Mind the Dot.

The 26-year-old singer-songwriter lets us in her brain and on her sofa.

- Ananya Rai

The first thing I jot down when I get on a call with Dot. is: “Gives off very theatre-kid-who-reads-Nietzsche-for-fun energy.”

She snorts when I read it back to her. “I wouldn't go that far, but I get it. My mom was in the theatre, though,” she retorts.

With a mom in theatre and a rockstar dad (Amit Saigal), you could say Dot. (for anything public)—and Aditi, to her friends—was always destined for the arts. She started playing the keys at six and trained in classical piano for several years. She later earned a degree in music and creative writing from the University of Bangor in Wales.

“What ended up being the coolest part of university—aside from the lecturers—was that I met so many great musicians and played in bands with them,” she recalls.

Dot. is refreshingly self-aware about her music and the persona that comes with it. “Weirdly enough, I think my quote-unquote brand has always been authentic. The more I stray from it, the worse my music tends to do,” she tells me. “I feel the best when my brain, my art, and my public image are all aligned.”

What follows is a peek inside that brain.

Cosmopolitan India: Your songwriting comes from a really personal space, and you write the way you talk. Have you ever had a moment where you've thought, “Oh no, did I reveal too much?”

Dot.: Not really—not in my songs. If anything, I feel that way more with social media.

I do try to write music that sounds natural, but I think there’s enough layering to mask the details—unless I choose to explain them afterward. On the other hand, the overexposure on social media is what makes me feel more afraid of losing myself in the public eye, if that makes sense.