Ever since breaking onto the American dance scene in 1996 with the Berman Brothers-produced “This Is Your Night” Dutch songstress Amber has been one of clubland’s most consistent hitmakers.

Follow-up smashes “One More Night” and “If You Could Read My Mind” – the Gordon       Lightfoot-goes-Hi-NRG number performed with Jocelyn Enriquez and Ultra Naté – kept the Tommy Boy artist in good graces with America’s more pop-leaning DJs. Now Amber’s back with “Sexual,” another club hit that’s sure to gain nationwide attention for its hooks and subject matter. DJ Times caught up with the Dutch diva, who currently resides in New York.

DJ Times: Tell me about this song “Sexual.”
Amber: You could represent a record in a vulgar way when it’s about sexuality, but you can also represent it in a very sensible way. I think that’s what happened with “Sexual.” It talks to so many people, especially the female and the gay audience because they’re more creative than the average straight man, who loves those records about shaking your booty. It’s the opposite. It’s more about getting aroused, about the little things that turn you on. It’s about the beauty of sexuality. When I’m on stage I explain to the audience I come from a country that is very liberal and open about sexuality, so people don’t misunderstand the song. My country has the lowest teen pregnancy rate. Why? Because we have sexual education starting in third grade. Sexuality is nothing hush-hush or bad.  It’s a normal part of life. And it’s beautiful if you share it with the one you love and even better if you share it safe. People here get very nervous about this subject. It would help if the parents would communicate with their kids.

DJ Times: What were you doing when you got signed to Tommy Boy?
Amber: I was working regular jobs. I’ve always been into music. My father is an opera singer and my mother is a piano teacher. My great, great grandmother actually had a girl group like the Spice Girls in 1901. [Production team] the Berman Brothers called me at a time when they weren’t famous at all. They were looking for acts and they called my house and said they heard I sang a cover song at a fashion show and sounded really good and wanted to get together. So we met and wrote a song together and then I didn’t hear from them for a year and a half. Meanwhile, Real McCoy had taken off in the States. Then we talked and wrote “This Is Your Night” and I went to the States and right away labels wanted to sign us. Before that I had done fashion shows and backgrounds. I have this friend in Germany named Wolfram Dettki who I’ve been working with for 10 or 12 years. He’s my musical soulmate. He did the music for “Spiritual Virginity” and I wrote the lyrics to it. He wrote several songs on the album with me. In the future, we want to set up a studio in Europe and work on productions.

DJ Times: What inspired you to write “Spiritual Virginity”?
Amber: You have a physical virginity and a spiritual virginity – that’s how I see it. If you’re lucky, someone will take them both. But usually you think, “Well, with this guy, he was my soulmate, we could talk and got along great and this other guy was great in bed.” To find that in one person is very hard. This song is about needing someone who thinks like I do, who feels the way I feel. If you don’t have anyone like that in your life, you feel very lonely and start doubting yourself. You wonder if you’re the only person who thinks this way. You feel misunderstood. It’s such a relief to find someone who is on your level.

DJ Times: You’re writing most of the songs?
Amber: Yes, except for “If You Could Read My Mind,” obviously. The single “Sexual” was written by Billy Steinberg and Rick Nowels [Madonna, Celine Dion] as was “Love One Another.” We had a great time. I was there for two days and we wrote these songs back in ’97. I was looking for the right repertoire. I said to Billy, “If you have a song you think would fit me, send it over.” So he sent “Above the Clouds” and the track was great, a nice lyric, space to show some singing ability. The only other song that’s not mine is “I Found Myself In You,” which is something the label really wanted me to do.

DJ Times: Are you happy with how things have worked out so far in your career?
Amber: I’ve been on Tommy Boy since 1996. Every song I’ve put out since then has been in the Top 100. I’ve been consistently working and touring. Of all the acts I was on the road with, I’m the only left. I feel very blessed. I didn’t feel very comfortable with the first album, but it was a way to establish myself. I told the label I want to be real. I want to sing about myself and write most of the material. I want people to recognize my face.  But there’s an advantage, which is that people cannot really nail me down to one style of music. I have a steady audience wherever I go. I just did a club in Boston [Manray] and people are going nuts about “Sexual.” It has this relaxed and meditative feeling and I see people on the dancefloor act like they’re flying, but on the other side there is the meaning of the lyrics and the strong beat that comes up slowly – so it has two sides to it.

DJ Times: How do you write your songs?
Amber: I start off writing lyrics. I remember a relationship or a situation and write a storyline to it – then I write the verses and chorus. Then I fax my friend in Germany who understands when I tell him how I want the music to sound. He creates the music around it. With other writers, like Steinberg and Nowels, I told them what I wanted to write about and Billy happened to have the lyrics for “Sexual.” So I explained to Rick what kind of beat I wanted on the keyboard and we added a few more lines. I was looking out from the Hollywood Hills over L.A. and the song just came out like a natural thing. It goes from strong vocals to something heavenly and it sounded amazing. People who have not really achieved that much have the biggest mouths and have attitudes. And the successful people are so easy to work with, so human. They don’t have to prove themselves. Bernie Cosgrove and Kevin Clarke, who did the song “Crush,” were so great.  They are a couple, who have lived together 20 years and you feel the harmony.  I gave Bernie some lyrics for “Without You” and she started playing on her guitar. He sat at the keyboard and felt her and came right in, they had such a unity. She made up the whole melody off the lyric – we had the song in 10 minutes. I love people who are focused, no partying and drinking. Have you heard the track “I’m Free”?  I wrote that with my mother. This is the music of when I come from that I was raised on. I want to write a musical. It may take 10 years, but I’m starting to collect some repertoire that has heavy lyrics that we could build a story around.

DJ Times: What do you think about the music in America?
Amber: To each his own, my taste doesn’t have to be everyone’s. But I feel there is too much categorizing with radio stations. They don’t just hear a great record and play it.  Variety is such a beautiful thing.