Andrew Farriss

Andrew Farriss
Andrew Farriss, 2011.
Background information
Born	(1959-03-27) 27 March 1959 (age 58)
Origin	Perth, Western Australia
Genres	Rock, new wave
Occupation(s)	Keyboardist, singer, composer
Instruments	Keyboards, guitar, harmonica, vocals, percussions, keytar
Years active	1977–present
Labels	Various labels
Associated acts	INXS

Andrew Charles Farriss (born 27 March 1959 in Perth, Western Australia) is a rock musician and multi-instrumentalist best known as the keyboardist, backing vocalist, and main composer for the Australian band INXS.

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 Farris 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 of the band's top-40 hits in the US, except for "Disappear," which was written by Hutchence with Farriss' younger brother Jon, who is the band's drummer.