In May 1980, the band Joy Division was devastated by the death of lead singer Ian Curtis. The three remaining band members, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris, decided they would keep making music together, and a few months later, Gillian Gilbert joined them. They called the band New Order.

New Order is one of the most influential bands of the last four decades. Their song “Blue Monday” came out in 1983, and it holds the record for being the best-selling 12-inch single of all time. Rolling Stone put “Blue Monday” on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and Pitchfork included it in its Top 5 Best Songs of the 1980s.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of “Blue Monday,” in this episode, New Order discusses how they created the song. This episode was produced in collaboration with Transmissions, the official New Order and Joy Division podcast produced by Cup & Nuzzle. We’ve put together this story out of the hours and hours of interviews they’ve recorded, along with a new interview I did with Peter Hook. As you’ll hear the four of them explain, nothing about Blue Monday’s success, or really even its existence, was something that they planned for.

You can buy or stream “Blue Monday” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
MOOG – synth
Britannia Row Studios
Shergold Marathon, Peter Hook’s 6-string bass
Ennio Morricone
Spaghetti Western
For a Few Dollars More – Clint Eastwood movie featuring music by Ennio Morricone
E-mu Emulator
Mellotron
Prophet-5 – synth
Rob Gretton – manager of Joy Division and New Order

Yaeji is a singer, songwriter, and producer from New York. During her childhood, she moved between Queens, Atlanta, and Seoul. While she was at college in the States, she started DJing, and releasing her own music. That led to two EPs in 2017, and since then, she’s also done remixes for Dua Lipa, Charli XCX, and Robyn. Yaeji won the International Breakthrough Award at the AIM Awards in 2020. This week she’s releasing her debut album, With A Hammer.

For this episode, I talked to Yaeji about her song “Passed Me By.” She sings the song in Korean and English, and she told me how using both languages gives her a broader palette to express her ideas.

You can buy or stream “Passed Me By” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Pursuit of Happiness (Nightmare)
Waldorf Quantum – Synth
Konglish

Seal is a multi-Grammy-winning singer and songwriter from England. His song “Kiss from a Rose” was first released in 1994, on his second album. It was a huge hit, thanks in part to being featured in the movie Batman Forever. It landed on the top ten charts in multiple countries, and eventually went quadruple platinum in the US. At the 1996 Grammys, it won Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

“Kiss from a Rose” becoming a hit was not a foregone conclusion, though. Seal almost didn’t record it. And when it was first released, it didn’t make much of a splash. But for this episode, Seal and his longtime collaborator, producer Trevor Horn, told me the story of what it took to bring “Kiss from a Rose” to life.

You can buy or stream “Kiss from a Rose” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
“Killer” – song by Adamski featuring vocals from Seal
ZTT Records
Propaganda
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
“Slave to the Rhythm” – Grace Jones song
Sarm Studios
Chris Bruce – guitarist
Jamie Muhoberac – keyboardist
Amp Fiddler – keyboardist
Harvey Mason – drummer
Charley Drayton – bassist
Betsy Cook
Bob Cavallo – Seal’s manager at the time
Joel Schumacher – film director