This band changed Australian music. Now they’re going out with a bang (2024)

In 1998, musician and computer programmer Kenny Sabir dreamt up an idea in his Surry Hills share house that went on to become a powerhouse of Australian hip-hop.

The label he founded, Elefant Traks, released music from influential artists like the Herd, Hermitude, Horrorshow, the Last Kinection, Joelistics and L-Fresh the Lion. Twenty-six years, 1300 songs, 60 albums and 40 EPs later, the label is calling it a day.

“We were fearless when we began – and got the jump on bedroom studios, and began distributing music created at home,” said Sabir, who also performs in the Herd. “We don’t want to shut down, but when you make $4000 for 1 million streams of a song, how do you employ five people? It’s not sustainable.”

Tim Levinson, better known by his stage name Urthboy, a member of the Herd and co-founder of Elefant Traks, said the Australian music industry was in dire straits.

“It is not just the streaming services not paying artists enough, you can’t just blame Spotify, but when music festivals are collapsing across the country it seems we need infrastructure and resources to forge a new path for the whole industry,” Levinson said.

“We were always a record label that succeeded against the odds, but our ceiling is lower; we don’t even have a boardroom. We are just a bunch of artists who have run a business.

“But it’s a dramatic and significant as well as emotional time for us. It’s a big deal for independent artists, signifying a massive chapter closing,” he said.

The label’s origins – as much as Sabir’s Surry Hill’s share house – were in activism. Twenty years ago, the Herd wrote the song 77% about Australia’s attitude to refugees. And in that tradition, they are going out with a bang.

On Friday, the day before playing their Melbourne farewell show, the Herd will launch their first single in 12 years. It will also be Elefant Traks’ last release.

Soul of My Soul features three Palestinian-Australian artists – Sereen, Mo and Big Rigs – and is inspired by Palestinian Khaled Nabhan, who lost his granddaughter Reem in an Israeli airstrike last November. She was sleeping in her bed in the Al Nuseirat refugee camp in southern Gaza.

The song is a fierce indictment of Israel’s invasion of Gaza, and longer-term treatment of Palestinians, told through the perspective of the Palestinian-Australian guest vocalists, and Herd rapper Levinson.

The Herd are well-known as one of the country’s most fearless political bands (one of their first singles was called Burn Down the Parliament), with their music regularly referencing the anti-war movement, climate change, racism and refugee policy. Since Israel’s invasion of Gaza the group’s members have been vocal in their solidarity with Palestinians.

At the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) music awards in Sydney in May, the group took to the stage, holding up a Palestinian flag and reciting the words of a Palestinian artist. The band says the performance was removed from all APRA channels, and was the only performance of the night not shared on APRA’s social media accounts.

In a statement provided to this masthead, an APRA AMCOS spokesperson said, “At no stage, did we remove any footage from our channels.”

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In a statement timed to coincide with the release of their single, the band slammed the Australian music industry’s “silence” on the war in Gaza.

“A sector that prides itself on being at the forefront of progressive movements, recognising the value of representation from different cultures, is strangely silent on a matter that the entire world is grappling with,” the band said.

Even though the band, and the label, are bowing out, they’re hoping to shatter that silence as they exit loudly.

“We thought it consistent for a label of artists which has spanned over 25 years to show some solidarity with the people trying to push up the needle on this terrible catastrophe,” said Levinson, whose family has Jewish heritage.

“If we don’t speak out, we are adding our silence to that catastrophe,” he said.

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