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INXS

3 guitar songs · Tabs, Lessons & Tone Guide New Wave

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Band Overview

History and Guitar Legacy

INXS emerged from Sydney, Australia in 1977 and became one of the defining bands of the 1980s and early 90s. The band fused New Wave, funk, rock, and dance music into a guitar driven sound that filled stadiums worldwide. While frontman Michael Hutchence commanded the spotlight, the guitar work of Andrew Farriss on rhythm and keys, and lead guitarist Tim Farriss was absolutely central to the band's identity and success.

Playing Style and Techniques

Tim Farriss crafted some of the most recognizable guitar riffs of the era with tight, funky, rhythmically precise lines that locked in with the groove rather than showboating. His playing sits between the chiming clean tones of new wave and the punchy crunch of rock. Riffs like 'Need You Tonight' and 'Never Tear Us Apart' show a player who understood that tone, timing, and note choice matter far more than speed.

Why Guitarists Study INXS

INXS is essential for electric guitarists because it emphasizes rhythm guitar as a lead instrument. Tim Farriss wasn't shredding, he was building hooks through restrained, purposeful playing. The band demonstrates how to serve the song through feel and note selection rather than flashy technique. Songs are perfect for developing dynamic control, clean to dirty transitions, and tight rhythmic picking.

Difficulty and Learning Path

INXS songs range from beginner friendly to intermediate, with straightforward chord shapes and no blazing solos. However, nailing the feel is the real challenge. The funk influenced timing, precise palm muting, and subtle dynamics require a mature sense of groove. Songs like 'New Sensation' demand tight alternate picking, while 'Need You Tonight' reveals how muting technique and attack make or break the performance.

What Makes INXS Essential for Guitar Players

  • Tim Farriss's riff on "Need You Tonight" is built on a single-note funk line played on a clean-to-slightly-overdriven tone. The key to nailing it is precise right-hand muting, you need to dampen the strings you're not playing to keep the riff tight and percussive. It's one of the best riffs ever written for developing your muting discipline.
  • "New Sensation" features driving alternate-picked rhythms on open and barre chords with a bright, crunchy tone. The verse riff uses tight palm-muting that opens up into ringing chords on the chorus, teaching guitarists how to use dynamics to create energy shifts within a song structure.
  • "Never Tear Us Apart" showcases a more atmospheric side of INXS guitar work, with clean arpeggiated chords and sustained, reverb-drenched tones. It's an excellent exercise in fingerpicking or hybrid picking on electric guitar, focusing on letting notes ring and controlling your volume swell for emotional impact.
  • Throughout INXS's catalog, Tim Farriss relied heavily on the neck pickup position for warm, rounded clean tones and switched to the bridge humbucker for punchier rhythm parts. Learning to switch pickup positions mid-song, and understanding how it changes your place in the mix, is a key takeaway from studying his approach.
  • Farriss's vibrato was subtle and controlled, more of a gentle wobble than a wide rock vibrato. This understated technique, combined with his preference for letting notes breathe rather than filling every gap, makes INXS material perfect for guitarists learning that space and silence are just as powerful as notes.

Did You Know?

The iconic riff from "Need You Tonight" was reportedly written by Andrew Farriss in about five minutes on a cheap guitar in a Hong Kong hotel room. He recorded the idea on a portable cassette player, and the band built the entire track around that simple, hypnotic line, proof that great riffs don't require complex theory.

Tim Farriss was a devoted Fender Stratocaster player for much of INXS's career, which is unusual for an '80s rock guitarist when humbucker-loaded guitars dominated. The Strat's single-coil quack gave INXS a brighter, funkier edge than most of their contemporaries.

During the recording of "Kick" (1987), producer Chris Thomas encouraged Tim Farriss to layer multiple guitar tracks with different tones and pickup settings, creating a wall of texture that sounds deceptively simple on the surface. What sounds like one guitar part is often three or four carefully arranged layers.

Tim Farriss severed the ring finger on his left (fretting) hand in a boating accident in 2015. Despite multiple surgeries, he never regained full use of the finger, effectively ending his guitar career, a devastating reminder of how precious our fretting-hand dexterity is as guitarists.

"Never Tear Us Apart" features a lush string arrangement, but the guitar part that underpins the entire track is remarkably sparse, just a few carefully chosen clean notes. It's been cited by guitar teachers as one of the best examples of how to play for the song rather than for your ego.

INXS were heavily influenced by funk and R&B, and Tim Farriss has cited Nile Rodgers of Chic as a major influence on his rhythm playing. That funk DNA is what gives INXS riffs their bounce and groove, setting them apart from the heavier rock and synth-pop of the era.

The guitar tone on "New Sensation" was achieved largely through a combination of a slightly overdriven amp and a compressor pedal, which gave the clean parts a punchy, even sustain without heavy distortion. It's a great example of how compression can be a guitarist's secret weapon for pop-rock tones.

Essential Albums for Guitarists

Kick album cover
Kick 1987

This is the essential INXS album for guitarists. It contains "Need You Tonight," "New Sensation," and "Never Tear Us Apart", three songs that teach fundamentally different guitar skills: funk-muting precision, driving rhythmic crunch, and atmospheric clean tone work. Every track on this record showcases Tim Farriss at his most inventive, balancing hook-writing with textural playing.

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Listen Like Thieves album cover
Listen Like Thieves 1985

The title track and "What You Need" feature some of Farriss's most energetic rhythm guitar work, with tight alternate picking and bright, cutting chord voicings. This album is slightly rawer than Kick, with more emphasis on guitar-driven arrangements. It's ideal for intermediate players looking to develop confident, propulsive rhythm technique.

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The Swing album cover
The Swing 1984

"Original Sin" is a funk-rock guitar workout that predates the more polished Kick-era sound. The guitar tones here are grittier and more experimental, with heavy use of chorus and delay effects. It's a great album for understanding how INXS evolved their guitar sound and for practicing funk-influenced riffing over dance-oriented grooves.

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Tone & Gear

Guitar

Tim Farriss is most closely associated with Fender Stratocasters, particularly mid-'60s and '70s models that he used throughout the band's peak era. He also played Gibson Les Pauls and various Telecasters depending on the song's tonal requirements. On "Need You Tonight," a Stratocaster in the neck or middle position delivers that warm, round funk tone, while tracks like "New Sensation" benefit from a bridge-position bite. He occasionally used a Gibson 335-style semi-hollow for added warmth and sustain in the studio.

Amp

Farriss favored Fender Twin Reverbs and Vox AC30s for their clean headroom and chiming high-end response, both classic choices for players who need sparkling cleans that can break up naturally when you dig in. For the Kick sessions, producer Chris Thomas helped dial in tones using studio amps at moderate gain, relying on natural tube warmth rather than heavy saturation. A Fender-style clean amp set around 5-6 on the volume with the treble at 7 captures a lot of the INXS sound.

Pickups

Standard Fender single-coil pickups were the backbone of Tim Farriss's tone, the classic Strat set with alnico V magnets delivering that snappy, articulate attack that cuts through a dense pop-rock mix. The lower output of single-coils (roughly 5-6k ohms) preserved the dynamic range essential to INXS's funk-influenced playing style, where ghost notes and muted percussive strokes need to be clearly distinguishable from full strikes. For thicker tones, he'd switch to a Les Paul's PAF-style humbuckers.

Effects & Chain

Tim Farriss kept his effects chain relatively simple: a Boss CE-2 or similar analog chorus for shimmering clean tones (especially prominent on "Never Tear Us Apart"), a compressor pedal for evening out funk rhythms and adding sustain to clean parts, and a subtle slapback delay or spring reverb for depth. He rarely used heavy distortion pedals, preferring amp-driven grit when crunch was needed. The signal chain was typically guitar → compressor → chorus → amp, keeping things transparent and dynamic. The INXS guitar sound is fundamentally about clean-to-edge-of-breakup tones shaped by picking attack, not stacked gain stages.

Recommended Gear

Fender Stratocaster
Guitar

Fender Stratocaster

Tim Farriss's primary choice throughout INXS's peak era, the Strat's single-coils deliver the snappy, articulate attack essential for funk-influenced rhythms and ghost notes. Neck and middle positions provide the warm, round tone heard on 'Need You Tonight,' while the bridge captures the cutting bite of 'New Sensation.'

Fender Telecaster
Guitar

Fender Telecaster

Farriss used Telecasters for songs requiring tonal variety and cutting clarity, leveraging their bright single-coil character to slice through INXS's dense pop-rock arrangements with percussive precision.

Gibson Les Paul Standard
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Standard

When thicker, warmer tones were needed, Farriss switched to the Les Paul's PAF-style humbuckers for added sustain and body while maintaining INXS's clean-to-edge-of-breakup aesthetic.

Gibson Les Paul Custom
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Custom

Similar to the Standard, the Custom's thicker tone and enhanced sustain provided Farriss with an alternative for studio tracks requiring deeper warmth without sacrificing the band's signature clarity.

Fender Twin Reverb
Amp

Fender Twin Reverb

This amp's clean headroom and natural chiming high-end response shaped INXS's signature sparkle, delivering tube warmth that breaks up organically when picking intensity increases without relying on heavy distortion.

Vox AC30
Amp

Vox AC30

The AC30's legendary chime and natural breakup characteristics complemented Farriss's dynamic playing style, providing the shimmer and warmth essential to INXS's clean-driven tones and chorus effects.

How to Practice INXS on GuitarZone

Every INXS song page on GuitarZone includes a built-in Practice Toolbar. No app to download, no account needed. Open any song, then use the toolbar to slow the video to 0.5× speed, set an A/B loop around the exact riff you're working on, and jump between song sections instantly.

The toolbar appears automatically on every guitar tab, lesson, and cover page. Pick a song below, hit play, and start practicing at your own pace.

Practice Need You Tonight - Guitar LessonPractice New Sensation - Guitar LessonPractice Never Tear Us Apart - Guitar Lesson