Remember When: David Hasselhoff Went Synthwave with “True Survivor”

David Hasselhoff has always found ways to reinvent himself. He’s most famous for starring in the 1980s sci-fi TV series Knight Rider and the ‘90s show Baywatch. But his reach extends to music too. In 1984, he started cultivating a solo career with his debut pop-rock album Night Rocker, and he sang at the Brandenburg Gate near the Berlin Wall when it was being disassembled in December 1989. That song of the moment, his cover of “Looking for Freedom,” was released in December 1988 and hit No. 1 in West Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, and No. 4 on Europe’s Hot 100 Singles chart in 1989. The Looking for Freedom album in 1989 started a string of three Platinum albums and one Gold album in Germany. His last release, Party Your Hasselhoff in 2021, hit No. 4 in that country.

The 21st century has seen Hasselhoff embark on a number of different adventures. In the 2000s, he starred or co-starred in Jekyll & Hyde on Broadway, Chicago in London’s West End, and The Producers in Las Vegas. For several years in the 2010s, he appeared annually in a December pantomime production of Peter Pan in London; it’s the kind of show where audiences can heckle the cast. He’s done a Christmas album, a covers album of American pop songs, and even recorded a metal song with CueStack in 2020.

The Next Adventure

One of his wildest musical adventures found him singing on and appearing in the video for the song “True Survivor” from the 2015 short film Kung Fury. The half-hour production, made on a shoestring budget, has racked up 39 million views on YouTube, and a sequel co-starring Michael Fassbender, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Hasselhoff has been filmed.

The original Kung Fury short is about a 1980s cop who travels back in time to assassinate Adolf Hitler (aka the Kung Fuhrer) after the latter emerges in his current timeline. But he ends up in the Viking Age. Action-packed hilarity and time-travel hijinx ensue. The film’s writer-director David Sandberg had been making low-budget movies in Sweden, including this one. It was a dream come true for Sandberg to work with Hasselhoff, who called the young moviemaker the hero of the project as he provided a good song and video that made the Hoff look younger. The former Knight Rider was very appreciative.

A Magical Moment

It all came about while the singer was doing a talk show in Sweden, and Universal contacted him about working on the Kickstarter-funded True Survivor film. He learned Sandberg raised the second-highest amount of money ever outside of America on Kickstarter, and they were planning a video for a song connected to the movie that would include footage from it. The singer saw 10 seconds of the trailer and was immediately sold. He also provided the voice of the Hoff 9000, the hero’s car in the film. Hasselhoff starred in the music video which is a mash-up, like the film, of so many things ‘80s it will make your head spin.

“It was magical fun—Sin City with a throwback to the ’80s,” Hasselhoff told Billboard in 2015. “The kid, David Sandberg, had charisma and charm. I called him and he said, ‘I can’t believe I’m talking to Knight Rider. You’re a childhood hero to everybody, would you please do this?’ And I said, ‘Sure, why not?’ I believe in Kickstarter, we’ll see where it goes. People have given me a break before, so I thought, why not give him a break.”

The Hoff flew to Sweden and met with co-songwriter Jörgen Elofsson, whose resume includes Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears, Leona Lewis, and Celine Dion. Hasselhoff loved the ‘80s vibe of the music, which reminded him of when his music first got big, and they cut the song. Four months later, the video was shot and included the singer “hooked up to harnesses, taping my face back, putting on some hair so I could try to look like a young Michael Knight. We were just having a great laugh.”

“We’re just over the moon and having a laugh,” Hasselhoff recalled further to Billboard. “That’s what the ’80s were about: having fun, passion, crazy … so much talent back then was unleashed around the world. Everyone was having fun and it was all positive. The video reflects it. Everything in that video: Dinosaurs, Miami Vice references, Airwolf, David Hasselhoff, flying cars.” (Not to mention The Karate Kid, Wolfenstein 3D, The Road Warrior, and the Nintendo Power Glove.) “I think the reason it’s such a big success—I was trying to figure this out—is that people in their 40s and 50s lived in the ’80s, but everybody else didn’t know what it was about. And how they’re going, ‘This is the ’80s?’”

Full-Circle Fun

It’s interesting that Hasselhoff sings on a perky synthwave track that was co-written and produced by Mitch Murder, a popular Swedish artist in the genre known for tracks like “Breeze” and “After Hours Run.” The song “True Survivor” arrived at a time when the genre was swelling in popularity. Synthwave is ‘80s-inspired electronic, dance, and electro-rock music, often instrumental in nature, that draws inspiration from ‘80s TV show themes, movie scores, pop music, and video games. Funnily enough, the Knight Rider theme itself has often popped up as an influence for a number of synthwave tracks. So for Hasselhoff to do “True Survivor” and appear in the video feels like a fun and funny full-circle moment. It’s gotten good traction—53 million YouTube views and counting. The song has passed 25 million Spotify listens.

Check out the clip and the movie to appreciate the inspired ‘80s insanity of it all. The sequel landed big names and a funding boosting from DreamWorks, but its release has been delayed due to a Chinese financier reportedly not paying a $10 million investment and shutting down post-production. Filming wrapped up three years ago. Here’s hoping the mess gets sorted out so we can enjoy it.

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Photo by ENNIO LEANZA/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock