L.A.B's lead singer Joel Shadbolt says after months of tight Covid restrictions, the band is excited for a huge summer of live performances here and in Australia. Photo / George Novak
When tens of thousands of fans are singing your lyrics back to you and arms are waving with phones glowing in the dark, you feel an electric sensation that's like a drug, Joel Shadbolt says.
Nothing beats the euphoria of playing to a live audience and when it's how you make your living, you push ahead in pandemic times and hope for the best.
"It's been crazy," L.A.B's lead singer says of months of tight Covid restrictions, which have prevented the band from playing gigs here and overseas.
Now that New Zealand has moved to the traffic light system, Shadbolt and fellow band members Miharo Gregory, Ara Adams-Tamatea and brothers Stu and Brad Kora are making the most of their weekly rehearsals in their Whakatāne studio in preparation for a huge summer of live performances here and in Australia.
They also have a new album launching on December 17, L.A.B V, the same night as the 2021 Aotearoa Music Awards, at which they'll perform and have been nominated for five awards.
Shadbolt has been hitting the gym to get stage fit. And goes for hour-long drives singing his "arse off" in the car belting out either the band's songs or one of 75 songs on his Spotify playlist that challenge his vocal range.
On December 30 they'll perform in Wanaka and then January 8, New Plymouth, January 15 Christchurch, and Auckland's Western Springs on the 22nd - only the second Kiwi band after Six60 to headline New Zealand's biggest stadium.
They will be joined by a massive line-up of some of Aotearoa's most popular artists including Sir Dave Dobbyn, Ladi6, The Black Seeds, Katchafire, JessB and RIIKI.
From March, they'll head to Australia to play at the Byron Bay Bluesfest and five sold-out concerts.
Having rescheduled their Aussie tour three times, they're hoping this time they'll be lucky.
"The whole industry is under a lot of pressure," Shadbolt, 30, says.
"We make money out of streams and album sales to a point, but playing live is how we make our bread and butter and where you actually make your living."
He also has a day job as a part-time music teacher at Tauranga's Otumoetai and Bethlehem Colleges where his students are his most "brutal critics".
"I think it doesn't matter how famous you are or how successful you are, teaching a kid is the most honest thing ever," he laughs.
While 2021 has been a tough year for L.A.B, one upside is that lockdowns gave them the space and time to finish creating their fifth album in five years which was recorded at Surgery Studios in Wellington with Dr Lee Prebble, and combines reggae, soul, funk and blues.
Their first single from the album Mr Reggae was released on November 26 and received more than 250,000 hits on Spotify within a couple of days, and is currently the No 1 single on the NZ singles charts and the No 3 single overall.
If fans like the super catchy Reggae Man, they're in for a treat with what's to come, with Shadbolt sharing they never release their best song first, and that there's another song on the 10 track album that he thinks is a number one hit. He won't divulge details but says "people are going to love it".
Their new album cover, designed by Natalie J Mentor, features all of the band members and Shadbolt's customised Harley Davidson airbrushed by Tauranga's Anthony Brodie.
Mentor has designed all five of their album covers, one of which also inspired a tattoo on Shadbolt's arm.
The sound of L.A.B V has similarities to their third and fourth albums, including the return of the string quartet The Black Quartet in five tracks.
"The flavours are still typical L.A.B but we're always trying to push the envelope," Shadbolt says, explaining that there's also hip-hop and one of their new songs is a country song.
"That'll be interesting to see how people perceive that. The (L.A.B) boys were brought up on Dolly Parton to The Eagles, so the love of country runs deep.
"I think it's good for us to push boundaries and keep the creative thing fresh because it can get a bit stale if you keep trying to write the same style of music and same sound so it's always good to try and evolve."
Asked if L.A.B are competitive with other Kiwi artists, he says they want to be the best that they can be.
"Of course, there have been comparisons to Six60 because we're one of the only bands that are chasing their tail in terms of what they've achieved, but we don't feel pressure to do better than them or be as successful, we just want to keep writing good music."
The band also can't accurately predict which of their hits will do well with the public. They've tried that before and failed.
"'This is going to be the one, going to be banger', and it never is. Ha, ha. But I think now we know a bit more.
"Back when we were doing the first and second albums, we didn't really know what people were going to like, but now I believe we do."
As well as winning multiple music accolades, their chart accomplishments so far include albums L.A.B II and L.A.B IV hitting platinum and L.A.B and L.A.B III hitting platinum twice.
Singles 'Ain't No Use', 'Rocketship', 'Yes I Do', 'Love of Jane' and 'Starry Eyes' hit platinum; 'She's Gone', 'Jimmy Boy', "Personify', 'Shadows', 'Running', 'Baby Will You Let Me', 'My Brother', 'No Roots' and 'Natural' are all certified gold; 'Why Oh Why' went three times platinum; 'Controller' five times platinum; and 'In the Air' reached platinum seven times and gold in Australia.
The talent of each individual member is essential to the band and it's a collaborative effort, but they're steered by leader Brad Kora - one of the four Kora brothers - who operates as L.A.B. 's producer and main songwriter.
"He'll plant the idea and then the five of us get in the room and we kind of jam and come up with an arrangement and a structure."
The unique thing about L.A.B's songwriting process is they come into the studio with a blank canvas, rather than with a demo.
"We get to record and write the song from start to finish as it's born. When we're together is when we go hard as a unit."
And go hard they have done since they started jamming together in 2015 after Brad and Stu (who had been in their own group Kora since 1991) got in touch with Shadbolt after hearing him sing on TV. They pulled in Gregory to play keys and Adams-Tamatea of Katchafire acclaim to round off the now-famous five.
Between rehearsals in Whakatāne and recording in Wellington, the band is frequently on the move. The Kora brothers live in Whakatāne, Miharo Gregory in Wellington and Adams-Tamatea and Shadbolt are in Pāpāmoa.
Shadbolt, an only child, was born and bred in the Bay of Plenty and was taught to sing and play the guitar by his late dad, Brian.
He distinctly remembers the moment that he knew L.A.B had made it, saying it was not long after an uneventful 2016/17 summer tour.
L.A.B had no album out, no songs and were playing a few originals and a bunch of covers.
"We opened for Sticky Fingers in front of 7000 people, nobody wanted to see us, they wanted to see Sticky Fingers. That was a really weird time because the following summer we released our first album and we did our first big tour. It was called the Corona tour (sponsored by Corona beer). Imagine doing a Corona tour this summer? F**king hell."
When L.A.B's first album came out, people started singing their songs in packed pubs.
"That's when I knew we had made it," he recalls.
He tells the story of performing in a pub in Kapiti that was so packed the walls were "sweating".
The energy it takes to go out and perform for a solid hour-and-a-half is massive, he says, sharing that Brad and Stu once "pretty much passed out" from heat exhaustion.
"(That's why) I try to keep up my fitness. I go up the mount, hit the gym. You can't just wake up and play those kinds of shows. You have to give 110 per cent for an hour. You've got to be 'on'."
He can "kinda" talk after a gig but the key is to not talk beforehand.
There are not many moments of reprieve on stage, other than when the audience sings your lyrics back to you or you give them instructions and the symmetry of their movements causes you to freeze.
During a One Love festival, L.A.B cut the stage lights and asked the 20,000 strong audience to turn their phone lights on.
"Whoosh, all the way to the back," he recalls. "Holy s***, 20,000 people in the palm of your hands. Nothing beats that energy. It's like a drug."
From playing modest venues a few years ago to winning many of Aotearoa's highest music accolades, playing its largest summer festivals and hosting tens of thousands during their own headline shows, their fans have made it all happen and L.A.B regularly interacts with them on social media.
"With anything these days, the gap between the successful person or the artist or the actor and the audience is so much closer than it's ever been. You're so accessible. The good side of it is you can literally have conversations with your fans directly."
And the bad side?
"You've got no privacy."
Although he counters that by saying most fans are respectful and also deserve a "massive thanks".
"None of this happens without people. Literally, we started with 2000 fans on Facebook, and now we've got close to a million followers on Spotify and a quarter of a million on Facebook and it's unbelievable. I like to say it's all been organic, we did it slowly. People think it came out of nowhere. Nah, man, it did not come out of nowhere."
Shadbolt thinks of L.A.B as the "people's band".
"Grassroots, no smoke and mirrors, up the guts.
"Because of the success of the band, it's put us into that next level of recognition and success, but when it boils down to it, we're just a bunch of Bay boys who love to go to the beach, play music, have families, and we just want to live a normal life.
"If you're passionate about something and it brings you success, that's like going fishing and catching fish," he says with a grin.
When the world eventually opens up again, Shadbolt who on the day of our interview was also interviewed by journalists in New York and Atlanta about their new album, says L.A.B will head overseas and push it as far and wide as they can.
"The hype is there."
L.A.B's 2021 Aotearoa Music Awards Nominations:
Te Pukaemi o te Tau | Album of the Year for L.A.B. IV Te Waiata Tōtahi o te Tau | Single of the Year for 'Why Oh Why' Te Roopu Toa | Best Group Te Kaipuoro Taketake Toa | Best Roots Artist Te Kaipukaha Toa | Best Engineer – Lee Prebble and Ara Adams-Tamatea for L.A.B. IV
This summer will be critical to discover if the sharks have started returning.