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By 11 years old, he was performing in pubs and by 15 was ready to leave school to focus on music. Shadbolt had also grown up on music, with his guitarist father teaching him ukulele from age three and in primary school he started playing guitar in his own band in Tauranga. got a boost after he caught a television performance by singer Joel Shadbolt. There was every chance that music might gradually take a back seat, but his plans for L.A.B. Laughton eventually left to start a solo project, so the name instead came to represent the idea of a music lab where experimentation was encouraged.īrad was running his own mixed martial arts gym which had recently moved from a casual non-profit organisation to a serious business. This led to the trio taking their initials as the band name: L.A.B. Forming L.A.B.īrad got his new group underway by bringing his brother Laughton on board and, soon after, Andy Keys briefly joined them. Yet what he really wanted was to start a new band so he could try out the skills he’d been learning. Seeing him in action made Brad want to learn more about what was required to work from that side of the desk so he began going on studio courses and taking master classes with producers from overseas.
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It nonetheless proved to be beneficial since it gave Brad a chance to work with US producer Printz Board, who’d received a Grammy Award for his work with The Black Eyed Peas. This led to Brad’s decision to go his own way in 2013.īrad’s next project was an odd one: helping his brother Laughton, who’d been hired to work on an album for Kim Dotcom. However, as the Kora’s popularity grew, there were tensions within the group and limited room for each brother to gain creative satisfaction. The brothers’ new project, Kora, was formed in 2002 and led to a platinum selling EP and debut album coming out through independent label, LOOP (the album also debuted at No.1).Ī remix album and second album followed, with the band becoming one of the most popular on the local live scene. However, their real success came in the new millennium when brother Laughton Kora was inspired by hearing Fat Freddy’s Drop and The Black Seeds, and suggested they incorporate a similar style of music into their sound.