Michael Hutchence says INXS hopes to fill up the space between Men at Work and the Birthday Party

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MAY 27, 1983

By Steve Newton

INXS (pronounced ‘in excess’) are a six-piece modern rock band from Sydney, Australia. The group’s third album, Shabooh Shoobah, was released last year and hit Top Five in Australia, becoming the group’s third gold album Down Under.

The members of INXS are vocalist Michael Hutchence, brothers Tim, Andrew, and Jon Farriss on guitar, keyboards, and drums, saxman Kirk Pengilly, and bassist Garry Beers. The group opens for the Stray Cats at the Pacific Coliseum Thursday, June 2.

I spoke to INXS’s 23-year-old singer over the phone from New York City last Saturday.

How is the INXS tour going so far?

Well, we’ve just finished the Adam Ant tour–we did about eight, ten weeks with Adam Ant. Then we’re doing three nights with the Stray Cats in Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver.

What was it like touring with Adam Ant? What’s he like?

He’s very shy, you know. He takes himself very seriously, I guess you would say, but he’s not been very well. He has to have his knee drained every couple of days. Obviously he is under a lot of pressure. But we got to know the band a little bit more than Adam.

How would you describe the sound of INXS?

I guess, as Eddy Grant would say, [sings] funky rock and roll. The rhythm section’s very much a funky thing. The proof is in the pudding, so to speak. We’ve got two guitarists, Andrew on a few keyboards, and Kirk plays saxophone as well, so it’s a combined sound.

Was the band influenced a lot by the new synthesizer movement in England or was there a movement of its own in Australia?

That’s sort of a loaded question for me because from what I can remember when I was about 12, after Kraftwerk put out Autobahn, I tend to think synthesizers are sort of–not old-fashioned–but nothing new. Computers are more of a modern instrument really, programmed computer memory.

But Andrew is a piano player essentially, and he and I used to make up synthesizers. When we were about 15 or 16 we used to get organs and pull them to bits and drop things in them. We’d pull little wires out and attach them to things and make up sounds. So we did a lot of experimental recording earlier on with synthesizing things. But it seems like a fairly irrelevant instrument to play.

It’s really becoming big over in Britain with all those synthesizer bands.

Yeah, it is. Of course a lot of it’s to do purely with the mechanics of it. You take one person with ideas–he only has to buy a few keyboards and a drum box and he can turn those ideas into reality with a minimum of fuss. You don’t have to go around and find a band and all these things. But we like working with it both ways.

In this climate of minimalism, to have six people in a band is different in itself, so we’re happy with that.

What’s happening in the Australian music scene these days. A lot of bands have really come to prominence of late.

Well there’s a lot more to go too, I’ll tell you. This is only the beginning. I think the climate in Australia around ’76 and ’77, after punk happened and all that, was great. All the bands broke off into little factions and everybody was trying to get originality going in Australia. America had its turn, England had its turn in the late seventies, and now it’s time for Australia.

Is it tough getting a band going in Australia? Are there places to play?

Oh yeah. I think there’s more places to play there in the city than there is to play in the States. But the audiences are fairly earthy. You can’t jump on stage with paint all over your face and go into all the moves without something substantial backing you up.

In fact, bands really gain their popularity in Australia through playing live, and then they get their record contracts. It’s a very good climate, very healthy. Honestly, if I did have enough money to get to Australia to start a band I would do it if I was overseas.

Do you think Men at Work was a breakthrough band for Australia?

Yes, in many different ways. They obviously impressed the industry side of things. On the other side of the coin there’s a band like the Birthday Party. They’ve got an album called Junkyard. They’re from Melbourne, and as far as NME or England’s concerned, they’re it.

So it’s like Australia has put out both sides of the coin–from Men at Work to the Birthday Party. It’s great. We’re sort of hoping to fill up something in between [laughs].

To hear the full audio of the interview I did with the singer who took over Michael Hutchence’s spot with INXS, J.D. Fortune, subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can also eavesdrop on my uncut, one-on-one conversations with:

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