", a collaboration between Hollowell-Dhar and Tiësto, was released via Spinnin' Records.

The first song released via Kshmr's label, Dharma Worldwide, was "Festival of Lights", a collaboration with Maurice West.