Ditty on Creating an Environmentally Sustainable Touring Plan and New Music

At the New Delhi leg of her recent Songs For Forests tour, singer-songwriter Ditty aka Aditi Veena had a special, somewhat surprise guest join her. She says, “A dog wanted to sing with me. It touched me—he wasn’t barking, he was singing during ‘Eulogy for The Sparrow.’”

Performing at Edible Routes’ Amarkanan farm in Chhattarpur Farms area, Ditty’s Songs for Forests tour was her second go at carbon neutral India tour. Across six cities (with two dates in Mumbai), the artist’s goal this time around was to perform and educate but lead by example too. Her website mentions that she planted a “local, indigenous food forest with the help of local environmentalists” at Pollam Farm in Hyderabad to offset carbon emissions that the tour would bring about. For her prior Make Forests Not War tour in 2020, Ditty planted a forest in Goa with similar goals.

This time around, Ditty took on a more “in-depth calculation” and even took into account the carbon footprint of show attendees in each city. Joining hands with a social impact metrics company called Greenlane to measure all of this, Ditty acknowledges that this is a long-term undertaking. “To give you a rough idea, it may take the forest several decades to sequester as much carbon as was emitted if not more given that it’s taken care of,” she adds. With a calculated carbon emission estimate of 3,500 kilograms of carbon from the Songs For Forests tour, Ditty notes on her website that they will plant 30 trees and grow them over 40 years (to make a positive impact).

The reason for these calculations and follow-through to plant trees is simple for Ditty – the climate crisis is real and it’s “important to recognize and respond to this reality in whichever way we can.” She adds, “With my work, I’m constantly asking myself, how can we walk softer on this planet and be gentle to ourselves? And this tour was a result of that. It’s easy to get lost in the excitement of being a touring artist and take everything for granted.”

Performing her songs at farms, gardens and cafés, among other spaces on the tour, Ditty says singing outdoors was a way to bring people into the very same environs which inspired her music. “It’s been challenging, but also very exciting. We’ve chosen alternative places to play at, like gardens of museum complexes and urban farms. I heard often from people who came for the shows that it brought them joy and is a rarity in the cities across India,” she adds.

Presently back in Berlin where she’s started university (“I’m going to explore some other mediums of performance and visual art,” Ditty said on Instagram), the artist is also working on a new record called Skin. “[It’s] nearing completion. I think I’ve come a long way as a songwriter and I am excited to share this record with all. I’m also looking to spend more time in Europe and create a space for myself there,” Ditty says.