Kora excited about festival

Kora (from left) guitarist-vocalist Stuart Kora, bass guitar player-keyboardist-effects Dan McGruer, guitarist-vocalist Laughton Kora, bass guitar player-vocalist Francis Kora and drummer-vocalist Brad Kora bring their formidable live act to the Shotover Sunshine Festival, near Queenstown on February 9. Photo supplied.

Calling from an Auckland cafe this week, Dan McGruer, on bass guitar, keyboards and effects pedals, said he and the Kora brothers and bandmates were excited to play Wakatipu's homegrown open-air music festival.

''It's a time musicians can catch up with each other because we're all friends and Simon [Hendl, also known as Downtown Brown] who's putting on this festival, is a really good friend of ours and he really looks after us,'' McGruer said.

''Simon's a musician himself and he's really well known in the industry and he's got a lot of respect. The artists he can draw for his festival are quite impressive. It's a great line-up.

''It's just a really good vibe and environment down there and we're excited to be a part of it.''

Queenstown was where McGruer and Laughton Kora created the nucleus of what became Kora at the turn of the century.

''Queenstown is the place we would always call home. I lived there for nine years, and same with Laughton.

''We were getting picked up by a few record companies, but we didn't have any musicians. We'd record all the drum parts, guitar parts and key parts. It was just the two of us.

''Laughton mentioned he had these brothers who play music and I met his brothers and instantly clicked and we took it from there, really.''

Asked what up to 5000 party people can look forward to from Kora, McGruer said the band would be performing songs at Shotover Sunshine Festival they had never played live before.

''Half of the set is really new for us, anyway. A lot of the songs we've only played half a dozen times, so it's going to be really fresh for us.

''We'll be making up our set in the next few days, going over what songs we're going to play and how we're going to run the show. It's going to be very new.''

Need to know
Shotover Sunshine Festival, Saturday, February 9, noon to 1am, Coronet Peak end of Littles Rd, near Arthurs Point. Featuring Kora, the Black Seeds, Tiki Taane (acoustic set), Ladi 6, Sola Rosa, AHoriBuzz, the Upbeats with MC Tiki, Sunshine Sound System, Funkommunity, Peacekeepers featuring P-Digsss, Bora and Nicky Research, Soulsystem, Rhythmonyx, K+Lab and Analog MC and Turbohag, with host MC KPz. Tickets available from the festival website and Dash Tickets online, plus In the Pink, Queenstown, and Base, Wanaka.