YUKO MORINO
THE SLAYLIST
BlackLab’s vocalist/guitarist reveals the bands that took her from Osaka to making a doom racket around the world
WORDS: RICH HOBSON
Yuko enjoys a vast melting pot of influences
PRESS
“MÖTLEY CRÜE GOT me interested in foreign metal music for the first time when I was a high school student. My boyfriend at the time was in a metal band and recommended the song Live Wire [from 1981 debut Too Fast For Love]. I love their first album the most, and the guitar tones are often referenced in BlackLab. I listened to the other metal bands that were on MTV at the same time, and I was into this type of music for a good few years. A colleague eventually invited me to play guitar in a covers band. We played songs from The Beatles, The Stooges, T. Rex and The Velvet Underground. The bands she recommended changed my view of music. THE VELVET UNDERGROUND sounded like they were from another world, especially Venus In Furs. This well-puttogether and sophisticated music made me realise that what’d I’d heard before was merely easy on the ears. Their songs had raspy sounds, out-of-tune violins, rough guitar tones and Nico’s gruff vocals. It made me realise that music could sound harsh and strange, but also be so cool and stylish. So different to the hair metal of Mötley Crüe!