default-output-block.skip-main
Regional | Kora

Sons of Zion's One Love for our planet

Sons of Zion lead vocalist Rio Panapa.  Photo/File

Festival-goers are enjoying their last few hours of One Love in Tauranga and our reporter Mahina Hurkmans has been moving through the masses.

She spoke to Brad Kora about L.A.B., the band founded with brother Stu Kora that has grown to include Joel Shadbolt, Katchafire's Ara Adams-Tamatea and also Miharo Gregory.

"We started up L.A.B. and it actually means surgeons, so we're like musical surgeons in a laboratory creating music in a lab. So that's the actual meaning," Brad Kora says.

The band had the crowd excited by their special mix of reggae, electronic, blues, rock and funk.

Another group tasked with entertaining the masses is Sons of Zion.

"The boys always aim to give a hundy, so just leave it all out on the stage," lead vocalist Rio Panapa (Ngāti Whakaue, Te Arawa) says.

"Might get hit by a bus tomorrow, so yeah just try and go hard every time."

One of their main focuses is to care more about the environment for future generations.

"It's the right thing to do, I think we all know it's the right thing to do. All the boys are kind of on that kaupapa, on that buzz. We're all big coffee drinkers so we all got KeepCups now. You know, never thought we'd be doing that,"  Panapa says.

"It's good to be aware of all that kind of stuff and we're even trying to lower our meat intake, just a couple of days a week. We're not trying to just eat veggies but trying to be aware and do better for our planet, for our babies."

His message to the youth, "Just listen to your heart."

Sons of Zion will be performing next month at the One Love concert being held in Australia.