Interview
| Sex Without Sex:
30 Minutes With Amber
Written by: Kage
Alan
When
Amber first ignited the radio waves with the catchy "This Is Your
Night", it was difficult to know if she was going to be just
another one album dance wonder created by a record label or the
genuine article. Her sophomore effort demonstrated that she had
lasting potential, especially with "Sexual", "Love One
Another" and "Above The Clouds", but few would know
just how much her creativity as a singer and songwriter were being
stifled as she was told what to write and how to write it. The
release of her third album, "Naked", finds the Dutch born
singer free from her contract, writing music her own way, working with
those of her choosing who compliment her style, adored by her fans, in
control of a fab website (www.amber-mcc.com), raising a son as a
recently divorced single mother and living life with a tremendously
glad heart.
Kage Alan: Upon first glance,
"Naked" appears to be a very sexual album, yet once you
listen to it and hear the lyrics, there's an incredible amount of
depth to them about honesty and opening up. Why this overall
theme at this point in your career?
Amber:
I think the album "Naked" was for me a symbol of being
free and Naked doesn't have anything to do with stripping down and
being sexy, but it's really a symbol about being finally freed from
all negativity in my life. Obviously, you know, when you start
out in this business you make choices, and you make choices too fast
to make sure you get there and afterwards you realize…hmm…that
choice wasn't the right choice. I don't really have the word
"mistake" in my vocabulary. I consider when you do
something that is not quite right, it's an experience. It's a
mistake if you do it over and over again, but it's an experience if
you learn from it.
The album "Naked" was finally an album where I had stripped
off all the negativity in my life. I had bought myself out of
the contract, which took me two years to negotiate. It was a
horror trip. I was ready to just lay down and never make music
again rather than come back to work with these people. I finally
signed off in December, which was a blessing, then I also made some
changes in my personal life. I separated from my husband and it
was just the best decision that I made in my life, I feel, because I
like to stay on top of my business myself. I don't like people
to control me because who could know better what she wants than me
myself? And I think I came to a lot of terms with writing a lot
of stuff out. So you have authentic material on the album, you
have hypothetical wishful thinking, you have metaphors on there, and
it's just was extremely freeing and I'm a person who is constantly
expanding and constantly just looking for new things. I'm
extremely open-minded. I'm already preparing mentally for my
next album, what is it that I want to do and I already have certain
visions of what I want my album to sound like.
It was also just such a blessing to see electronics meld with live
instruments and work with people who I have a spiritual connection
with, which I think is fundamental for me to work. That's why we
decided to call our album "Naked". We understand that
it's a playful interpretational question for people to say like
"wow, there she goes…sexual". No. No.
No. We understand that. We're not stupid, of course.
It's also a marketing question, but this is what I knew was going to
happen. People open up the booklet and read the lyrics and are
like "Hmm, well that's not actually really about sex, is
it?" Even the song "Sex Without Sex", it has the word
"sex" there, but it's not about sex. No. It's
about connecting on a spiritual level, but it feels like having sex.
It's that good of a feeling to have a spiritual connection with a
person and sexuality will follow automatically after you really dearly
connect and love a person like that.
KA:
In the song "Yes", the lyrics came from an excerpt of James
Joyce's "Ulysses". Did you come across that, had you
read it or did someone bring it to you and you incorporated it in?
How did that work?
Amber: Now, I have two songs only on the album that weren't
written by me and that was "Heavenly Proximity", which was
written by my mom, so it's a little bit written by me anyway because
it's my mom, and the song "Yes". The song came forward
out of the following situation. I was in the middle of producing
my album, preparing a lot of stuff, and I called Billy Steinberg, who
is also the co-writer of "Sexual", "Love One
Another" and "The Need To Be Naked", and I said to
Bill, cuz Billy knows me really well…I just evolved a really great
relationship over the years. He's an extraordinary great writer.
I mean, he has just so much repertoire out there and he's just the
most amazing artist. And I said to Bill "Bill, you know me.
I don't want regular 'dance music'. I don't want to be
pigeonholed. I want to have substance to whatever I bring out
and I'm trying to take dance to another level. Do you have an
upbeat song there, by any chance, per accident, that gives some kind
of intellectual meaning?" And he was like "Did I tell you
about this song 'Yes'." I said "Billy, you told me about the
song 'Yes', but you never freakin' sent it to me!"
So he sent it over and just from the moment it started out…and he
had explained the concept to me and that already turned me on
completely…I listened to this song, just how it started out, and I
said to myself "wow, this is an amazing song". I
was getting a kick out of it that probably from 100% of listeners, 2%
maybe would get the concept of James Joyce. So people would be
concerned about the word "breasts" where, you know, they've
been so prudish. I don't know what it is. Hip Hop artists
can go out there and say "Smoking weed in the back of the Benzie"
and "It's getting hot in here" with a very suggestive video
because it's Hip Hop, but me as a woman I'm not supposed to say the
word "breasts". So, I just saw the whole conflict
already arising and I just love to throw myself into some kind of
controversy because it makes people talk and it makes people pay
attention. And then me coming out and saying "Just so you
guys understand, this is not a sexual song. This is an
intellectual song and there's a slight difference because…" And
I'm explaining the James Joyce concept and people just fall back, so I
thought it was a genius idea.
I sat down and produced it and took the song to a little bit of
another level from the demo that they sent me and that's how that came
about. I'm very thankful for that song because it really brought
up a lot of discussion about my brain because it seems like I have to
talk and prove myself double as hard as any other artist, I don't know
for whatever reason, because they might pigeonhole and say dance
artists are all stupid down the line. It seems like I have to
prove my intelligence constantly over and over again. And, mind
you, I'm pretty articulated I guess for being a Dutch girl talking
English to you right now. That really shoves people in the back
a little.
KA:
Did
having more control over the production of "Naked" make
things easier or more difficult for you and how?
Amber: It makes it a lot easier in the end. I mean, it's
obviously a lot more work, but knowing my guy, Wolfram Dettki, who
produced the main part of the album…I've known this guy for thirteen
years and he's my musical soulmate…from the jumpstart that he
understands me so much and he knows when I'm on the phone and I'm
explaining something to him and he comes back with a concept, 98% of
the time I'm completely satisfied with what he's doing. He just
feels exactly what I'm doing, what I'm meaning. He can read my
mind. It's just incredible.
So I think it's more stressful for me to have an album out there where
I have to plug my ears and I'm like "Oh, God, that computer drum
roll is off people! How can you have a computer drum roll
off???" It's so embarrassing! With this guy, I don't
have to worry about anything. We talk about the concept, we sit
down, we write together and we're very clear about what we want.
He sits down and he works it over and over and over again. He's
a perfectionist just like I am and that's what makes working so easy
with him because I know he's not embarrassing me.
In the end, the music reflects me. It's introducing me, so if
something is wrong with the music, something might be wrong with me.
I think overall it's of course more involvement, but I love to have
control. I am much more at ease with that because at night I can
sleep and I don't have to worry and think about "Oh, my God, I
hope they're doing this right" and "I hope they're doing
that right".
KA:
One
of many things that really impresses me about you is how accessible
you are to your fans and the media, especially the media because,
quite frankly, they can be a pain-in-the-ass, but is this a conscious
effort on your part or something that comes more naturally because you
enjoy it?
Amber: I enjoy connecting with everybody and it's a vital
element of my career. I believe that throughout the years it
also held me up. I try to personally contact people as much as
possible. If you ever check my website, I have a message board
on there where my fans log in and ask me personal questions and I will
answer each one of them. I believe these days that artists have
developed a distance with their fans and have forgotten that these are
the people who support them and bring out the money in order for you
to go ahead and make a beautiful product. You have to be
thankful and appreciative of them.
I mean, probably if the media is constantly on your ass and also gets
into your private life, it can be a pain, but I think there's also a
way of handling things in a certain manner and that's when you pull
yourself out of the picture in a certain kind of way and have other
people apologizing for you or…you know, there are certain ways how
you can do things. In general, I'm just very thankful for the
media and everybody who's interested because they are making sure my
message is getting out there and that I'm getting promoted.
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