So what has Amber achieved in her astonishing career so far? In seven years she has released over twenty productions on stalwart labels like Tidy Trax, Riot! and Kiddfectious, and has mixed some of the most prestigious albums going, including Tidy Euphoria, Hard Dance Republic, Keep It Tidy 4, Tidy Ibiza, and soon to be released Riot Ibiza.
Some may say it’s her good looks and charisma that got her to where she is today, but it’s actually much deeper than that. A talented studio engineer and almost chameleon-like music lover, Amber is no one trick pony. Her eclectic style means that she has one of the largest fan bases going.
‘Right from when I was five years old, my father sat me down on his knee at the family piano and I was immersed in the world of music.’ she begins. ‘Piano was huge part of my life back then. It wasn't long until I’d developed into a classically trained pianist, and I even produced huge manuscripts for orchestras.’
Amber’s natural progression from classical to hardcore, house and nineties classics was unobvious but significant. Artists such as Black Box, Livin’ Joy and many others inspired her to get involved with the same kind of music.
Ask Amber about her record collection now and her eyes light up. ‘I’ve got all the original nineties hits, some still in their original cellophane wrappers’, she enthuses. ‘My mum ran a pub for fourteen years, so I I managed to ‘acquire’ loads of old 7 inches from the jukebox including all the early Todd Terry classics!’
Since the beginning Amber has been determined to follow her passion for music. Three years at sound engineering college followed and the result was a BTEC National Diploma in Music Technology. Whereas many of the hard dance DJ’s use experienced engineers to make their tracks for them, Amber is one of only a few that actually constructs the music herself. It is these skills that soon instigated what was to become a flourishing career for her in production, and the Amber D name soon became synonymous with other greats like Paul Maddox, Alf Bamford, James Lawson, Kidd Kaos and BK (whom she works with on a regular basis).
With her tracks often reaching the number one spot on online download stores like Trackitdown, obviously productions of this prolific standard are part of the reason her rise within hard dance has been so sudden.
Amber D is arguably one of the busiest DJ’s on the circuit, regularly playing the four corners of the globe. It’s difficult to understand and appreciate how she manages to keep her productions to the standards that we have come to expect from Amber D, but she does, and it is for this reason she shows signs of a true professional.
‘I recently started my own dedicated electro house label, D’Amour Recordings’, she tells us. ‘I needed another outlet for my love of production and all things music’.
With her boundless energy and enthusiasm, the label was only ever going to be a success. Soon, her productions and the tracks that she signed to the label started to appear on numerous compilations including the ‘Worlds Greatest Electro Volume 2’ which came out last year.
‘We’ve been very lucky with the label. It’s meant that D’Amour Recordings secured its own night in Ibiza this summer at the famous Play 2 venue in the West End of San Antonio. I’ll be using it as the base for my house guise Amber D’Amour during this season.’
In fact, Ibiza will be her second home this summer as her commitments in house music (as Amber D’Amour), and in hard dance (as Amber D), grow more intensely. It’s this presence that has prompted Riot to commission Amber to mix one of the CD’s on their forthcoming Riot! In Ibiza mix, due out this summer, which promises to be, something very special indeed.
As our interview drew to a close, Amber, being a girl who also likes to speak her mind, plugged her two radio shows a month on www.slinky.fm. These are The Amber D Show (first Saturday of every month 22:00 – 00:00 GMT), and The Amber D’Amour After Show Party (first Saturday of every month 04:00 – 06:00 GMT).
Make sure you tune in and hear just what this lady is capable o… you won’t be disappointed!
Amber D’s Riot! In Ibiza Mix Compilation is out soon.
www.amberd.co.uk
www.myspace.com/djamberdmusic
