Francis Kora on dancing in his 40s: 'My body can't handle the sharpness anymore'

For his new solo side project Boogie Baddie, Kora first wrote music that could work as a soundtrack to the "major" hip-hop moves on display in the 1984 film Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo...

..until he had the "crushing realisation" that when you're pushing 50, popping and locking takes on a whole new meaning.

"[Boogie Baddie music] is not 'Bang! Bang!' It's more like, flowy... Yeah, that's my body. Can't handle the sharpness anymore," he tells Music 101.

It's "freaky" how different it is releasing an album these days, compared to when Kora released their self-titled debut in 2007, Francis says.

The "old format" of having to first get a label and, after the album release, do promo is almost obsolete, he says.

"I'm not trying to chase charts. Do chats really matter anymore?"

These days, it's more about artists coming up with their own self-marketing strategies, Francis says.

"Anything you think is cool, you can do it on social media and have your idea of it, have a concept and go for it."

"Physical" copies of albums are also making a comeback, he says, with people investing hundreds of dollars in them as pieces of art rather than something to listen to.

Along with a whole bunch of other artists around the world, Kora is releasing "old-school" physical copies of their fourth album Fifth Season, on vinyl and CD.

The title has a double meaning, Francis says - chosen because the songs have lots of different moods and elements, and as a reference to the Māori concept of the "fifth season" as a person's final season of life before death and reincarnation.

"Māori has a very close relationship with death, and we don't see that as the end. It never really ends."

In the New Zealand music industry, there aren't many acts charging the big fees and "riding in the "commercial bracket" of LAB and Stan Walkers, Francis says.

"It's a bit of a dog fight at the moment."

Francis says his songwriting is less targeted at any commercial market and more about trying to capture his personal point of view - at this age and at this time - and share it with the world.

"Old-school fans will just go, 'Okay, he's moved into here. He's growing. He's an old man now,' which is nice.

"I might be 70 years old, and they'll still have a perspective on the 70-odd man, so it never ends."

When you perform in an "older outfit" like Kora that's been around for over 20 years, people want to remember you as you were when you first came out, Francis says, and hear you play only your older songs.

"That's cool, but everyone always misses all the releases after that."

As humans, we all change and evolve a lot over the decades, he says, and musicians are no different.

"I'm a completely different person from when we first came out with [our debut album]."

As well as the track 'Bullrush' (featuring Tiki Taane) about playing Bullrush with other kids after a tangi at his Whakātane marae, Fifth Season features a tribute to Francis's favourite New Zealand artist - the late Aaron Tokona - called simply 'Azza'.

"He was a genius in many ways, very troubled in other ways, but had the biggest heart in every way."

Kora fondly remembers watching Tokona's amazing showmanship after a gig at the Queenstown Winter Festival.

"He pulls out an acoustic guitar and he's jamming away, but the strings just kept breaking. He ended up with two strings. The DJ is playing in the background, but everyone's around Aaron just partying while he's rocking out songs with two strings. What a genius, man. It was wicked."