INXS

Reaching out to singers from around the world to
celebrate a durable rock legacy

Veteran Australian pop-rock band INXS set about making an instrumental album of new material. But the longer they worked on that project, the more they found themselves tinkering with older INXS tunes, spinning them into some unexpected new directions. “We weren’t really serious at first,” says keyboardist and principal songwriter Andrew Farriss, “and then we realized we were enjoying it.”

The band elected to give the songs new and sometimes vastly different arrangements. “You start to say, ‘Oh no, it has to be that way, that’s what the song is. It has to remain in stone,’” Farriss says. “To a certain extent, that’s true, if that’s where you’ve ended up. On the other hand, we thought it was a great opportunity to re-look at some of the music and the songs.”

As the project gained momentum, the band decided that instrumentals weren’t enough—the songs needed singers, which offered another opportunity to try something different. The band members invited pop and rock heavyweights like Rob Thomas, Ben Harper, Tricky and Train’s Pat Monahan to help reimagine 1980s and ’90s hits like “Never Tear Us Apart,” “New Sensation” and “Beautiful Girl” on Original Sin—all stepping into the shoes of original INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence, who died in 1997.

They also brought in vocalists outside the usual rock circles, securing contributions from Argentine singer Deborah de Corral, French-Canadian star Mylène Farmer and Cuban rapper DJ Yaleidas. “We didn’t want it to just be all English-language,” Farriss says. “People can come from any country and sing in whatever language they want. Some of the world’s biggest populations don’t speak English, so we thought, why limit ourselves to thinking like that?” They also included one track with current lead singer J.D. Fortune, who had parted ways with the group in 2009 but returned to the fold in early 2010. “We’re in a really good place at the moment with J.D.,” Farriss says. Fortune will front the band on its upcoming tour, which will also feature guest vocalists.

Though the group was excited about the project, Farriss admits that he was also apprehensive. “It was kind of scary for me, probably more than some of the other guys in the band,” he says. “I had either written a lot of these songs by myself or with Michael, so the arrangement, the keys, the whole thing—so much thought had gone into it in the first place.”

–Eric R. Danton