#148 Andrew Farriss
Andrew Farriss hardly needs an introduction to music fans. He is the man behind the songs that saw INXS sell more than 50-million albums throughout their career. Consequently his music has been on welcome and constant radio rotation globally for over 3 decades.
I was lucky enough to chat to Andrew about all things music and find out more about his life growing up living WA listening to an AM radio which he listened to everything that was available. Listen to the podcast to find out which band he first ever saw live and what inspired him and his brothers into music.
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Transcript
Andrew Farriss: My name's Andrew Farriss, spelled F a double R IWS. And, I was born in Cottesloe beach in Western Australia, and I spent the first 12 years of my life living in Beautiful coastline in Western Australia. And then my dad got a job promotion. He was one of six guys that came out from England originally, and set up a. Insurance company and a strike or legal in general. And he was a branch manager and he got a promotion to run the whole corporation in Sydney. So my mom was from Western Australia and my brothers and my sister. We all moved across from Perth to Sydney. People might know me, Because I wrote most of the music in nearly all the music for band called INXS.
And we had a huge ride. We worked in 52 countries. I've worked as a record producer, obviously as a songwriter. And, I still continue to do that. Except now I'm a solo country, rock artist. I put out solid country sort of folk rock music. And that's who, I guess I am, you know, I'm, I'm married and I have three children.
Rae Leigh: Beautiful. Well married and three children as a solar, country rock artists. That is my jam. So I'm really cool to find out how he got there, but you have had a lot of experience in the industry and, I'd love to sort of find out more about that so that we can all learn from you and hear your journey.
But I want to know where music started for you. Was it Like why did you get involved in music to begin with.
Andrew Farriss: I grew up as a little kid, like I was saying in Perth, in Western Australia and at night I'd often well, mum gave me a little transistor radio back then, you know, which seems such an ancient device now. And it was, I thought it was amazing. It was to put a little battery in it.
And I used to listen to music under my pillow when I went to sleep and he still listened to the radio station. And I heard all kinds of music, including country music, but the pop music of the day, and in the sort of early mid sixties as a kid. And I grew up listening to, and I didn't realize it back then you know, it's not like today with sophisticated technology and radio formats and, internationally and nationally and all that kind of stuff back then, it was just, I am radio I played every kind of genre, like including country, you know, Classical, know, um,
Rae Leigh: yep.
Andrew Farriss: jazz, and so I thought, okay, I
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Andrew Farriss: all, that's what me being a musician is like, you play all these different kinds of music and this is what you do.
Then when I was about years of age, my father who was originally from London, put us kids on a ship. My elder brother, my younger brother, my older brother, Tim, my younger brother, John and my sister, Alison wasn't born yet. And, so the three of us. Got on a ship. And we sailed from Perth, uh, around the bottom of Africa, up through the Suez canal to London.
I remember I actually holding my dad's hand as we walked through the port at Vaden, uh, in the middle east. And, everyone was dressed like Jesus, you know, uh, to me and I couldn't believe it. And I remember dad stopped at a little market and he bought me a pouch, to put coins in and I wish I still had that.
Uh it's so one of my great regrets in life, but one of my dad's sayings was no. And then we went down one night to a variety show and walk the Beatles. And that was the first band I ever saw was the Beatles with my brothers.
Rae Leigh: Wow. That was the first band
Andrew Farriss: yeah. Um,
Rae Leigh: That's
Andrew Farriss: Yep. And then, uh, we got back on the ship and when I actually got back on the ship, then we've got on planes, six different planes, including air India.
I think it was one of them. But anyway, people didn't fly much in those nosy years. You know, they, they, you got on a shit. If you want to go overseas. And then I think that had a huge impact on both me and my brothers, seeing the Beatles. It was really exciting. They played two songs and it was amazing and they played live.
They didn't mind, they had no backing tracks with the apple Mac computers and, software programs. They just played their music live. They were
great. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: Inspirational. So it was from seeing the Beatles and what they were doing and that raw version of who they were, and that inspired you to start learning an instrument or just start writing. What sort of, what pulled you in, do you think?
Andrew Farriss: I was five years old. I think I was. You know, get to the point of really understanding anything. But I think?
when I was nine, about four years later, my uncle had moved from Western Australia to Sydney and he left these upright all bill, upright piano at my, with my mum and dad in the house. So I started having piano lessons when I was nine.
And I do the scales, you know, dah, dah, dah, dah data, all that sort of stuff. And I, you know, I go round, round, round, you know, doing my scales and doing, as I was told, and you got to sit up like this and you've got to play like that. And this is the music you gotta apply and being told what to play and how to play it.
And, and after a while I was like, Yeah.
this is okay, mom, but I want to play footy. Like I don't really, I'm not really enjoying this, you know?
And so it'd be a sad I have fell is, is the football of choice in Western Australia. there is somewhere besides Queensland and new south Wales, they do play other sports.
And so that's what I used to play was IFR. And I select that. And then one day I jumped off the fence piling. Uh, that was bro, or like jumped off a fence and landed on a fence snail. And let's put it out of action for a couple of days. And, and mum said, uh, in bed one day, you know, I had a tetanus shot or whatever.
And she said, Oh, do you want to play the piano? And again, I said, oh Yeah, maybe. And I said, but this time I would have been about 11. I said, this time, can I, could I not like just play with everyone else? Right. She said, what are you talking about And I said, well, I just, I really, you know, I sort of feel that's the same as going to school.
And you basically get told what to play and you've got to play it and then you get exams and all the rest of it. And I was like, well, okay, I'm already doing that at school. That's not really what I wanted to do. And mama still like what a precocious little kid, probably thinking, you know, and I said, now what I'd really like to do is have someone to show me.
Uh, how harmony works, you know, how chords go together. And so she sort of being resourceful. Mum, my mother's name was Jill. My father's name was Dennis or Jill went off and she found this Japanese
Rae Leigh: Oh,
Andrew Farriss: who used to come sit with her. And she used to show me harmony works. Like if you take a C major chord and then you have an, a minor chord, they're there,
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Andrew Farriss: in harmony, aren't they?
Cause they're relative to each other. No, one's minor. One's major, you know, and the same with all the scales. And that was like a huge light opening for me, like a door that opened in my mind when I realized that that worked for every single case that my kids never get told that we're learning. Do they.
Rae Leigh: no, it's like teaching you about colors for painting, you
Andrew Farriss: exactly.
Rae Leigh: you need to know that stuff. If you want to
Andrew Farriss: That's right.
Rae Leigh: you
Andrew Farriss: That's right.
Rae Leigh: I didn't, I didn't
learn that until
five
Andrew Farriss: you go.
Rae Leigh: And I
did heaps of music theory, but no one
ever went through the keys with
me and it
frustrated me actually. But yeah, it is.
It's like, if you're wanting to create your own music,
but, um, you
need to know that.
Andrew Farriss: that's correct. It's like a jigsaw puzzle. Isn't it, all these things you learn as a, as a songwriter. And then, but I learned that really early. You see? And so. I started to
then say to her. So in other words, if I, if I played this D chord and then I go and I play a G and an a, they should all work together. That's right. Was that oh, okay. Right, right. Like a big light bulb went on in my head. See, and, and so then I realized, yeah. And then I realized, well, okay, well then I can put any of this together. I want it right. She said, sure.
And I was like, I liked this. This is.
Rae Leigh: Start
Andrew Farriss: Yeah. I didn't even know just, you know what I mean?
Like I've just, this was just fun, you know? And so I used to do I spend hours and hours now it's, you know, mum and dad had come in, they go, whose song is there? And I said, I don't know. And they'd say, what do you mean? I said, well, I just made it up. And they're like, well, what, you know? Cause it was just like, you know, understand, you know, kind of what I was doing it first because I'm not playing someone else's song, you know, I, so I learnt that skill set really early.
Then I used to sneak into my older brother's bedroom and pick up his guitar. And then I used to, when I realized that the same rules applied on, on the guitar, but I had no classical training. I just use my ear the whole time. I still don't know where the notes are on a
guitar for it.
Rae Leigh: I can relate to that
because I started on piano and then picked up a
Andrew Farriss: right. and and do a leaper. Just kind of used a riff that I wrote in Egypt tonight, a big inaccess hit for break my heart. I actually heard a song
writing credit on that. song, you know, and I, I, he and I wrote that on a guitar.
Rae Leigh: Well done.
Andrew Farriss: But the point is I stood up, I knew where the cord is.
Cause I knew about chords, but I still didn't understand where the notes on a report really. But the point is that That's how I write. okay.
When I'm talking to music now, not lyrics. That's how I write
musically. I look at the idea musically that we're not machines and that we are. Most of us have a skillset within us to be creative. Most of us do naturally. I think it's there, but we're so conditioned and discipline not, or hopefully most of us to do the right thing, whatever that thing is. Including music, cause you can't do this and you can do that and you shouldn't do this and you should do that.
And, and there's, you know, It's the same with software programs that exist now, where someone comes in and they play something. And the first thing that an expert will do is correct everything. Right. Correct this and correct that and go to fix this up. And we've got to straighten that out and that's done in time and, and that's slightly out of pitch and I don't have to sit there.
know how to use
Rae Leigh: Yup.
Andrew Farriss: I've used them for you. I was experimenting with that stuff 35, 40 years ago. But what I,
Rae Leigh: Yup.
Andrew Farriss: I think now as an older and an older man is I think. These technologies are really just tools. The same rules applied before the technology is still apply now.
And if something sounds good, don't fix it. Don't
Rae Leigh: Mm.
Andrew Farriss: it. Just listen to it. You don't have to repair a everything because
all you're doing is taking the humanity out of the music. That's what you do, either that, or your inability as a musician or a C. Is your, you're using the machine to do things that you can't do
naturally.
That's pretty much how it works.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. I actually really you're the first one to have sort of brought this up and I've often like, I liked the way I sing. Right. And when I go to a producer, every producer I've been to is they always, you know, go in and straighten up the notes and things like that. Um, but like, I don't, I don't know, like that doesn't feel good to me because it's changing.
Like, like you said, I think it's changing the humanity out of it, but they like, oh no, but that's what everyone wants to hear. They want to hear the perfect pitch and. I dunno.
Andrew Farriss: Know, I'd like to hear your real voice,
you know? Yeah. And,
Rae Leigh: Yeah. I want to hear what I want to hear in life, you
know, like you can't, you're not order
correcting live a
Andrew Farriss: That exactly. Um, do you pay the record
producer? What does the record company pay the record producer?
Rae Leigh: Yeah, no, I'm, I'm independent. I've, I've paid for everything that I've done. Um,
Andrew Farriss: you you.
Rae Leigh: it's kind of,
Andrew Farriss: record, produce a bit, behave themselves,
you know, you're paying for it.
Rae Leigh: well, I think probably, you know, I'm not coming with your
sort of authority and experience in the background. I go in and going, I'm the producer, you know, they're the person, even though I'm the one,
Andrew Farriss: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: I'm paying them because of their expertise, because I can't do it myself. And, but like, I'm still, I'm dating, I'm dating producers
Andrew Farriss: Oh, right. Yeah. Well, I was going to say that, um,
Rae Leigh: and that's the one thing that tells me no.
Andrew Farriss: Well, the key thing to keep in mind is your plant. You're you're the client you're, you're, you're paying for service, you
Rae Leigh: Um,
Andrew Farriss: and I don't care how big their ego is or their
Rae Leigh: um,
Andrew Farriss: or their fame, or I care about like crap w what I'm concerned about and see
Rae Leigh: um,
Andrew Farriss: happy as the client with your recording.
Yeah.
Rae Leigh: Yep. I'm learning that I'm just learning by our experience, but, it's really nice to have that confirmation that that's okay to say. I don't want you to auto fix my vocals, you know?
Andrew Farriss: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: It sounds, I think I've kind of, they look at you like, oh, you must be really arrogant
or something. Like,
Andrew Farriss: can you just, can you
Rae Leigh: I like that. I sing it that way because that's the way I like it. I hear it.
Andrew Farriss: well, the next time someone says that to you, I've got a great response for you.
Rae Leigh: Hm.
Andrew Farriss: Say, do you think that Rembrandt or van Gogh's paintings Matisse would have been better? If there was a computer program that could repair all their brushstrokes?
Rae Leigh: Yeah, it's a good, good way to put it.
Andrew Farriss: I don't think so. I think that what, what
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Andrew Farriss: artist, including songwriters and old school artists, and I know there's modern artists that use computer graphics next. Interesting too. That's funny in itself because we think our technology that we're talking to here. In August of 20, 21 is very in a hundred years time.
Now think this is really quaint or whatever it is we're
doing.
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
They'll have some sort of like holograms or something and
Andrew Farriss: yeah.
Rae Leigh: think that this teleporters, so we won't even have to do online stuff. We can just be in person.
That'd be great. Someone
Andrew Farriss: That's bright, but the front, the interest, the interesting thing
is if you know, they'll probably be still be an acoustic guitar lying around somewhere maybe in a hundred years time, and you'll still be able to sing a song and pick it up and
play it, hopefully. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Thank God.
Rae Leigh: Well, if it's not that, uh, I don't want to live in a world where there's no pianos and no guitars.
Andrew Farriss: And a.
Rae Leigh: doesn't sound like a world. I'd want to be a.
Andrew Farriss: I don't want to live there. Yeah. I don't want to live in a world with his non God. That's really dangerous.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. True. Okay. So you, you, you fell in love with music and you just started to discover how to create your own music. And that's obviously such a gift that, you worked that out so early, that that's what you wanted. Because I definitely relate to the, getting frustrated with people telling me to do scales on repeat and play everyone else's songs.
If you're a songwriter I think, and creative at heart, that can be really challenging. When was the next step for you that you actually started putting your music out there and saying, this is what I want to be. I actually want to be a songwriter and share my songs to other people. And haven't been in the business of it.
Andrew Farriss: Well, Why can't. I said, when we first started talking, my dad moved us in about 19 70, 71 from Perth and my sister was by then. So there's the four of us kids. My mom and dad, we moved to Sydney and I thought Sydney was huge. I remember driving across the Harbor bridge for the first time as a little kid. I'd never seen anything like that.
Rae Leigh: Um,
Andrew Farriss: We didn't have any friends and I just started a high school.
Rae Leigh: yep.
Andrew Farriss: And I didn't know anybody but more than music skills that I had and my sport playing skills were good. Social skills for me. I was fortunate to have those skills, you
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Andrew Farriss: Um,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Yep.
Andrew Farriss: I was good at sports and I was good at music. And, but music in particular became more and more interesting to me, um, because other kids. In that era in the seventies, 1970s, we're like-minded, you know, um, was to play in garage bands and drive your parents nuts and snaking a beer or wine, or from their, from their alcohol collections or whatever, with your
mates, they may be even try cigarettes.
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Andrew Farriss: And so we will
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Andrew Farriss: of things. And then, had long hair, if you get away with
it, um, and caught, caught comments from your dads at that, in that era, you know, um, especially that
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Andrew Farriss: um, moms were a bit cooler, but dads were more, it didn't like the long hair thing that much. Um, but, um, Yeah.
Rae Leigh: Okay.
Andrew Farriss: And I had an Afro back then, like I had a big sort of Afro, I used to wear reflective sunglasses and
stuff and, uh, and
Rae Leigh: Ah,
Andrew Farriss: other people did too. I had flares and stuff, but anyways, so
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Andrew Farriss: but I found musically that I was able to communicate socially, um, off the, off the sport. Stage with kids. I was able to serve socially, communicate with music about music and listening to music and playing music.
And the kids were kind of impressed with the things that I could play and do. And a lot of them, I knew couldn't do what I did. And so I began to GRA gravitate towards a Y. Social group of, of younger people outside of my school, who someone say, Hey, you should get in contact with this guy or have you met this girl or whatever, you know, who is outside of the high school?
You know? And, but mostly I had
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Andrew Farriss: school bands or whatever. And then in the high school I was going to in those years, um, I'll try to keep this part of it really short, um,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Andrew Farriss: Because I'd moved to Sydney. And my older brother went to a highest, Tim went to high school called forest high school in Sydney, but they rezoned me for some reason, uh, into a completely different high school.
The problem was they hadn't finished building the high school because there were back then there was building strikes and petrol strikes, all that kind of drama was going on.
Rae Leigh: Okay.
Andrew Farriss: And so. They instead of me going to Davidson high school, which is where I was supposed to go to, they put me in 200 other little kids into a school called Killarney Heights, high school and Sydney, but they dressed in gray uniforms of all the boys with straw white hats.
And the girls wore dark green, played.
With black shoes
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Andrew Farriss: they dressed us in red jumpers, blue shorts, white socks, and black shoes as a little boy. So the first and the girls wore a blue tart. And so it both, I think both sex has got picked on, but especially in boys, we like, because we walked into this high school.
So the moment we were in there, we were a little kids with all these big kids walking around.
Dress in a completely different uniform. And we looked at each other like, oh gentlemen,
like,
yeah,
you know,
Rae Leigh: What do you think they
were thinking?
Andrew Farriss: you
what happened. So anyway, and they used to be fights all the time. And we used to get in trouble all the time in this, in the high school, because we didn't want to be there.
Our parents didn't want us to be there. The high school didn't want us to be there. The high school kids didn't want us to be
Rae Leigh: Um,
Andrew Farriss: And the high school kids, parents didn't want us.
Nobody wants to be
Rae Leigh: Okay.
Andrew Farriss: to be there. So that was my first year of high school experience in Sydney. And during that experience, another kid walked into the school yard called Michael Hutchins, but he was dressed in a completely different school uniform for king George, the fifth high school from Hong Kong, which is where he'd come from in China.
And I looked at him and I.
Rae Leigh: Okay.
Andrew Farriss: Oh like this isn't good. Like, you know, this is just getting really strange now. Like he's got a different uniform on again, you know? Um,
and the kids, you know, some of the bigger bully kids walked out, who we knew. And like I said, I was pretty good at sport
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Andrew Farriss: and there was me and played footie and there was another big kid who on you and the two of us walked over and told these bad, big kids to leave.
It was a gamble we could have got now, but they did, they left him alone. They walked away. So, Um,
we've got, got away with that and he lied. Um,
Rae Leigh: um,
Andrew Farriss: you know, And, um,
and then mark came and thanked me and I said, that's, I came mate. Um,
you know, I just gotta be careful around here. It's just a really strange environment.
Okay. You know, and, and I didn't talk to him much after
Rae Leigh: Um,
Andrew Farriss: time. day he came up to me said, look, you didn't want to come over and amount of. Uh, and I said, sure. So he had a dirt bikes, you know, like, you know, motocross
bike. And I went around to his house and I looked at
Rae Leigh: yeah. Cool.
Andrew Farriss: bike, and I thought, yeah. it's really Cool.
I didn't have my bike. I liked it. Um, and, uh, Yeah.
we didn't talk about music really at all. Um, And then we, you know, we talked a bit more probably probably about girls I'd say, and, um, uh, music that came later on and then, um, yeah,
he was always in the
girls. I've got to say, but anyway,
Rae Leigh: Did you work out that music gets you in
Andrew Farriss: yeah, I worked
that out.
Yeah. I think he did do anyway, but I think the main thing, they all musicians works both ways by the way. Um, Yeah.
I was gonna say that, um, is that. Basically, we then sort of formed a friendship before we were, had a musical friendship. If you see what I mean. And then, Yeah.
And then he left because his parents sadly split up, he left to go to the United States with his mother because she was going to go work in one.
Los Angeles and Hollywood and the film industry. And so Michael went to north Hollywood high school, and then when he came back about three or four years later, eventually we were in our own high school. Um, and he turned up one day and he had long hair and was really different. And I guess I'd probably had an Afro bike by then as well.
And we started talking about music, you know, and he said, are you still on the music? I said, Yeah,
I've got, I've got a band. I got a band, I've got a call, a little band and the friends mates, you know, and I said, you should come along and listen to it. So he came along and he used to, he didn't, he didn't sing.
He just wrote poetry, kind of like a Jim Morrison character, you
know? And he said, what do you think? He just used to listen to my band. And he said, what do you think of this? And he showed me a lyric. And I said, Yeah.
it's pretty good. I, you know, or his poems as he called them, And he moves in. He was into, uh, authors, like, uh, you know, uh, Kyle Gobran, um, well, Herman Hesse and these sort of, you know, like esoteric sort of writer people, And, and on that, that was different right there.
It wasn't a good, I might get some beers and get in the car and then I play some 40 and he was different, right from the get-go and being in north Hollywood high school, he'd already understand. Understood. Okay. So we started writing together and then he realized that he was coming from a very different angle than most of the other guys or girls.
And I knew he, as a writer was coming from a completely different angle. And so my songwriting journey with him really started out. So in the roundabout, 1975, that 75, 76, somewhere around there. And by 77 we had a band, Called Dr. Dolphin that had Gary beers from INXS mark or from INXS and from INXS eventually in that band. That was Yeah. Before. Yeah.
And then my elder brother, Tim got kind of jealous because he's thought we were pretty good. And then my younger brother played drums. Right. And someone else's brother suggested we have a jam with his friend, Kirk. Which is what we did. So we had this, we made these recordings and had this jam and it must've been, it did sound good.
It wasn't so much better than the band we were in, but I knew we all knew it sounded good. And we got on well.
And then we played the party on the 16th wall, 1977 the Ferris brothers. And it was a party in wild beach road for an American surf film producer. And it was great. It was really, it was really, really good night.
And, and my dad, my mom came down to see us that night as well. And that would have been a lot that was the NXS lineup, but we will call the Ferris brothers and we all went round to my mom and dad's house the next day. And. Dad said, Yeah. there's pretty good son. You know, it was a pretty good constant. We enjoyed it, but you got to pick up the numbers a bit because people had fallen asleep everywhere and will each other start laughing like,
Rae Leigh: Okay.
Andrew Farriss: that's. Cause they're stoned and drunk and on drugs that, you know what I mean? Like anyway, yeah, anyway, But, you know, then I guess my journey as a songwriter, I never really took songwriting that serious out. And I still, you know, in a really strange way, I still don't I really, I do it because I like it. I do it because I like it. That's why
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Andrew Farriss: I don't do it necessarily because. I sit and I copy what other artists do. And then I try to replicate their work so I can have a chart here. I don't work like that I've never worked with record companies Hate me. Cause I'm not, I don't.
Rae Leigh: that all record companies
Andrew Farriss: Yeah. I don't like the moment I ever had anyone trying to do that to me. I've always instantly taken instant dislike to that situation. I don't like that situation. That's not why I write music or lyrics or anything. I do it because I like it.
And I was just really lucky to end up in such a good band INXS, and to have a platform and a singer that was the talented as Michael became. Funnily enough, he never played instrument Michael Hudson has never played. His voice was his instrument And it was a great stage performer, but most people don't realize he didn't write a lot music for an access.
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Andrew Farriss: Yeah, he was.
Rae Leigh: And that's okay. You don't have to be able to do it.
Andrew Farriss: No, exactly. And he was this sort of sexy God-like character that could, you know, pull chicks from, you know, from the other side of the world or you name it, you know, standing next to you, your
wife know, any.
Rae Leigh: yep.
Andrew Farriss: Anyway, so you know, all that came together pretty quick and, but later on, then I began to work as record producer and I'd write songs with other artists as it went along.
In fact, I had back in the day when an access was at its peak, I had some pretty amazing people ask me to write songs with them. Like Gladys Knight, the old Motown artists asked me to rock with a Jackson brown.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew Farriss: I'm talking about, their product, take it easy with the Eagles and all that kind of stuff. Tom, Tom Jones, like a lot of people, big name people would, would ask me to write songs for the minute that I found kind of overwhelming at first, because I felt comfortable with my little high school group of mates, you know, within NXS guys.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Andrew Farriss: Yeah. You know, you get into these little clusters of people in bands and then you, you, you get into, you get into
it and then you're you're.
Rae Leigh: You find a flight.
Andrew Farriss: Yeah. Well, you kind of like, you know, psychologists and psychiatrists talk about this stuff with people that have marital problems and things, which is being separate. People within a relationship and, you know, you should be separate people, but that's all bullshit in the end. You're, you're totally immersed in that, in these other people's lives.
If you're in a band in a big band that that's an international band to sell immersed in everyone's life and in their business and in everything.
And the same with, you know, a good marriage in my opinion, usually is because you completely in love with each other and engrossed and so completely. Not separate. it's ridiculous. Um, and you don't even know where the division points are anymore because you know, an assignment song writing can be a bit like that too. If you, if you find a songwriting partner who. Who completely understands you as a person and gets you. You can write some amazing stuff because you're not limited to, oh, geez.
I've only got this person, you know, to write with today, for now or three hours or, or a day. And then I'm going to move on to the next person I've worked like that too. You know, it's interesting intellectually. Um, I don't find it very stimulating,
but it's, you know, it's an interesting intellectual.
Rae Leigh: it's like songwriting data.
Andrew Farriss: Kinda Yeah, Kinda I guess
cheer.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, until you find that one person.
Andrew Farriss: Yeah. That's true. In fact, some of
Rae Leigh: I don't know. I like to, I like to
experience with people, but not often do I go back unless it was a really
good experience, you know?
Andrew Farriss: Yeah. And how
often do you get back?
Rae Leigh: So far only a
Andrew Farriss: Yeah.
Yeah.
Rae Leigh: I feel like I'm just trying it out. You know, I also like to do it on my own. I think there's like, you know, it's, it is, it's a bit like sex, you know, sometimes it's good on your own sometimes it's good, but other people sometimes it's terrible and you don't go back, but you still got to experience it before, you know,
that.
Andrew Farriss: Well that's right. If my beautiful wife Marlene was here, I'm sure she'd completely agree with that. That's exactly right. And, but you know, I think like many things are like, Two, including songwriting a little bit, although not so much the sexy part in songwriting. I think I'm more attracted where in the songwriting sense where I feel I have something in common with someone like a, to me, there's nothing worse than writing a song with someone and they.
They continually act superior to you or they're on some other level or shelf or something that really, I just, I find that disgusting. I'm like, you know, that I'd much rather write with someone because I'm having fun or we, you know, having a joke or laugh about
something. Well, you know, it's, it's it, you know, and yeah, that's right. And if you're not enjoying it. usually the sentence. Yeah, The song's not enjoyable because you didn't enjoy it.
Rae Leigh: I completely get what you're saying. It should be fun.
Andrew Farriss: Well, exactly. And, you know, I think I noticed that, in the ear or that we're in, I find it really extraordinary. Obviously that, you know, you can't turn on any media at the moment without having, or in Australia anyway, without having the pandemic slammed in your face and every single conversation or move that you make or everything. And I think someone should write a song that makes fun of it.
Rae Leigh: Maybe they should
Andrew Farriss: It's like that, that's where, I mean where
Rae Leigh: I just, don't listen to the media.
Andrew Farriss: yeah, well that's yeah. Even though you kind of,
Rae Leigh: can we, can we write a song called, just turn it off. just shut
Andrew Farriss: yeah, well, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's pretty depressing. I think, I think my dad, my father did. And this was a journalist when he got out of the role Nivea. He was in the Royal Navy right at the end of world war two. And he used his, one of his jobs when he, when he got out of the world. And Ivy was, as a journalist, as a sports writer for one of the big one newspapers and mom and dad, Dennis used to say to me when he was older and I was off. He said to me, Andy, he said the problem with modern media is that a lot of them don't look at what we used to look at, which is getting to the truth of the matter and the facts of a matter and reporting them without an opinion, a lot of modern media and dissemination of peoples. Facts to other people are usually squad in some form or another, with a personal opinion or a stance that they take. And I thought the whole idea of, for example of democracy is that we're given the facts and emotionally to be able to make our own mind up about what we think about a particular subject. And we vote on that based on the facts provided, I think opinions.
Rae Leigh: And it's okay to
Andrew Farriss: Yeah. that's right. It's okay to ask questions And the
Rae Leigh: Um,
Andrew Farriss: to ask questions and songwriting that's, you know, there's nothing wrong with that either. , I think fact songwriters kind of scare people in a way, because. They are.
Why in a weird way, if you are part of the media and some of them mine, I mean, my music and lyrics are written, but also lyrics are and songs that I've written with other artists like to India.
Let's about lots of other artists, Jenny Morris, and more recently, some people out of Nashville. I worked a lot with, and some people right here at home to the Wolf brothers.
They've got one of my, a co-write I did with them on their latest album and, and other people too. I've written. Yeah. And, but it's, it's not, it's called small town song. The one I wrote with the Wolf brothers love those guys and it's, it's not.
Rae Leigh: Okay. Yeah, I know that one.
Andrew Farriss: it's not. so much how much you write with a how or the lyrics that you, you, especially that, that you were sending out on the radio to people in a funny way, they do affect people. And most people would much prefer to listen to the radio than, than the actual news, you know, and they listened to music.
Rae Leigh: You're sharing our secrets with the
Andrew Farriss: Yeah, well and all these lyrics.
Rae Leigh: It's supposed to pretend like we're just artists and we're not having an influence.
Andrew Farriss: Oh well, but I, you know, I, I, I go back to an earlier period, you know, from the late sixties and when people did have moral views on things in lyrics, you know, and, I don't see what's wrong with that. I think that that sense of. You know, is a, is a kind of weird thing it's sort of on the one hand, if you've got children, it's, it's a very important thing, you know?
Absolutely. On, on the other hand, says the ship, can be a weird thing. You know, you should be able to tell people what you think is going on in you. That's not right in the world or, or I don't understand why that's a problem. We'll ask, as you say, ask questions, asking questions is a good idea.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. We should be allowed to ask and seek the truth, ourselves. And I think you have to be very careful about the way that you do it. Not for the sake of just self preservation, because there's so much judgment and online, aggression towards. Sometimes because people read into it and they will start to think that you think maybe different to they do. And then that's a bad thing and it's just, yeah, it's quite volatile out there and I tend to just avoid, avoid it. But as you think it's important about ask questions and have freedom, especially like you said, for children. When I think about my kids, you know, I know that they have access to Google and online, and I can't protect them the way that my parents protected me from certain truths about the world and so I have to be able to have those honest conversations with them about things, but it can be hot. Yeah. And we can definitely express that. Through music and no one can argue with a song. Can they? Oh, they'll try to. But what's the point?
Andrew Farriss: Well, exactly. That'll try to, that's right. But I think songwriters, have a very, very important place. You know, or voice if you like. And so they should I think it's an important thing and I think generations come and go and then they have each generation, some of them have a different moral stance and then the next generation or the previous generation or whatever. And what was politically correct?
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Andrew Farriss: 30 40 50 years ago, know, may not be politically correct in 30, 40, 50 years. Some are more right now. And in fact, what was politically correct? Even 500 or a thousand years ago, was different again to,
Rae Leigh: it
Andrew Farriss: that's right.
Rae Leigh: That's why we need new music constantly.
Andrew Farriss: last, very interesting.
Rae Leigh: Otherwise be
Andrew Farriss: That'd be a good thing to write a song about actually,
Rae Leigh: what do we need? New music.
Andrew Farriss: It's interesting songwriting thing there, right there. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: right. . Well, consider talking about new
Andrew Farriss: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: You've got an album that came out this year. Tell me like son of a gun and like the story. And we're talking about your message and, and songwriters having a voice. What is it that you're saying through your project that you're doing at the moment, or what do you want people to get from
Andrew Farriss: Right. Well, so far I've released a five track EAP, which came out last year in 2020, and it had, five tracks on it. Very different kinds of songs, really the, my album in a way, my self-titled album that I've released since that,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Andrew Farriss: my album, if I can just focus on that. And while I start with son of a gun, because that's the single up God moment, basically, that was
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Andrew Farriss: of a gun. And my Cajun girl would the last songs that I wrote on, on, and for myself dialed out on my debut album. And the reason I wrote those songs was because journey to make a country rock sort of folk influenced album. And that sort of influenced by some Americana and some Australia on it. I can use that phrase, also in an older time from the 19th century and the reason that I chose that period of time to draw, to draw my influences from is because I live out in the country. I live in. I don't live on our beautiful coastline and Australia. I don't live in our beautiful cities in Australia. I live in land and there's a different kind of beauty. It's a bit harsher, it's a little less forgiving. And we get things like, extremes, like, you know, freezing cold winters, minus five, minus 10 out here.
And then some, I can be forties. You get mouse plagues where there's a mouse in everywhere you go. And it's just disgusting. Horrible. And then you get severe droughts and floods. And, but with all of that, there's a beauty to it that it's very hard to explain to people unless you've lived in it. And there's a softness and a rawness to it, and all those experiences I've owned it.
I've owned a cattle and grinds when it rains property for, uh, almost 30 now 30 years was last June and, And in the time I've owned a property, it's got hold of me. It's not blood, it's not bones. I live out here all the time. Now I love it. And one of the things I love about it is because it has a lot of a history, this area.
And I'm, I don't mean, you know, particularly that modern history, but you know, as I'm talking to you now, there's a no. Bread oven. I'm looking at made a brick that was probably built about 1850 or something. And, they used to cook for about a hundred people here on this property is to be very, very big place with shape.
Rae Leigh: Wow.
Andrew Farriss: And in those, what I'm talking about is in those years, you know, they, those all older people, they live in. They lived hard lives. They didn't have the medical care, they rode horses. They, they didn't have electricity. They worked like from sunup to sundown. It was pretty full on how they all lived.
And can see now from being an out here, what it must've been like for those people. So cut the chase and come back to my album. Is it, those things have influenced me as a songwriter and my album where I decided to not take the view of modern urban country on this particular album where a lot of, , there's some great modern, urban country.
That's awesome. I love it. A lot of modern country. It's fantastic. And they've, they're now influenced. A lot of modern countries now got and things and samples and all our technical things have gone into country music now, people will take, you know, sort of things that were used in pop music 30 years ago and insert them into country music, to give the kind of sound that they want and what they call modern country.
To me, what I wanted to get out of me first. And my first album is, is not that what I want to get out of me was my understanding of what life is like. I think for people in the 19th century, both in America and Australia, and I spent some time because my wife's American, she's from Dayton, Ohio Malina, and I took a horse riding adventure.
One time. Well, actually five or six times down to the Mexican border. And we used to go horse riding, down there with a couple of friends that we, we got to know really well became quite close to. And one of the old Wrangler cowboy guy, Craig Lawson was his name, who I used to go riding with all
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Andrew Farriss: monument areas in the United States. And I suddenly got an education doing this on horseback. Of places like Apache pass and place. I know exactly where Jerome's surrendered. I know where his grandson is buried.
Rae Leigh: Wow.
Andrew Farriss: and stronghold, and I could see how he could see that, the U S cavalry riding across the dusty Plains to his strongholds. So he could have eight
Rae Leigh: Hmm.
Andrew Farriss: them. I, and this is on the Mexican border, so right on the corner Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico. And then you had the Mexican army, you had Mexican people, you had the set was trying to. Make a life during all this. And I would, I would use that and compare what it was like an early Australian history.
And that was a lot of the context I was writing for on my solo debut album, which is kind of more like a, it really affected. Being in that area in the United States and now where I live in Australia and I, and those Bush Rangers out here in Australia, people like Ned Kelly and, uh, you know, captain Thunderbolt and these characters that brought around in the same would they had to Cowboys in America.
The gun sling is in the so son of a gun. It was really born out of that to me, a purpose wrote that song, same with my Cajun girl. You know, I want it to.
Rae Leigh: mm.
Andrew Farriss: A son of a gun was recorded over two days. Uh, I had the music on, I knew exactly what I wanted for the melody, but I was still not quite sure the lyric I'd been working on it for a while.
And I actually tracked all the music on one day. And the studio on the wrong side of the railroad tracks in Nashville. And I'm
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Andrew Farriss: Yeah, but with a great bunch of guys, really cool bunch of guys and I track the music and then the next day I went, oh, well that day that I tracked the music for son of gun, I went back to the hotel room and I finished the lyric. Costanoa Ghana went back into the studio the next day on a song and. Very happy with that song and, , had a great reaction to it. And then, the video we shot part of it. , I shot part of that video at the hideout ranch in Arizona. The rest of it was shot here with local, Cowboys and cowgirls here in Australia.
, and then the video that. I shot for patchy pass because that's been released at the same time was actually shot near Apache pass in Arizona. I used an Australian.
Rae Leigh: Nice.
Andrew Farriss: help me with that video. Some of the local Cowboys and cowgirls. Yeah. And then
Rae Leigh: you do that. You guys all went over this.
Andrew Farriss: all O'Malley and I went over there and one of the film guys from the film or a camera as well, but it was just, we were just
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Andrew Farriss: us. And then he, I don't know, not Dunkin was actually Brock one of the guys that works with.
Rae Leigh: not
Andrew Farriss: Yeah.
but, you know, dunks or some levels I love done. And bro came over and he was great to work with and it was bloody hot. That's where I can remember walking around, out there in that heat and Arizona and, and then we had local, uh, local people help us with that video as well. A really cool bunch of people, and Yeah. kind and gracious. And, uh, sadly Craig's passed away. Now that cowboy guy and Tam his wife, we still stay in contact with her.
Loved him. Love. Great miss. I've got a photo of me standing up there with, with Greg in coachees is stronghold still one of my favorite photos. Cause you can only ride up there on horseback, to get up the top or you spend all day climbing the mountain basically. But Yeah.
that's pretty much it, uh, for I'm at, I think we're finished.
Rae Leigh: Okay. If you could, co-write a song with anyone in the world living or dead, who would it be?
Andrew Farriss: probably Say, or two people really, one would be Michael Hutchins and then the other one would probably be, stan Jones. Who wrote ghost riders in the sky.
Rae Leigh: Why do you really liked that
Andrew Farriss: I love, I love that song. Yeah. I've actually, I recorded a whole concert, last year when you wouldn't be in about October, I recorded that. Well, yeah, cause we cause a lockdowns and restrictions and things, went into the studio with my band, which is awesome. Live band and we track that, basically a live concert. You can see part of it on YouTube, but the album part of it, I haven't get, released there's I've got a whole lot more of it. I recorded.
Rae Leigh: Brilliant. Well, I'm going to put your links and your YouTube videos into the description of the podcast. So, people can go and check out your name, music and your music videos, and follow you on social media and all that sort of stuff. And hopefully see you when you're playing live. Next three, you had a
Andrew Farriss: I can't wait to get out and play well, I've again, you know, It's been really frustrating. hasn't it? I'm sure. I'm sure if you're, you know, you're a singer songwriter, you've been expressing the same thing. All right. Yeah. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. And quite constant letdowns over the last two years, just planning and then having to cancel a re reschedule. It's been an, a mental roller coaster, but we're all in it together. And just got to keep going, keep moving forward. Is there anything else you'd like to say before we finish up?
Andrew Farriss: Yeah, if you're going through hell, keep going, or you might get stuck there.
Rae Leigh: love it. I love that saying, my grandma used to tell me if you're going through hell during stop and have a picnic keep going.
Andrew Farriss: That's right.
Rae Leigh: Well done. Well, it was lovely to chat with you. Hopefully I'll see you at groundwater when you're in the gold coast in november. If that still goes ahead, um, but you take care of yourself and I really appreciate the chat. You.
Andrew Farriss: All right. Take care. Thank you. Bye-bye
