Elefant Traks has had a indelible cultural impact on the Australian music industry, and in 2024 after 26 years they are wrapping up operations.
Tim Levinson aka Urthboy was there from the inception of the label in 1998 alongside Kenny Sabir aka Traksewt. Both artists formed part of the activist hop hop collective The Herd. A collective that is intrinsically linked to the early days of the label.Across the last 26 years Elefant Traks has fostered a slew of artists, such as The Herd as well as Hermitude, Horrorshow, L-FRESH The LION, Jimblah, Urthboy, Astronomy Class, Joelistics, Jane Tyrrell, B Wise, Okenyo, Sietta and so many more.
When Levinson reflects on the early days of Elefant Traks, he puts it this way: "Fundamentally, the core bond was an activist worldview. A worldview of protesting and speaking out on issues that we cared about, I think that was one of the real common bonds between most of the collective of Elefant Traks."
It was the music of the time and caring about social justice issues that bonded a ragtag bunch of mates together. "There was so much music that came out of the activism movement in the '90s and 2000s."
The Herd were inspired by seeing what was happening in other parts of the world and a knowledge they needed to make noise for change on a local scale that wasn't really happening at the time.
Activism and the community that comes from that has always been at the heart of Elefant Traks. It was founded in that way and it has always been at the core of the ethos for operations throughout its entire existence. "We probably had a higher ratio of people who knew how to just get it done [in the early days of Elefant Traks].
"We had proactive, determined people who showed initiative, we were really committed to DIY music. It was things like we make CDs, we wouldn't wait for a label, we would print the art on the printer, get CDRs burned and get a receipt book, go and take it to a record store, and sell it. Then we would make our own gigs.
"It was like that with everything, we just did it all ourselves. We had a higher proportion of people who weren't sitting around waiting for someone else to give us an invitation."
From the very beginning, Elefant Traks sought to bring about change, even though it can be slow coming both within the music industry and wider society. The very essence of the way Elefant Traks went about things was "to release music that we love, and have that lead us rather than music that we think is going to be commercially successful.
"I think both of those things can coexist, but I think that the love has to come first. We always wanted to release music that means something, and support artists that are unafraid to speak out and be themselves.
"I think it's also about accessibility, trying to allow people an invitation in and that might be prices, costs and being able to afford things. It can also be about inclusivity and trying to create a community where people feel welcome."
Hip hop in Australia has changed significantly during the existence of Elefant Traks, "as cultures spread out and are expanding and diversifying, there are more representative voices.
"I think our role within that as Elefant Traks, we've just had to keep finding ways to go back to that core essence of who we are and what we stand for. That meant understanding that we had not signed enough women. . . we haven't been as productive as we could have been around gender diversity.
"Those are things that we just have to reckon with, and we had to be honest about that and tackle what work are we going to do to address that? I think we've done that many times over the years, and we've had some success and some failure, but we've continuously had a way of having those conversations internally.
"I'm really proud of the fact that we've always put that at the core of our mission statement; it's not just about making money, not just signing artists that we think are going to make the most money but continuing in the spirit of how we began – we began as a multicultural label.
"We were founded by a person of colour – a Sri Lankan-Australian (Kenny Sabir), and we've tried to stick to our guns when it comes to the issues we stand with and when we have made these decisions.
"We were political in the early days and I think our politics have held up. In that we don't look back on our catalogue and go 'oh that was embarrassing' or 'that was racist or sexist, and we didn't know it'. I don't look in our catalogue and see that, I'm really proud of that. The fact that we've been able to maintain that.
"I think sometimes it's [about having] uncomfortable conversations and being able to have them and having staff that feel comfortable calling out our leadership. I've been called out by our staff before, a few times. It's not easy, but I think broadly speaking, it speaks well of the culture that we have internally.
"I don't want to pretend like we haven't made mistakes. I think we've succeeded in a lot of areas, and we failed in some others. We've continuously been open to change and tried not to be too arrogant about it. So I'm pretty proud of that ability to continue to change."
The timeline of Elefant Traks has by no means been all smooth sailing as Levinson shares. "The tougher moments have always been the ones that have stayed with me the longest. You generally have to do some soul searching around it."
Tim shares a story to highlight this. "At the height of my solo career, funnily enough, I've never had just like, going up and going down with my solo career. I've kind of gone up and down and up and down and up and down, which I'm really grateful for.
"There was a period of time where The Herd and myself were the primary breadwinner for Elefant Traks. So the money that we were earning from our record sales was allowing us to reinvest in all these other artists like Horrorshow, Sietta, Jimblah, Sky'High. These artists were made possible by some of the success that The Herd and Urthboy had.
"At the same time, I was running Elefant Traks and I was managing artists, like Hermitude and Horrorshow. There was this one period in the 2010s, where Horrorshow and Hermitude just started blowing up and what an amazing thing.
"When you're an artist, you also have an ego and that ego is really important to being an artist but it is also easy for it to get out of control. While I was experiencing different highs and lows of being an artist, I was also watching these artists who we had really bankrolled and they'd always kind of been the support artists, and I watched them rise above where we were at and that was really challenging.
"I have to admit it, I wish it wasn't but it was really challenging. I had to go through a couple of years, in resetting my understanding of my role here. One was to continue as an artist and to let that be what it will be. The other was to learn how to be a f...ing good manager and if I wasn't going to step up, they would have needed to find someone else.
"I had to reconcile the fact that in my head, we were the ones who were responsible for the success of Elefant Traks. I had to reconcile that this is exactly how it always should have been.
"I knew it was always the way it should have been, that we signed artists and they then take the foundation that we build and go higher, that was always the plan. When it happened, it was such a big hit to my pride and my ego.
"Through that period, I learned how to be more humble and understand that in order to do my job as a manager I almost had to kill part of my artistic ego to do it. I think that was the way I had to learn that on the job. Yet another thing that was done on the job; I didn't go to uni to learn that, I had to live through it."
As the conversation continues, there's a sense Elefant Traks is much bigger than any one individual. "I've long known being at the helm of Elefant Traks that we are nothing without the artists, the artists are what makes Elefant Traks name mean anything.
"We continued to try and creatively steer it but wherever the artists took us was where we went. So in a way, it's a funny dynamic, right? Like, on one hand, you seem like you've got control, you're signing the artists, and you're kind of like sitting up there in the ivory tower but actually, it's much more of a two-way relationship. It's push and pull, you sign artists and then they go off and creatively explore their art and their bodies of work.
"That's then what drags us forward, so it's very much a two-way street. We've always taken the approach not to interfere too much creatively, to try and let the artists make their own mistakes, but advise them as best as we can."
In many respects, Elefant Traks has paved the way for those who come after them which is something Levinson is astutely aware of as he himself tried to navigate the music industry in the early days, making it more accessible for those who came after.
Through his role at the helm of Elefant Traks, Levinson has mentored plenty of the artists. "I think that probably is in response to the inception of Elefant Traks coming through a period where there wasn't the industry scaffolding around what we were doing in electronic music and hip hop.
"The culture didn't really have industry authority figures, it had cultural authority figures what we would call kings and queens. It had people who had paid their dues and had respect in the community, but it didn't have it in an industry sense. We didn't have people telling us how to do things. We didn't have people who had done it before and had shown us the ropes, that didn't exist.
"I think that was one thing we tried to bring in, when we started gaining some of those skills was being mentors. It was really a big deal for me. I remember one mentor of mine, he didn't really do that much for me. There were definitely some things where he gave me a leg up and he recognised that I was committed and so he gave me some opportunities.
"I remember it was just one simple thing that he said in support of what I was doing. He basically told me that I was okay and that I had a right to be onstage. That was a huge deal to me, thinking about such a small gesture, meaning so much to an artist that was really profound. I've carried that for 20 years, I've carried the memory of how much that meant."
The pride Levinson has in what he and the Elefant Traks community have been able to achieve is obvious throughout the conversation and was imbued in much of what was talked about, but when asked directly about the label's legacy, he says "it's defiance, and it's the human spirit.
"The things that can be achieved when people gather together, that's the legacy of what we've done. We've never been supported by any major label, we've never had a parent company fund us, we've never really had any grants to provide us with income and revenue.
"It's always just been bit by bit building, but somehow 26 years is the time that we spent sharing, and facilitating culture here. Twenty six years is significant, there's not many labels, let alone indie labels that have lasted that long. So I think it is a demonstration of what can be achieved when a few people band together, and I think you have to give up something when you join a bigger thing.
"I think Elefant Traks is testament to what can be achieved when you have that attitude to build together. . . you can create bigger opportunities in the longer run by giving up some things in the shorter run."
Elefant Traks has always had a live element to what they do and so it is fitting that they finish with parties in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Levinson looks back fondly on the many live shows that he has been a part of with Elefant Traks and those memories are everlasting.
"There's so many memories but it's the chaotic energy that always exists backstage. With pre-show there's a different energy and you're nervous and waiting. Also spending time being uncomfortable because you are nervous. There's alcohol flowing, jokes, people carrying on. As well as pranks, missions and people getting lost. People being late and missing flights. All of these different bonds that we have when we tour and play live."
Elefant Traks remarkable longevity in the Australian music industry has brought forward change, nurtured artists providing a platform for them to explore their creativity. Ultimately led by Tim Levinson, but with so many around him they created a space in the music industry that wasn't there before they started operations. The Australian music industry is better off for having Elefant Traks be part of it.
The Herd, Hermitude, Horrorshow, Urthboy, The Last Kinection, Jimblah, Sachem, Jane Tyrrell and Astronomy Class play Elefant Traks: 25 The Finale as part of Open Season at The Tivoli (Brisbane) 8 June. Elefant Traks will also stage farewell concerts at Sydney Opera House on 26 May (sold out) and Melbourne Recital Centre on 15 June (evening show sold out, matinee show added).
