MUMBAI – After a successful India tour accompanied by a well-received single, ‘Hold Me’, songwriter and ecologist is ready with her next single, ‘Money’ from her upcoming EP, Skin.
‘Money’ releases on German label Clouds Hill Records on January 26.
Influenced and inspired by the here and now, Ditty’s art and music share a deep-rooted connection with the natural world. On her upcoming EP Skin, Ditty explores these connections through her heartfelt, evocative music, writing gentle and poetic protest songs; urging us to take better care of our earth – and of ourselves, too.
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‘Money’, inspired by the rampant deforestation in Goa, and Ditty’s own pain at watching swathes of trees being cut for infrastructure’ is an anguish-filled love letter cloaked in an upbeat, nearly Pollyannaish beat.
“One time I came back home from a tour, and I used to live in this sleepy little town called Betim in Goa, by the river,” recollects Ditty. “There was a forest behind my house – my bedroom window used to open into the forest that was full of rain trees. I returned to see that all the trees were gone! I got to know that they were chopping the forest down, and it was quite painful and I wanted to talk about it via the song,” she adds.
“‘Money’ is a folk song sung from a personal perspective of growing up, of being taught by society that bigger is better but learning that small is beautiful,” Ditty shares, adding, “How can we go on as a society? It’s gone too far and how are we going to make repairs?”
The song is arranged with samples from forests in Goa, where Ditty lived for about three years. The song has an extended outro – arranged with sounds of destruction, despair, falling trees, sawing machines, crying animals and a mourning trumpet.
“I was recording samples everywhere, samples of animals and of birds. And one time I recorded samples of a chainsaw, and I took the sound of the tree falling from a BBC library of sounds. But I wanted that the sounds should paint the picture of a forest falling and of a funeral for the forest that the animals came together to give.”
The video for ‘Money’ features a live version of the song recorded and shot in the Pomburpa forest, which was yet another instance of destruction of forest land to build luxury villas last year. A stripped-down version of the song, the video features Ditty and band members Dhruv Bhola and Karan Singh in clothes designed by textile-first ethical fashion brand, Akaaro.
Watch the video here.
Skin – scheduled for release on February 23 on German record label Clouds Hill Records – is an extraordinary body of work, showcasing her fragile yet bold songwriting that could be described as an altogether different, deeply Indian approach to indie pop. On Skin, Ditty gathers her most stirring experiences with the Earth, and stitches them lovingly with spoken word and gentle, lilting melodies. She writes lyrics as letters to herself and to her dearest ones.
