Ahoribuzz

People make music for a variety of reasons, to make money (little musician’s joke there), to pick up girls or boys, because they like travelling in confined spaces in vans for extended periods of time or simply because they view life as a musician as glamorous. Others do it simply because it’s as natural to them as breathing - it’s not just something they do, it’s a part of who they are. For these people, to do anything else but meld beats, lyrics and melodies together with their time is a foreign concept. Aaron Tokona is such a musician.

In his hands a guitar talks. It’s the reason he’s been dubbed ‘‘New Zealand’s answer to Jimi Hendrix’’ in the media multiple times. His heart and soul punch you in the face every time he open his mouth and sings. He strives to serve the song, not himself. His solo project AHoriBuzz emerged from the same pot of phat beats that first spat out Fat Freddy’s Drop. Tokona’s first gig was busking on the streets with his dad. Herecalls Christmas Eve as being the best of those gigs. Rising through with essential Kiwi group Weta, Aaron Tokona’s next project, in two-piece Cairo Knife Fight, saw him share the stage with Foo Fighters and Them Crooked Vultures, amongst others. An American tour saw them cleverly crashing the SxSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas.

Standing on Hollywood Boulevard he reflected on his musical dreams. AHoriBuzz have played every big festival you can think off and Aaron Tokona has also fluttered in and out of the Fly My Pretties collective. Named after Tokona’s cousin, Hori, a smiling, mellow, bass-playing giant, the AHoriBuzz line-up is a flowing, ever-changing funked up beast. The intention is pure - it exists simply to provide an outlet for a group of friends who love and revel in each other’s musical company.