Can ending your most toxic relationship help people + planet?

HEATED: A new climate song by Sanjana Sekhar and Anusha Savi

“Big Oil is our collective toxic relationship – lying, cheating, gaslighting, making us feel like there’s no world without them. It felt like there was a clear allegorical link there that we could leverage.” - Sanjana Sekhar

Such is the motivation and inspiration behind HEATED (GARMI), a new pop/R&B breakup anthem all about breaking up with Big Oil and reclaiming our collective power from the Oil-igarchy, a project by GARMI and performed by Anusha Savi.

We chatted with Anusha and Sanjana (who was featured in IE’s Artivist Series) on how they brought this sultry song with a message to life.

5 questions with Sanjana and Anusha + more looks behind the scenes

What inspired you to write this song?

Sanjana: Songwriting is a brand new medium for me, but I’ve always loved music because it works on a visceral level and has a huge opportunity to shape and reshape culture. I was really curious to lean into that power to create something that would drive climate action while also being an addictive track. I was really craving something with lyrical and sonic zest that would encode climate themes in a relatable way – something that would fill the gap I was feeling, something surprising and heady and sultry and hot. Anusha’s powerful voice and unique artistry immediately felt like the right fit for that vision.

Conceptually, the inspiration bloomed from my belief that personal and planetary healing are one and the same. Drawing links between our personal lives and the macro structures that affect us is the kind of strategic and systems-thinking storytelling that captivates me. As a climate communicator, I spend all day thinking about how to connect the dots between our urgent need to move from extractive economies towards a future that can sustain healthy life on Earth. How can we create more invitations to join the climate movement? How can we make climate action the hottest place to be?

With this in mind, I was reflecting on my own personal relationships and the personal relationships of those around me, and how everyone in some way has experience with difficult or toxic dynamics – whether romantic, familial, platonic, or professional. Culturally, we’re starting to normalize healing these dynamics in our personal spheres – but what about at a societal level?

Anusha and I are close friends and collaborators, and I’ve always been floored by her talent. So I approached her with the idea of writing a breakup anthem all about breaking up with Big Oil and reclaiming our power from this toxic relationship. She was game to experiment, and alongside our incredible team, we got to create “HEATED (GARMI).”

Anusha: It was a cozy winter day, post my first Sundance excursion, when this idea of a climate Trojan Horse banger baddie song first bounced off our brains. I had just shown Sanjana an unreleased demo of mine that had a saucy, sensual vibe that inspired Sanjana to ask if I’d ever release a song with an energy like this. I told her yes (if it’s the right song), and then she furthered the idea, asking if I’d ever make anything with GARMI that had a climate focus on it. It was an immediate “yes” from me, followed up by “I don’t know how this will work, but I’m excited to try and experiment.”

This seed was planted in January and peppered into our conversations through the spring and summer. In the fall, Sanjana approached me and said “I think it’s time - can we make this happen?” We scheduled time at our producer Alec Zeilon’s studio, and I brought in my dear friend and extremely talented songwriter Natalie Sawicki to make this song come to life.

As an artist, my music explores self-love, growth, empowerment, and contemplation. All my songs stem from a personal experience of me learning to feel good about living (in my body, my mind, my spirit, my soul). But I have released very few songs about a relationship outside of myself. I had so far had more of a boundary up about that.

When Sanjana presented this narrative, I thought it was genius. It’s the perfect setup for a breakup anthem, which, let’s be honest, are some of the best songs to blast in your car or scream-sing with your girlfriends while you’re getting ready to go out.

The inspiration truly sprouted from the work that Sanjana had already started with GARMI and her thrutopian short story “Cabbage Koora.” How can we entertain while sharing a message? How can we make the medicine go down in a way that strikes a chord? And I think we definitely did that with “HEATED (GARMI)”.

Can you tell us about your creative process?

Anusha: My creative process is malleable and organic, depending on the project. I am always keeping my channels to the universe open. I collect song and thought seeds as I move through my life. Many of them stay that way, seeds that will not be planted, but there are some that get planted into songs, conversations, inspiration boards, musings, etc. I enjoy creating visual inspiration boards to dimensionalize ideas for a project or song. I also love to read or watch TV to expand my vocabulary and find other metaphors that act as fertilizer in this process.

Songmaking and recordmaking happens in many ways. You have the initial session where you write the song, then follow up sessions to finish vocals and production, then mixing & mastering. In tandem you build the whole visual world to accompany the music with cover art, videos, and content. It all bleeds and feeds each other and the beauty about music is that anything can be symbolic, as long as it’s intentional.

Sanjana: Similar to Anusha’s, my creative process is continuous. As a writer and narrative strategist, I’m always reading, researching, learning – lots of learning. I’m taking notes on everything I encounter – books, podcasts, articles, current events, conversations, experiences. Whether they’re related to climate action or not, storytelling or not, every touchpoint leaves an impression, and those impressions are always reflected in whatever creative work I produce.

I’m also a very kinesthetic learner, so I’ve developed a creative sandwich of sorts, where in order to produce any particular kind of work, I have three loose stages: I start with research on-screen on my computer (or with books or other forms of long-form learning and notetaking). Then I have to step away and get my circulation going. It’s kind of Ayurvedic, but when my circulation is flowing, the ideas start synthesizing. Half my writing happens in my head when I’m exercising or folding laundry or making lunch. Then finally, I return to my trusty screen, and by the time I sit down at my computer again, the work is baked and ready to pour out.

Every project and medium is different, but the process is always grounded in knowledge-sharing, collaboration, and a drive to catalyze participation and embed the pleasure of civic engagement into our mainstream social fabric.

Why did this project need to exist?

Sanjana: Music drives mainstream culture in a mammoth way. Because of that, I think music has an outsized opportunity to drive cultural change. There have been a lot of revolutionary songs throughout history that get de-fanged and co-opted into capitalist mainstream music. I was curious if we could instead co-opt the mainstream – go on the offensive by making something so delicious that you couldn’t help but want to join the climate action movement.

We’re up against decades of fossil fuel propaganda that have done a hell of a job making petroculture seem cool and sexy and fun, while making climate action seem full of fury and sacrifice and Debbie-downerism. I’m tired of that, because in reality, there’s nothing sexier than respecting life so profoundly that you want to protect every person’s opportunity to relish our time on Earth.

That’s what “HEATED (GARMI)” is about – we’re all too hot to waste time in a billionaire fantasy when we should be living out our most luscious, luxurious lives on this planet. Clean air, clean water, clean food, health and safety and brimming human and biological diversity – that kind of thriving is my fantasy. And it’s one that Big Oil can’t simply can’t deliver.

Anusha: The reality of our human situation is that we are in a relationship with the Earth, the people, and the companies that run the world. And we must understand where we stand in those relationships. To understand where we can hold our power. And also accept that not only are we scared or anxious about the climate changing (or someone not treating us like we are worth it) but also that we are mad about it. We have rage to galvanize into a movement. Music is movement. Art is movement. And many artists have inspired me that have made music that has furthered movements.

We have to use our voices and talents to share that emotion. Music is one of the ways that transcends language, barriers, backgrounds, etc.

What was the hardest part about bringing this project to life?

Anusha: Writing this song was a really fun challenge. We had the intention and songwriting style of a deep, playful metaphor very clear – so our challenge was to reverse-engineer a witty, punchy, yet still a sing-y “Anusha Savi” song. It was the most direct and character-type lyrics for one of my songs, and it was fun to try new flows and be courageous to “go there.” This song felt like a puzzle–we were discovering the colors, edges, and pieces all in real time. I’m genuinely amazed we wrote the whole song in one session, but we did it. All falling in and out of conversation, deep lyrical pitches back and forth, and playing around with melodies.

The hardest part was figuring out how to share the message with the world. How do we get people to listen? To care? To feel engaged? That is always the uphill battle as an independent musician and especially one that feels like it targets the power structures that benefit from our message being smothered.

The other part that was hard for me was accepting that I am (and all of us are) making a bigggg statement here and I’m putting myself out there in a very direct way. This might mean that it comes with pushback or aggression from people who do not agree. As a people pleaser, this felt like a big deal to directly step into a line of fire from entities that have a lot more power/resources. I actually had some physical manifestations of this anxiousness the week of release because I come from a family who (like many immigrant families) always told me: “Don’t get in the line of fire, keep your head down and do what you need to get by.” This song was an act of stepping fully against that coyness and into an extended identity. I feel more powerful and energized by it now and I looked so much to people who have been doing this work in a very public and profound way for a lot longer than me for inspiration and community.

Sanjana: It was awesome watching Anusha step into this power. From a tactical standpoint, this project was a big push for both me and Anusha. We’re essentially running a multi-platform marketing campaign by ourselves, with impact and action goals that are still on the horizon. I think the sheer volume of work we put out was demanding. There was the song itself and all the stages of production, the cover art and visualizer shoot, social media assets (that were often getting shadowbanned), a two-part podcast we filmed and edited, the “My Kinda Nasty” action page and all the research and writing that went into that, and more. We were – and still are – working hard to get this song in front of folks and into spaces we think it’ll be most impactful.

What advice do you have for young artists who want to participate in the climate space?

Sanjana: My number one advice is to pursue and fully relish a process of continued education. As an artist, it’s essential to expand and deepen your knowledge of three things: yourself, your immediate communities, and the wider web of life. Storytelling for activism is more than just self-expression – it’s about reclaiming narratives to heal and regenerate bonds that capitalism and colonialism have intentionally severed. That task – both the joys and the challenges – is important business, and to do it well, you have to learn a lot about yourself and the world around you.

If we’re trying to shift away from extractionist systems and towards the life-giving world we’re building, what we make as artists has to come from a foundational shared analysis of our systems: what’s the material reality people are experiencing, how did it get that way, what are the levers of power, what are our roles, and how do we organize to build cultural and political power in service of liberation?

So keep learning. Learn long-form from books, podcasts, classes, et cetera, but also in-person from the people around you. From your friends and family and contemporaries. From participating physically in organizing, mutual aid, policy – any lever of change. Experience the world. Synthesize, coalesce, digest.

Spend time learning about yourself, healing your own pain points so that your work – even if it leverages anger, agony, grief – is motivated by a profound reverence for life. You have to feel your magic, your sensuality, your bravery, and then know how to wield it.

Anusha: Make something to make you feel like you—your voice—matters. Your art can go beyond yourself. Just make it! Learn! Surround yourself with people more knowledgeable or hopeful than you because it will make you knowledgeable and hopeful. Soon YOU will be that person for someone else. We are part of a very gorgeous grassroots community and the sexiest thing you can do is share this passion and creativity with your people. There are many opportunities to get involved at any level that feels good for you. For me, it was making a song with my dear friend and inspiration Sanjana, who is deeply embedded in this work. Did I feel some impostor syndrome while making this, of course! But I didn’t let that stop me. Doing this work has made me understand that I am a climate activist now. I always have been, but now it's public. You are an activist, whether it's in private or in public.

Art can be conversation, a photograph, a poem, a Canva edit, a meme, a short film, a TikTok, a piece of fashion, a new recipe, a journal entry, or a song to blast in the car – like “HEATED.” :) All the emotions have lessons. And they deserve to be honored and catalogued. We need it and our future generations will need it when they learn from our history.

---

Check out HEATED (GARMI) through your favorite streaming platform below.

---