MNZ Interview: CoffeeBar Kid Cuts S01 / E07: Laughton Kora and Black Comet

With his incredible voice and immense musical talents Laughton Kora (Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Pōkeko) has been deeper than deep in Aotearoa’s ever emerging music scene for ages. He now considers himself a bit of a ‘veteran’, as he tells Tim Gruar, who’s called him up during a soundcheck at Waihi, where his relatively new band Black Comet are getting ready to play that night. That’s one of a series of gigs, gearing up to take the Big WOMAD stage in March.

Originally from Whakatāne, Laughton Kora has been playing music since he was six years old. He’d appear on stage as part of his father’s band right through into his teens. Growing up, he and his brothers Francis, Stuart and Brad Kora all learned guitar. It was a bit of a brotherly challenge, he says, to hear a new tune on the radio or record and then rush off to learn to play it as fast as possible. They would try out playing all kinds of music, including pop hits and even classical pieces by composers like Paganini – he reckons this one really works well as a heavy metal version.

“When knew were about 10-11 we knew about, oh, like 4-500 songs and on different instruments – guitar, keys, stuff like that. You learn that and you can really build your craft,” he tells me.

When he was 17 yrs he won the 1991 Smoke Free Rock Quest with his band Aunty Beatrice, which toured Aotearoa and released a single as part of the prize (the band name, coined as a bit of a joke, as Beatrice was the bass player’s real-life aunt who selflessly drove them around to practices and jams).

Laughton later went to Toi Whakari in Pōneke and did some TV and theatre work, including an appearance in TVNZ’s mini-series ‘Coverband’ and was exceptionally well received version Jesus Christ Superstar, for Auckland Theatre Company, playing Judas.

After moving to Te Anau, where his Mum was involved in a hotel project, Kora eventually formed up a new band, Soul Charge, with Kyle Popham (aka KP – Sunshine Sound System) and Paora Apera (aka P Diggs – Shapeshifter). They wrote the massive hit Politician, a protest song about legalising marijuana, which became a classic fav in Kora’s repertoire.

In 2001 he headed to Wellington and formed KORA (2003-2012) with his brothers Francis (Fran), Stuart and Brad Kora and Dan McGruer. Blending dub, reggae, funk and rock Kora’s EP Volume dropped in 2004, and followed by their massive self-titled debut album in 2007 which entered the charts at No. 1. 2012’s Light Years won acclaim and UK Electronica outfit Cabaret Voltaire released an EP of remixes.

Around 2013 Brad and Laughton left Kora to start up L.A.B. “But I then I jumped out of that and joined this outfit called Kinetic.”

Since then, he’s gone on to a massive solo career along with many collaborations including a concert with the NZSO, Tama Iti and Maisey Rika in Whakatāne and another working with a variety of Māori poets, putting their work to music, sometimes using taonga pūoro.

He’s also put his hand to producing songs and mentoring, starting with Redbull Studios Auckland and working on Team Dynamite’s classic Feet in the Firma.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. He’s involved in heaps.

Late last year he supported Katchafire on a multi-date Aussie tour. And then managed to pop back to play Musical Director for Barnaby Weir’s Fly My Pretties project, at Massey Uni’s Great Hall, in Whanganui a Tara.

And this is where we pick up the conversation.

Tim: That was the last time I saw you. What an awesome show. You were really having fun!

Laughton: It was a good one, hey? I liked that one. It was in typical ‘Barnaby’ fashion’. He goes all in with a full ‘feel’ for the entire show. He’s a real storyteller, and I think that really matters when you are doing a show like that.

Tim: I have to compliment you on your outfit, too. You really were ‘Ming The Merciless’ in that gold and red silk pyjama and box hat outfit?

Laughton: Thank you. Only in one of Barnaby’s shows can I get out something like that these days. Ha ha!

Tim: So, I’ve caught you at a sound check?

Laughton: Yes, for my band Black Comet. We are in Waihi, for a Boxing Day show. We haven’t played together for a while because everyone is too busy. But we are getting it together.

Tim: So, who’s in the band?

Laughton: There’s Dan Antunovich on bass – we’ve done musical theatre and a lot of orchestras together. There’s Poihakena Reid on keys, sax and talkbox – he’s an OG. Stan Bicknell’s on drums. And we also rope in Andrew Isdale on keys – he’s a Swiss Army Knife. He plays sax, keys, guitars, he’s D’N’B producer. Everyone is an absolute monster. Really.

Our drummer, Stan has been called to an audition for a band called Primus, who were huge in the 1990’s. At the moment, they’ve got the drummer from Tool filling in. So, Stan’s been offered an audition, and he flies out in 30 days, I think. We totally support people going on to do their thing, in this band. If that’s what you need to do, go be that.

Tim: With your blessing. What’s the whakapapa of Black Comet. I know that you’ve been in. like a million bands. So, where does this one come from and where do you find the time?

Laughton: This my ‘actual band’. Not playing for anyone else or anyone’s project. It’s quite nice. It’s good to get back to playing guitar.

But this year I’ve been doing a lot of film work and written scores for about 13 films. Mostly these are indigenous projects. And I just came back not that long ago supporting Katchafire. I was a thing with Loops.

But my film work, I was mainly working from home and the boys from Katchafire asked me to join them and so, I went. I was writing two new songs a week and trying them out.

Audiences in Australia are cool. You can try stuff out. I was creating all the time and trying, trashing what didn’t work, moving on. I love that.

Tim: You are always doing projects, music, theatre, art. You always have a new thing on.

Laughton: I’ve been doing these film projects. Recording sounds. You get these sound banks, sound libraries but you don’t know where they are from. I wanted to go to iwi and record their bush, their moana, their manu. That includes work in Vanuatu and first nations work in Australia as well.

I got pneumonia being outside recording the moana and trees. Recording 800-year-old trees, they really talk. I was out there at night. The best time to record is about 3 AM, ‘cos there’s no noise pollution.

Tim: You recorded kapa haka groups under water, filming them under water.

Laughton: Yes, you have to use special nautical mics for that. I’m a storyteller and I’ll pretty much do anything to get that story over the line.”

Tim: Tell me the story of Black Comet.

Laughton. We want to bring the Funk. Brink back the funk. We want to be Prince’s 4AM band. The one that he plays with after the concert, when he goes to a little bar somewhere and jams all night and plays whatever (he wants). That’s what we are. We’re that band!

Tim: On your album Episode 1: Looking For A New Planet I can hear Parliament, Disco, George Clinton, etc.

Laughton: Early Kora, too.

Tim: And that space-fi theme gives it a real 70’s funk edge. Does that go back to your roots when you were learning all those tunes with your brothers?

Laughton: Yeah, right, man. Listen to the tune, turn up and just play it. Bringing that kind of excitement. I’m interested in journey’s and not so much structured songs. Because with Spotify and the music industry so saturated there’s a lot of music written perfectly. I’m hoping to by-pass that and tell stories and feel again.

And It becomes a lot more fun.

And we’ve done a few shows now and we never play them the same, we always play to the audience. And that, for me is where I want to be. I want to have a conversation with the audience. That’s the excitement.

Tim: Is that like the way a DJ reads the room, gets the vibe from the floor.

Yeah exactly. You know, you see a covers band. They play for four hours. That’s reading the room constantly. We want to bring back that kind of craft. We have that spontaneity. Yeah. Make it up, read the room. It’s that skill and experience, that’s what I’m after. To just go with the vibe. Instead of turning up with perfectly made songs and just delivering them. The audience are up for it, let’s play. No time limit on what we’re doing.

Tim: Your songs, I hate using genres, but …

Laughton: I know what you are saying, my man. I heard a new one. ‘Mid-West Shoe Gaze!’ Ha ha!

Tim: WTF!

Laughton: Yeah! It really fits, you know, the briefing. It’s just ‘indie’, right. He he he!

Tim: Where did this ‘music’ come from? The Black Comet?

Laughton: I went down the orchestra thing and then other avenues and a couple of jams and L.A.B at the beginning, jumped out of that, started doing orchestrated stuff and producing. And I thought “I miss playing in a band”. You know? Having a conversation on stage. So, I just put one together.

And I said to the guys: “Hey my Kaupapa is that we don’t rehearse. I throw you some vibes and the key and we’ll run from there.”

Tim: Like a jazz thing?

Laughton: Sort of. But more a jam night, really. I’m saying to the band: “You are looking for the founder of that sound. You can play. So, I don’t want to give you advice on what you can do. Here’s a groove – what are you gonna do? You show me!”

We just make up stuff on the spot. Like 10 -15 min jams, going off! We’re having fun on stage, and it reads through the front of the house. And into feeds our writing. Not so straight forward or prescriptive, you know? Obviously, with that risk some stuff doesn’t work. So, we look at it and just say: “Cool, let’s turn this into something else. It’s all amazing fun.

Tim: I’m in awe of musicians who can just pick this up from, like you say, a vibe, and just play it.

Laughton: Yeah, but it’s a conversation with ourselves, and the audience. I don’t want to be a cover band of myself, playing these strictly curated songs each night. That’s a restriction of the timing and the set-list. You know what I mean?

Tim: These songs, these ideas. The Sci-Fi, space, funk, where did these all come from?

Laughton: We had conversations and found we had similar ideas. We were thinking how you could make something that wasn’t quite so identifiable. We didn’t want it to just be like, you know, the first four bars sound like Stevie Wonder, or Elton John or someone else familiar. We draw inspiration that’s deeper, more obscure sounds. We wanted to go back to crate digging (looking at old 45’s, etc, looking for more obscure stuff. We want to be part of that culture, looking for good stories and good melodies.

Tim: So you made the first album at Tiki Taane’s studio?

Laughton: I live near Mt Maunganui, down in Papamoa. And in that ropu, you’ve got Fran (Kora) and Joel Shadbolt from L.A.B, Holly Smith, Ria Hall, Logan Bell (Katchafire), al living nearby. It’s a great community. Tiki’s down there. Paul Russell (Supergroove).

Tim: So, there’s many healthy jam nights to be had? – Ha ha. 

Laughton: There’s this incredible ‘want’ to do incredible work. There’s so much energy there.

With Tiki – he and I have been doing a lot of work in his studio. A lot of the films I work on, he does work for me. And all these incredible toys he has.

And we want to be veterans of the industry. I do some mentorship and things with upcoming artists. You know, I would like to see a different run sheet on the Homegrown poster. It’s been like the same for 11 years. Add new talents. Because there’s just so much about. We are losing a lot of our young producers (overseas). Like Noah Slee (and he lists many more).

But -I also know you must tour (to make it). Like Fat Freddy’s Drop and Katchafire – always over in Europe and that. They are the true touring bands of Aotearoa. It also makes you a better performer. I just came off doing 19 shows. It felt good. You dial in to who you are, you know?

Tim: On that, what’s your best gig? Favourite gig, of late? 

Laughton: Metro in Sydney – full of expats, missing home.

The thing with Aussie culture is that when the door says 6PM they all turn up. And I’m playing to a full house. They support the whole bill, not just the final acts.  And it’s all over by 10.30PM. So, you don’t have that drunk culture. All hours, raging.

Tim: And you don’t have to pay the babysitter too much extra?

Laughton: Yeah. Yeah. And you and back in the hotel resting for the next one. Back in the day you are on at 2AM and you got a lobby-call at 6. We were just hurting ourselves.

Tim: Well, yeah more professional. No drugs, boozing after the gig, and TV’s being thrown out the window! 

For a musician these days, where does the income come from?

Laughton: Touring, merch. I learned from Katchafire. Everywhere in Australia, someone would have a Katchafire hat or shirt on. I thought this is cool. But merch has to be wanted. I like to think I’m an artist. I don’t want to just stick stuff on a T-shirt. I need to make it a worthwhile thing. So, we are playing around in Black Comet, with the merch designs, too. Otis Chamberlain did the artwork for the album. It’s amazing. I want more of that. So, I want to go looking for artists. I’m down with AI, but I like the genuine, you know?

Tim: And you are coming to WOMAD, Taranaki?

Laughton: I can’t believe were on there! So, exciting to be on those stages in that atmosphere.

And you are doing more touring, and coming to Welly, CubaDupa?

Yep. And we go back to studio in Jan/Feb and make more music. So, that’s on the cards, too.

Tim: It’s been a blast talking to you. Thank you so much.

Laughton: Thanks, Tim appreciate it.

Black Comet feature at WOMAD, Taranaki 14-16 March 2025 www.womad.co.nz

Ripe, Wānaka – 22 March www.ripewanaka

CubaDupa 29-30 March www.cubadupa.co.nz

Check their socials for more gigs: insta:@blackcometband

Black Comet – Episode 1: Looking For A New Planet is available now.