Kora to play maiden Whanganui show at Cooks Gardens

Founding members Francis Kora (third from right) and Dan McGruer (second from left) had been writing songs together remotely long before the Covid-19 pandemic struck. Photo / The Music Is Talking

Kora burst onto the New Zealand's music scene in 2004 with the release of their Volume EP, but they are yet to play a show in Whanganui - until now.

The six-piece will feature at Sound Valley festival at Cooks Gardens next month, and Francis Kora, one of the four Kora brothers who founded the band, said he was surprised it had taken this long to visit the River City.

"I've played there before for other things, but never with Kora, which is pretty strange, aye?", Kora said.

"It's a really pretty town. I played there with the Modern Māori Quartet, and the Opera House was probably the coolest venue of the whole tour.

"It's beautiful."

Kora said the Covid-19 pandemic had made the New Zealand music industry focus solely on homegrown artists, which hadn't happened in "many years".

"It's super strong man, and there's an amazing quality of music as well, whether that be the L.A.B boys, or Six60 or Shapeshifter.

"We're punching above our weight and doing pretty well for a small country. To have the local industry thrive due to the fact that the internationals can't come in has been very evident to see."

The band released two new singles in 2020, Secret Lover and Weekend, and their last full length album (Light Years) came out in 2012.

Kora and fellow founding member Dan McGruer had long been working on songs remotely, he said, so the events of last year hadn't proved to be too much of an issue, musically at least.

"During lockdown everybody had to work that way, but we've been doing that for many years. Dan has lived down in Queenstown for ages and all our members were dotted around the country.

"There are lots of bands in New Zealand that are like that, but it's definitely a longer process than getting all the band in the room and just playing.

"For the last four years I've been super busy with [Modern Māori Quartet] as well, with lots of international touring and stuff, so 2020 definitely offered some time to just stop and write some music, and to sit and create."

The band's previous releases have been hard to pigeonhole, touching on reggae, dub, rock, soul, and their own brand of "alien funk".

"We were recognised as just a reggae band for ages," Kora said.

"Then people would listen and go 'wait, that's not reggae'. We were like 'yes, thank you, that's not what we are'. There's all kinds of stuff in there, funk, soul, anything that's really leftwing and out the gate."

A new album could be a possibility this year, Kora said, and the band would be releasing an new EP this year at the very least.

"There are a few more [songs] set for release this year. They're all finished and ready to go, it's just a matter of shooting some video clips for them.

"The sound of the new songs is still similar to some of our back catalogue. Secret Lover is along the same line as Story Ain't Over, and Weekend is similar to Dream Life. There are some different flavours in there though."

Playing new songs, even in front of a festival crowd, was important, Kora said, because it kept things "fresh" for the band.

"We'll be playing the two newest singles, and hopefully there'll be an unreleased track thrown in as well. There'll be some bangers that people are familiar with too though.

"I'm pumped to be getting out and playing shows again, but at the same time I've enjoyed not being around lots of people. I've kind of gotten used to it.

"It [Sound Valley] is going to be awesome. It must be the first time there's been a music event that big there. You should get all the Womad audience coming down too, because that's been cancelled this year."