ABOUT

Born in June 25, 1990 in Kathmandu, Kismat D. Shrestha started playing drums at the age of 6 and there has been no looking back ever since. It all started with a small step but an enormous aspiration. At the age of 14 Kismat joined his brother’s band playing Metallica covers religiously. Lars Ulrich had a huge influence on young Kismat in his early days. Soon after, he got into Extreme Metal music closely following the likes of Derek Roddy and George Kollias.  

A big change came in Kismat’s playing and musicality after he joined the Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory in 2008 where he was exposed to the best of jazz music. Playing with different visiting teachers from abroad, playing in Combos, learning music theories, jazz theories, jazz history, piano and the like further helped him hone his musical skills and take his understanding of music, especially jazz to a whole new level.  

Kismat's enduring passion and overpowering dedication towards learning music finally came to the fore once he got the offer to play the drums in the eastern classical and jazz fusion band called "Urjazz” led by Mariano Abello, the Director of KJC himself who mentored him earlier on. Kismat played in different venues with Urjazz and toured Finland in 2010 with the band to play in the World Music Festival, which was his first international exposure.  

Being a free flowing jazz musician, Kismat has had plenty of opportunities to learn and play with national and international musicians. But participating in an intensive workshop with the world renowned jazz educator Dr. Gene Aitken in October 2012 came as something that changed Kismat's perspective on jazz music for the better. Kismat has shared the stage with great musicians from the likes of Dario Eskenazi, Jamie Baum, Phil Tweed to Rainer Pusch, Sachal Vasandani, Natalia Calderon among others. Besides, Kismat has played in "Jazzmandu" festival, the Kathmandu Jazz Festival regularly since its 2008 edition.  

Though deeply rooted in jazz then on, Kismat has a burgeoning repertoire of having played his part for bands, independent artists and for recording sessions as a freelancer for a variety of genres of music. One of them is reggae. Kismat played in the band “Joint Family Internationale”, one of the well-known reggae bands coming out of Kathmandu. With this band Kismat toured India and Thailand.  

Late in 2012, Kismat got an opportunity to get back to the genre he started off with. When Kismat got an offer to be a band member of “Albatross”, one of the most popular and influential rock groups in Nepal, Kismat wasted no time to grab this opportunity with both hands gleefully. Albatross in its decade long history has amassed a huge fan base in and outside Nepal with several of their songs firmly imprinted in the annals of Nepali rock music. With Albatross, Kismat has extensively toured Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Perth), the UK (London), India (Delhi, Silligudi), Bangladesh (Dhaka), the USA (Austin, Dallas, Houston, Boulder, San Francisco, Minneapolis, St. Cloud, Chicago, Boston, New York ) , New Zealand, Hong Kong and played some of the biggest music festivals such as the South By South West (SXSW) in Austin, USA, South Asian Bands Festival in Delhi, South Asian RockFest in Dhaka to name a few. 

Currently Kismat resides in Los Angeles, California and explores the vast music scene of surrounding area. 

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Performances 

• Participated in the World Village Festival in Helsinki, Finland and Toured  major cities in Finland with the band Urjazz in May 2010. 

• Participated in the South Asian Bands Festival held in Delhi, India with Albatross in November 2013.

• Performed in Kolkata Peace Festival in Calcutta, India with the band Joint Family Internationale in December 2014. 

• Participated in GBOB (Global Battle of the Bands) held in Chiang Mai, Thailand and also performed in North Gate Jazz Coop in Chiang Mai and in Bangkok for the Nepali community recently in February 2014 with the band Joint Family Internationale.  

• Performed with Albatross in an All Nepal Tour entitled Ma Ra Malai Tour of Nepal.  

• Performed with Albatross for Ma Ra Malai Album Tour of Australia (Sydney, Melbourne and Perth) in May 2014. 

• Participated in the South Asian RockFest held in Dhaka, Bangaladesh with Albatross in October, 2014.

• Performed with Albatross for Ma Ra Malai Album Tour of London in December, 2014 at the Troxy. 

• US Tour 2015 with Albatross (San Francisco at Neck of the Woods, Austin at the Gatsby, Minneapolis at Bedlam Lowertown, Chicago at Reggies, New York at the Hall in Brooklyn, Boston at the Hard Rock Cafe, Virginia at the State Virginia Theatre, Houston at Numbers Night Club and in Dallas at the Granada Theatre.  

• US Tour 2016 with Albatross (SXSW Festival in Austin, San Francisco at Neck of the Woods, Boulder, University of Colorado, Minnesota at St. Cloud University and Bedlam Lowertown, Boston at Hard Rock Cafe, Queens New York at SunnySide Community Hall, Austin at Spiderhouse and Tellers and Dallas at the Gas Monkey Bar and Grill. 

• Australia Tour 2017 with Albatross (Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane)

• New Zealand Tour 2017 with Albatross (Auckland)

• Nepal Tour with Albatross 2017 (Damak, Dharan, Butwal, Naranghat, Pokhara and Kathmandu)

• HongKong Tour 2017 with Albatross

• Dubai Tour 2018 with Albatross

• Performed at First Avenue 7th Entry with KV & DJ Advance 2018

• Nathan Hanson's "Five Times Golden" at Jazz Central, Minneapolis, MN, USA  

• JT's Jazz Implosion 2018, Minneapolis, USA with Thomas Nordlund

• JT's Jazz Implosion 2018, Minneapolis, MN, USA with Nick's Cousins

• Chris Bates' "A Sound Decision" at Jazz Central, Minneapolis, MN, USA

• Kathmandu Jazz Festival 2018 with Nick's Cousins

• Performed in music festivals in Nepal like the prestigious Jazzmandu Festival (Kathmandu Jazz Festival), Sundance Festival, Miles Music festival etcetera consecutively since 2008.