Berlin brings out the "animal" from its new album

It's not often acknowledged enough, but the Los Angeles-based band Berlin was pioneering in some ways. More than just the group that recorded the 1986 hit ballad "Take My Breath Away," Berlin helped introduced electronic pop music to America between the late '70s and early '80s. At a time when arena guitar-based rock bands like Journey, Styx and REO Speedwagon dominated the charts, Berlin seemed like a fish out of water whose sound was dominated by synthesizers than guitars. As lead singer Terri Nunn recalls now, the audience at the time seemed fazed by Berlin's music.

"It wasn't fun in the beginning because a lot of people didn't get it at all," she told CBSNews.com. "They never heard anything like that. We opened for Iggy Pop and they didn't get it at all. They didn't spit at us, but they kind stared at us with their arms crossed and went, 'What is this?' They didn't hate it, they listened, but they were like, 'I don't get it.' So it took a while for us to get any kind of traction and any kind of audience. But we did finally."

Especially during the '80s, Berlin played a role in the new wave music scene, delivering such hits as "The Metro," "Sex (I'm A...)" and "No More Words." Now more than 30 years since its formation, Berlin continues to make music -- the latest of which is "Animal." Due Tuesday, it marks the band's first new release since 2009. Influenced by today's electronic dance music (EDM), "Animal" seems to bring Berlin's career full circle.

The catalyst behind the new album was a weekly radio show that Nunn began hosting in 2012 at KCSN in Northridge, Calif. For Nunn, the DJ gig was a dream come true and provided her an opportunity to play electronic music. "If I couldn't make really good music, then I wanted to just find other music and play it," she explains. "Now decades later, I did have some talent with the music myself, but I still had that dream -- I still love playing other people's music.

"So now I'm listening to everything. Because I'm programming the show I got so intensely excited by what's going on in electronic music right now, especially EDM -- that it inspired me. I thought, 'Okay, I can do something here, there's a place for me in this.' It's really weird how electronic music has morphed -- it started in the late '70s in Europe, and we were one of the bands to get it going here in America in the early '80s. And then it went everywhere to trance, ambient and industrial."

Nunn then sought out people to help her realize the sound she had in mind for the album. "I first met [producer] John King from the Dust Brothers and we did some songs and he was extremely inspiring. And then I met Derek Cannavo through another writer friend of mine. And Derek and I exploded together. The first song we wrote together was "Animal" and when that came out, I was like 'Wow!' And so we kept going, and he and I wrote the majority of the record together."

Despite being a very electronic dance-oriented record, "Animal" also contains a few ballads, including the touching and personal "Mom" and the first single, "It's the Way."

"It's the Way" was the last song recorded as most of the album was already finished -- it was Nunn's manager who suggested another ballad for "Animal." "A week later, he sends me three songs by this guy Bryan Todd," Nunn recalls. "I heard 'It's the Way' -- it wasn't quite done, but these were sketches and I thought, 'Wow, that's actually a really good song.' So literally out of the blue in two weeks, we had 'It's the Way.'"

It's fitting that "Animal" arrives on the 30th anniversary of the release of Berlin's second studio and breakthrough record, "Pleasure Victim," a collection of sleek synthesizer-driven pop songs highlighted by tracks such as "The Metro," "Masquerade," and the very steamy "Sex (I'm A... )." "It was a statement that had a lot stronger of an impact that I had expected," Nunn says of the latter track. "But I knew writing it that I never heard a song like that, so I knew there would be a reaction. So yeah, it was pretty intense. Now it's nothing!"

Following "Pleasure Victim," Berlin -- whose line-up then consisted of Nunn, bassist/songwriter John Crawford, and others -- started to break through on the charts with its first Top 40 hit, "No More Words." That song was produced by the legendary Giorgio Moroder, best known for his work with Donna Summer. Moroder would team up again with Berlin by co-writing and producing the Oscar-winning "Take My Breath Away" for the "Top Gun" soundtrack; it became Berlin's first No. 1 song on the Billboard charts. At the time, Nunn had no inkling that "Take My Breath Away" was going to be such a huge success.

"I think there were a couple of other singers that [Moroder] approached and they tried it. So he brought it in one day to us while he was working on 'No More Words,' and said, 'What do you think?' 'Oh, this is great.' I thought he was amazing and John did, too. We both were in love with him, but John didn't like that he didn't write it -- he was like 'I don't want to do this.' So then we were at odds, and then the record label broke through the locked horns and said, 'Well, you're doing it.' So I was glad -- it was beautiful."

Yet despite that success, Berlin broke up in the late '80s. Then in the late '90s, Nunn resurrected the band with newer players and has been recording and performing onstage since then. "It's awesome. It's all about the music. It's all about that because it's the engine, it's the juice, it's the fuel. And that for me is the inspiration to want to even do more, because I ain't 20 anymore," she said laughing. I love this, so that makes me want to do more and play more and do the whole experience."

Currently, Berlin is performing dates, mostly in the West Coast, but Nunn hopes to tour the world beyond just the the U.S. for "Animal."

"When we first started with Berlin, we did 'Sex (I'm A...)' and there were a couple of dance things," Nunn said. "I was like, 'Oh, but that's not serious music.' I actually said that. 'We're more than that, we're not just a dance band.' And now, I love being a dance band. I think it's great. I love seeing people lose their minds. It's a reason I do this. It's fun to lose your mind."