Depeche Mode released their new album Sounds of the Universe this week — and shut down Hollywood Blvd. last night — so our Flashback brings us to 1982, when DM visited Sweden’s Mandag Borsens. First impression: “Holy shit, look how young David Gahan is!” He resembles the singer of a high school Gary Numan cover band. Like most interviews dealing with a language barrier, there are some moments of awkwardness: The fumbled Gahan introduction, those long gaps when Gahan stands idly while the presenter translates his answers into Swedish, and of course the last question, when Gahan is asked what the lyrics of “New Life” are about, even though the song’s writer, Vince Clarke, had quit the band and taken the song’s meaning with him. Check out the DM’s performance of “New Life,” and Mandag Borsens awesomely ’80s opening credits, after the jump.
