Feel the ‘vibe’

GISBORNE GROOVE: They might be old hands but touring band Kora will have new material when they headline next week’s East Coast Vibes event. “We do the big groove things that our fans love, but we’re also working on a more stripped back kind of funk-blues-rock,” says vocalist Francis Kora (front). Picture supplied

FRANCIS Kora is, he admits, a bit bummed.

“Everywhere we’ve gone we’ve missed the surf by one day!” he says of the tour that is taking him and band Kora from one end of the country to the other. “Hopefully it will be pumping in Gisborne.”

We can’t promise anything but on Monday the five members of Kora will be able to check for themselves when they play the East Coast Vibes festival at Gisborne Soundshell, opposite the beach.

And when they hit the stage for their headlining set, they’ll be cogs in a well-oiled machine.

Recently returned from a mini-tour of Australia, the groove-heavy Kora has been on a month-long summer sojoun that has taken them from Christchurch to Hawke’s Bay and Napier — and a lot more places in between.

“This time of year is chaos but it’s good fun,” Francis Kora says. “It’s definitely the busiest time of year for anyone who works in music.”

For him, that is doubly so: he was last year on the road to promote the film Pa Boys (in which he played the lead) and more lately he’s been all over the place with the ensemble Modern Maori Quartet. But, he says, he’s pleased to be back in Gisborne, where Kora last played the former BW Festival a couple of years ago.

“It’s a bummer BW is not going any more, it was a load of fun,” he says. “We’re stoked to be playing Vibes, though. To us, it seems more like an event for Gizzy locals than for out-of-towners and that’s pretty awesome.”

Kora has played Rhythm and Vines in the past, too, and Kora says while the band’s focus will always be on the great big grooves that work so well in a large space, it is evolving.

“We’re finding these days our arrangements are a bit heavier on the electronic side but we still love those big, grungy guitars,” he says.

“We just like to play the really big shows that our fans like. That’s why we spend so much time on the road.”

Meanwhile, though Kora’s more than a decade of touring means it will be the voice of experience at East Coast Vibes 2016, young artists, too, are well represented.

“One of our aims this year has been to showcase local talent so the decision to add young Gisborne band 5XL to the line-up was easy,” says event director Rob Coe-Tipene. “They are role models both on and off the stage and because of that I hope punters take away more than just the musical aspect of the experience . . . I hope that they are inspired, as well.”

As for the band members, Guy Aupouri says they are stoked: “I just can’t wait to meet my music inspirations, Ardijah and Katchafire,” the 18-year-old keyboardist says.

But Coe-Tipene reckons the young artists are an inspiration in themselves.

“These rangatahi have represented our region for quite some time as part of bands like 5XL and The Crayz so it is only right to showcase their achievements to the community that raised them,” he says.

“The band members have already made a huge impact by way of their community work and I look forward to the impact they will have on stage as proud locals.”