Andrew Farriss

Andrew Farriss served as a principal creative force in INXS, the six-piece Australian group that ranked among the most successful rock acts throughout the 1980s. Working most often alongside vocalist Michael Hutchence, he supplied the bulk of the band’s signature material, generating a catalog that captured the era through such tracks as “The One Thing,” “Original Sin,” “What You Need,” “New Sensation,” “Need You Tonight,” “Never Tear Us Apart,” and “Devil Inside.” After Hutchence’s death in 1997, INXS auditioned several replacements before stepping away from live performance in 2012, a decision that allowed Farriss to begin releasing music under his own name toward the close of the decade. His independent work centered on earthy, Americana-tinged rock, a style first presented on the self-titled album he issued in 2021.

Farriss entered the world in Perth, Western Australia, on March 27, 1959. In 1971 his family—including older brother Tim and younger brother Jon, both later members of INXS—moved to Sydney. Soon afterward the siblings took up instruments, with Andrew concentrating on piano while Tim chose guitar and Jon settled behind the drums. In 1976 Andrew started the band Doctor Dolphin and soon persuaded schoolmate Michael Hutchence to participate. The following year he, Hutchence, and Garry Gary Beers joined forces with Tim and Kirk Pengilly, adding Jon on drums. Initially billed as the Farriss Brothers, the ensemble tried several names before adopting INXS in 1979.

The group delivered its self-titled debut in 1980 yet achieved its first major traction in 1982, when “The One Thing” and “Don’t Change” both reached number 14 on the Australian charts and the former also entered the American Top 40. Over the ensuing years INXS cultivated an expanding international following, highlighted by the worldwide success of “What You Need” in 1985 and the multi-platinum album Kick, whose opening four singles all climbed into the U.S. Top Ten. During the same period Farriss occasionally wrote or produced for outside artists such as Tom Jones, Yothu Yindi, and Jenny Morris, the last of whom he guided on her 1989 album Shiver. Although INXS singles became less frequent by the mid-1990s, the band’s global profile remained undiminished.

INXS required several years to regroup after Hutchence’s sudden passing in 1997. The members stayed out of the public eye through 1998 before reuniting briefly with Jimmy Barnes—the vocalist who had shared the 1987 hit “Good Times” with Hutchence—for a short performance that year. In 1999 they appeared with Terence Trent D’Arby and Russell Hitchcock at the ceremony marking the opening of Sydney’s Stadium Australia. A full concert featuring Jon Stevens and Suze DeMarchi took place in 2000, after which Stevens served as an official member during 2002 and 2003. In 2005 the band participated in the reality series Rock Star: INXS to select a permanent frontman; J.D. Fortune emerged as the winner and performed on the album Switch, remaining until 2011. Ciaran Gribbin toured with the group through 2012, the year INXS ceased live activity.

In the years after the band’s partial retirement, Farriss maintained a low profile, accepting induction into the Australian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2016 yet issuing no new recordings until the solo single “Come Midnight” appeared in 2019. That track introduced a country-leaning approach he further explored on the 2020 EP Love Makes the World, followed by his self-titled full-length debut in 2021.