A bunch of unreleased songs by late INXS frontman Michael Hutchence are set to be released over the next year, alongside a new documentary about the last years of the singer’s life.
As AAP reports, 15 previously unreleased Hutchence songs are to be released by Sydney entrepreneur Ron Creevey, who runs Kings Cross studio and venue The X Studio.
Creevey says he has spent the last two years working on the Hutchence project with LA-based record producer Danny Saber, who worked on Hutchence’s 1999 self-titled solo album.
“I heard some time ago about some unreleased music that was sitting out there and then I approached (Hutchence’s) trust directly,” Creevey says.
“At least five songs are brilliant. There’s going to be two duets that will come out with two very big artists that I can’t legally name at the moment and then there’s singles he did himself.”
Saber says he and Hutchence were working on music together not long before the singer committed suicide in November 1997.
“Me and him sort of connected and started writing towards the end. It’s sort of like a little treasure trove of stuff – essentially there were vocals and ideas and that’s the stuff that I’m reworking and we’re going to be releasing,” Saber says.
Along with the unreleased music, Creevey says he’s also been gathering diaries, notes, artefacts and documents of Hutchence’s to help with the development of a film about the singer’s final years, which was shot on a disposable camera.
The footage and music will be used in a documentary which Creevey plans to release in 2017 to mark the 20th anniversary of Hutchence’s death. The first unreleased Hutchence song is set for release before Christmas 2016, close to Hutchence’s 19th anniversary in November, with more songs to be released in the run-up to the documentary.
News of a potential new Hutchence release surfaced in May, when INXS manager Chris Murphy threatened legal action against anyone who released anything under the INXS and Hutchence copyright.
“I do know every single individual and or company who interfere with INXS/Michael copyrights are about to find themselves in very deep legal trouble,” he said, while Creevey denies that Murphy has any claim over the new music.
A previously unreleased Hutchence solo track titled Friction (below) was released in 2015, after rumblings of a Hutchence biopic died out.
Meanwhile, INXS are turning their discography and story into INXS The Musical, which is set to open in Sydney in 2017.
Listen: Michael Hutchence – Friction
