Mentors

Laughton Kora, with his incredible voice and immense talent has been at the forefront of New Zealand music for over the past decade.

Laughton has been playing music since the age of 6 appearing on stage as part of his father’s band until 17 years old when he won Smokefreerockquest. His band Aunty Beatrice toured New Zealand and released a single.

He moved to Queenstown and formed Soul Charge with members KP (Sunshine Sound System) and PDiggs (Shapeshifter). In 2001 he headed to Wellington and formed KORA (2003-2012) with his brothers. Laughton has performed at The Big Day Out three times and has been featured alongside Tool and Dizzee Rascal, the Vodafone Music Awards, WOMAD UK, WOMAD Australia and WOMAD New Zealand, Crazy P, Cabaret Voltaire, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Shapeshifter and Shihad. He toured Australia consistently and played Pyramid Festival, Sydney Festival, Stone Festival, FreshFest, Playground and Quicksilver ProShow 2009. He has performed at Koko’s in London, UK, Ireland and Scotland with Crazy P and Norman Jay. Other overseas tours include Japan for 2 Tokyo shows, performances in Minakami and Habuka in early February 2010, the Mosaic Festival in Singapore and a full USA West Coast Tour including Sierra Nevada Music Festival.

During the reign of KORA, Laughton also played in the band The Heavy Metal Ninja’s with guitarist Richie Allen. HMN opened for both Shihad, Coheed and Cambria.

In 2013 Laughton forged ahead with his own solo project and has also formed duo Neon Ninja with Andy Keys (ex Op Shop). The summer of 2013/14 saw Laughton perform at BW Campgrounds, Rhythm & Vines NYE and Music at Matua Festival.

In 2014 Laughton was the lead in the TVNZ mini-series ‘Coverband’ followed closely by his critically acclaimed performance in the Auckland Theatre Company’s ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ as Judas.

2015 has seen him producing songs and mentoring starting with Redbull Studios Auckland and Team Dynamite for their song ‘Feet in the Firma’.