Josephine Shetty

Josephine Shetty is a queer, South Indian and Irish performer, composer, audio engineer, and educator, born and based in Los Angeles, CA. Having performed in underground spaces and small venues across the US and Europe since 2016 as the lo-fi, experimental pop, solo act Kohinoorgasm, Shetty has identified many missing resources and waining working conditions for musicians in the industry’s lowest economic strata. Inspired to bridge the gaps and expand the industry’s conceptions of valuable music, Shetty recently pursued higher education in her field as an MFA in Composition and Experimental Sound Practices at California Institute of the Arts, focusing on audio engineering and experimental composition and performance practices. She is expected to graduate by May 2021. Having studied diligently under engineers Emily Evans and Clay Chaplin at CalArts, Shetty brings technical expertise and experimental curiosity to the studio. She is knowledgeable about a range of microphones, audio design techniques, DAWs, and best studio practices, and she is continually learning and experimenting through collaborations, lifelong education, and play. Moreover, Shetty’s understanding of recording as a highly emotional part of the production process has also lead her to center emotional balance in the studio. She believes that caring, understanding, and adaptable communication and interpersonal skills are keys to a successful session. Her clients range from the soulful pop of Gemma Castro to the thumping industrial sounds of Soltera to the intimate acoustic piano of X’ene Sky. In 2019, Shetty further expanded her practice by beginning to teach Music Production to 8th and 6th grade through Harmony Project, a non-profit that provides high quality music instruction and social support to children in schools across Los Angeles. Having been a mostly self-taught, self-managed, and self-producing musician for years, Shetty is very passionate about increasing the accessibility of arts education, building networks of support for marginalized artists, and demystifying the parts of music production that have been gate kept by industry patriarchs for generations. Shetty views her recent step into middle school music education, as well as the one-off, all ages, all levels workshops she sometimes offers in Music Production at arts spaces around the US, as an extension of these values. Shetty continues to perform frequently as Kohinoorgasm. She announces her live shows on social media, and her music is streaming everywhere!