Background
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.
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.
In 1971 the Farris family relocated to Sydney where he attended Davidson High School.
At the age of five years, Farriss, and his family had a holiday in London where they saw a performance by The Beatles. 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.
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 cr the band as songwriters, by their third album, Shabooh Shoobah, the team of Farriss as composer and Hutchence as lyricist was well established. In fact, Farriss co-wrote all of the band"s top-40 hits in the United States, except for "Disappear," which was written by Hutchence with Farriss" younger brother Jon, who is the band"s drummer.
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. Farriss has also co-written and produced with the Australian Aboriginal band Yothu Yindi, Australian country singer Tania Kernaghan and Scottish rockers GUN. In 2005, INXS launched a reality television 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.
Farriss was often seen as introverted compared to his band mates and he appeared shy to offer criticism to contestants.
The couple has three children: Grace, Josephine and Matthew. In the official INXS autobiography Story to Story Farriss describes his dislike of touring and being away from his family.
In 2012 Farriss proposed to his girlfriend Marlina. On 4 October 2013, Farriss and his fiancée, Marlina, were wed at Cay Pointe Villa Resort in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida, United States of America.
INXS]
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.