The mission was simple – to take the music to the people of Aotearoa.

The man behind the mission? Aaron Tokona, with his band AHoriBuzz.

Aaron Tokona will be playing in Mount Maunganui and Whakatane next month.

With a calender of dates from Invercargill to Opononi, the Nation of the State tour sees AHoriBuzz join the dots between pubs, clubs and various other venues across the North and South islands.

They will be playing in Mount Maunganui at Brewers Bar on September 5 and at Whakatane's Top Shelf bar the night before.

Joining Aaron on his mission are Joe Kora on drums (Kora/Heavy Metal Ninjas) and Aaron Coddel on bass.

There's also the newly released album Into The Sunshine, which made its debut on the charts at #15.

It's Aaron's first full collection of songs in over 15 years.

His musical career began through busking on the streets with his Dad, and after making his name with seminal rockers WETA in the nineties, his next project Cairo Knife Fight drew international attention as well as tours.

In between there were regular outings with the likes of Bongmaster, Fly My Pretties and The Adults.

'This tour is the first time this hori band has been out on its own,” says Aaron, 'and we're playing to people who are coming out especially to see us, which has been bloody awesome.

'It was a bit of a punt, but we wanted to play reasonable-sized venues and keep the tickets cheap, otherwise you end up playing to five people and you can't make a party out of that.

'Because I just wanted us to go on tour and make people happy, I got the band to learn 187 covers, so even if we end up somewhere they've never heard of this bunch of horis, there's heaps for us to play.”

And play they do, with the show regularly clocking in at the two hour mark.

With musical mates in every corner of NZ, you never know who might jump up on stage at AHoriBuzz show as they criss cross Aotearoa tackling the Nation of the State.

For show and ticketing information, visit: www.ahoribuzz.nz