Hailing from Delhi and currently based in Berlin, Ditty brings her unique voice to a project that reflects both personal and global narratives. For years, she has captivated audiences with her ability to blend raw emotion and cultural exploration into her music, and her new album, KALI is no different. In this album, Ditty returns to her roots by incorporating Hindi into her music for the first time, embracing her mother tongue.
As she prepares for her first headliner tour through Europe, Ditty shares the the themes woven into KALI, a record that is not just an album but a movement—a call to slow down, reflect, and honor the earth we all share.
What took you so long to release the Hindi side of you?
I grew up in Delhi, and I come from a middle-class family. And I think like a lot of people in Delhi, I don't know, my parents were very strict about speaking English at home, going to a school, being good at English was everything for them. Even though my mom speaks broken English. Yeah, so I feel like at some point, like when I was younger, I was writing poetry since I was young, but I lost connection to Hindi. And then now that I'm in Germany for like three years, I started to think about my own mother tongue and how one can also take space in these white countries and white places. Because it was really wonderful how it happened and how I came here. I came for work and then I just ended up staying. The pandemic happened and all of that. But there was a lot of also discomfort, uprooting, you know, a lot of stuff that happens when you're, I guess, far away. And that's when I started to write these songs. So it's taken a while.
You released Poetry Ceylon in 2019 and only after 2023, you've been releasing music nonstop. What inspired this creative output from you in these years?
It's not like I took a break. I was working on other things but it might seem like I took a break. I'm releasing music after a long time. I'm very careful about what I want to put out there and what I want to say. I think it's only fair that it takes time. I don't just want to put out stuff I think less is more. But the pandemic was pretty harsh for everybody. I lost some family members. I lost my dog. My mom went through a big health crisis. And then after that, I went through a huge health crisis. Then, I had been in a long-distance relationship with my partner for over 6-7 years. Now, it was the time for me to move to Berlin. Now, I think I'm getting back into releasing stuff again. It feels so good to release and play. I'm going on a big tour through Europe. It's my first headliner tour here. It's 14 cities!
What excites you more writing in your space or touring and interacting with people through your own music?
They are two very different things. I love writing as well. I think it's like a book. It's like first there is a plot building and then there is some kind of resolution. It's like you're writing music and then to be able to share it just is really wonderful.
Tell us about KALI and what sort of themes you wanted to push in for this album and what did you think about the theme of the album and how it came about?
I was exploring themes related to post-pandemic, which were more around slowing down, coming home to ourselves, connecting to the earth, and how much it was clear after the pandemic that the climate crisis had also a lot to do with the speed that we're living at and capitalism and the social structures that we've built and all of that. In the theme track, Kali I'm writing about darkness and the dark times that we live in because Kali is also the one that invokes when there's darkness. I'm writing also about having dark skin, colorism and oppression arounf it. This was something I internalized growing up in Delhi because there is a lot of colorism. Somehow, for example, my grandma also didn’t really accept my skin color.
This is something I started thinking about more when I came to Berlin, and I was facing racism actively. Then, there are other songs on the record, like there's Azadi, which is an offering of hope. I was thinking, how can I write about letting people live in peace. This was my first Hindi song, and I'm so proud, I loved it when I wrote it. Then, there sre songs like Money, which is something I wrote inspired by my time in Goa. I used to live in Goa before and this one time came back to see the forest outside my house had disappeared. I am questioning the idea of capitalism and where money comes from.
Then, there's Mama, which is a love letter to the earth. There's Duniya, which is about genocide against people, but also about genocide on natural resources. There are a few other love songs on the record - Surreal and Hold Me.
Words Paridhi Badgotri
Date 31.03.2025