Ditty Makes an Earnest Plea on Intimate New Song ‘Hold Me’

India/Germany-based singer-songwriter Ditty aka Aditi Veena shows her most vulnerable self, scars and all in the music video for her latest single “Hold Me.” The song is part of her upcoming EP Skin, which was recorded earlier this year.

Produced by Dhruv Bhola and featuring drummer Karan Singh (both from gypsy/jazz/psych band Peter Cat Recording Co), the music video for “Hold Me” is based on a concept by Ditty, filmmaker Shrutiman Deori and German artist Keno Langbein. Directed by Deori and Langbein – who is also Ditty’s co-founder in the project Faraway Friends – there’s a language of intimacy spoken and shown by the artists in the music video.

Ahead of releasing “Hold Me,” Ditty spoke about the song on social media. She said, “This song is a really personal one — I’m revealing my scars. This is exciting and uncomfortable for me. How does it make you feel?” In her inimitable singer-songwriter style – heard previously on songs like “Deathcab” – there’s a raw yet sparkling tonality to the song, in which Ditty confesses the ups and downs in “trying to be good to my only man.”

Skin EP follows her 2019 album Poetry Ceylon, although earlier in 2023, Ditty featured on singer-songwriter Jordan Johnson’s song “Alice & I.” She says about the process for her latest tunes, “My songs are places I can go to where I can reveal myself entirely. First, I pour myself into the songs and then let the songs speak to the world. It was like this with ‘Hold Me.’ I wrote it when my love was still yearning. Can we be honest to ourselves and our feelings, even if they ask us to trust fully and leave everything behind?”

With the EP scheduled for release in March 2024 via German label Clouds Hill Records, Ditty says in a statement that songs like “Hold Me” were born out of a “huge transformation” period during the pandemic. “[There was] a major illness, separation, losing loved ones and a move to Berlin. I had to learn ways to come home to myself. Skin takes a lot from those experiences and speaks about connecting to the body of the earth and myself,” she adds.

Watch the video for “Hold Me” below. Stream the song here.