Andrew Charles Farriss (born 27 March 1959) is an Australian rock musician and
multi-instrumentalist best known as the keyboardist, backing vocalist, and main composer for rock band
INXS
INXS (a word play, phonetic play on "in excess") were an Australian Rock music, rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. The band's founding members were bassist Garry Gary Beers, main composer and keyboar ...
. Farriss released his debut studio album in 2021.
Career
Andrew Charles Farriss was born on 27 March 1959 in
Perth, Western Australia, to Dennis and Jill Farriss, and is the second oldest of four children: he has two brothers,
Tim (born 1957) and
Jon (born 1961), and a sister, Alison.
At the age of five years, Farriss, and his family had a holiday in London where they saw a performance by The Beatles.
In 1971 the Farriss family relocated to Sydney, where he attended
Davidson High School. With Tim taking up guitar lessons, Farriss "had instinctively taken to playing piano", and Jon played drums.
At school Farriss met
Michael Hutchence after preventing a fight with another student.
The two became friends and in 1976 Hutchence, on lead vocals, joined his band, Doctor Dolphin.
The line up included two other classmates, Kent Kerny and Neil Sanders and, from the nearby
Forest High School a bass guitarist,
Garry Beers, and Geoff Kennely.
Farriss is credited solely with keyboards on the band's earliest albums, but by 1984's ''
The Swing'', he was listed as playing guitar as well. On stage, he also plays harmonica and various hand-held percussion instruments.
While INXS' early albums credit the band as songwriters, by their third album, ''
Shabooh Shoobah'', the team of Farriss as composer and Hutchence as lyricist was well established. While there were some INXS songs written by other members of the group, or by Farriss alone, it was this combination that brought INXS the majority of their international success in the 1980s and 1990s. In fact, Farriss co-wrote all but one of the band's top-40 hits in the US.
Despite extensive writing, recording and touring commitments with INXS, Farriss collaborated with many other Australian artists in a songwriting or production capacity. His most significant early collaboration was with
Jenny Morris, a New Zealand singer who had sung back-up vocals on INXS' 1985 hit album, ''
Listen Like Thieves
''Listen Like Thieves'' is the fifth studio album by Australian Rock music, rock band INXS. It was released on 14 October 1985. It spent two weeks at number one on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart. Considered an internati ...
''. Farriss has also co-written and produced with the Australian
Aboriginal
Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to:
*Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology
* Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area
*One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...
band
Yothu Yindi, Australian country singer
Tania Kernaghan
Tania Maree Kernaghan (born 18 July 1968) is an Australian country music singer.
During her career, Tania has earned fifteen number one radio hits singles, numerous awards, sell out concerts and record sales in the hundreds of thousands. She h ...
and Scottish rockers
Gun. At the
ARIA Music Awards of 1990
The Fourth Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as the ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAS) was held on 26 March 1990 at the Darling Harbour Convention Centre in Sydney. Australian host Glenn Shorrock of L ...
he won
Producer of the Year for his work on the Jenny Morris album ''
Shiver''.
[ Note: User may be required to access archived information by selecting 'The History', then 'By Award', 'Producer of the Year' and 'Option Show Nominations'.]
In 2005, INXS launched a reality TV show, ''
Rock Star: INXS'', a worldwide search for a new lead singer. While all of INXS knew it would be impossible to replace Michael Hutchence, who died in 1997, they wished to carry on bringing their music to the world.
In 2016, Farriss was inducted into the Australian Songwriters Hall of Fame.
In 2019, Farriss released his debut solo single "Come Midnight".
In January 2020 he released his second single "Good Momma Bad". He has performed solo at the Hay Mate drought relief concert, the Gympie Muster, the Tamworth Country Music Festival, and the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville. On 28 August 2020 Farriss released his single "All the Stars Are Mine" and announced his EP ''Love Makes the World'', which was released on 2 October 2020.
On 26 January 2020 Farriss was awarded with the Member of the
Order of Australia.
Farriss released his debut, self-titled album in March 2021.
Personal life
Farriss married Shelley Blanks on 22 April 1989 (divorced 2012). The couple have three children.
In the official INXS autobiography ''Story to Story'', Farriss describes his dislike of touring and being away from his family.
Farriss married Marlina Neeley in October 2013. The couple live on a cattle farm in the Tamworth Region of New South Wales.
Discography
Albums
Extended plays
Singles
Awards and nominations
APRA Awards
The
APRA Awards
APRA Awards may refer to one of two awards ceremonies:
*APRA Awards (Australia)
*APRA Awards (New Zealand)
The APRA Music Awards are several annual and two-yearly award ceremonies run in New Zealand by Australasian Performing Right Association ...
are presented annually from 1982 by the
Australasian Performing Right Association
APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwr ...
(APRA), "honouring composers and songwriters". They commenced in 1982.
!
, -
, rowspan="3",
2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...
, rowspan="3", "Break My Heart" by Dua Lipa (Andrew Farriss, Michael Hutchence, Dua Lipa, Jordan Johnson, Stefan Johnson, Ali Tamposi, Andrew Watt)
, Song of the Year
,
,
, -
, Most Performed Pop Work
,
, rowspan="2",
, -
, Most Performed Australian Work
,
, -
ARIA Music Awards
The
ARIA Music Awards
The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...
is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of
Australian music
The music of Australia has an extensive history made of music societies. Indigenous Australian music forms a significant part of the unique heritage of a 40,000- to 60,000-year history which produced the iconic didgeridoo. Contemporary fusions of ...
.
, -
,
1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...
, Andrew Farriss for ''
Shiver'' by
Jenny Morris
,
ARIA Award for Producer of the Year
,
, -
Australian Songwriter's Hall of Fame
The Australian Songwriters Hall of Fame was established in 2004 to honour the lifetime achievements of some of Australia's greatest songwriters.
, -
, 2016
, Himself
, Australian Songwriter's Hall of Fame
,
Countdown Australian Music Awards
''
Countdown'' was an Australian pop music TV series on national broadcaster
ABC-TV from 1974–1987, it presented music awards from 1979–1987, initially in conjunction with magazine ''
TV Week''. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards.
, -
, 1984
, Himself (with
Michael Hutchence)
, Best Songwriter
,
, -
West Australian Music Industry Awards
The
West Australian Music Industry Awards (WAMIs) are annual awards presented to the local contemporary music industry, put on annually by the Western Australian Music Industry Association Inc (WAM).
2007 West Australian Music Industry Award Winners
, -
, 2008
, The Farriss Brothers (Andrew, Tim and Jon)
, Hall of Fame
,
, -
References
External links
Official Andrew Farriss Website
Official INXS site: www.inxs.com
*
INXS.PL – Polish INXS website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farriss, Andrew
1959 births
APRA Award winners
ARIA Award winners
Australian rock keyboardists
Australian male singers
Living people
Musicians from Perth, Western Australia
People educated at Davidson High School
Australian rock guitarists
INXS members
Members of the Order of Australia
20th-century Australian musicians
21st-century Australian musicians
Australian male guitarists