NEW RELEASE
History with MKH
by Danny Saber
I was first contacted by Michael Hutchence in 1995, soon after the release of
“It’s Great When You're Straight", the album I produced for Shaun Ryders' band
'Black Grape.' As someone who was always up on new music, Michael was a huge fan of the record and wanted to find out who was behind the production of the album.
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Upon our speaking, it became apparent right away that Michael was on a quest...
in search of a sound. A sound that would galvanize all the success he had with INXS and allow him to establish himself as a solo artist and spread his wings outside the confines of being the Front Man of one of the most successful bands in the world.
But perhaps more importantly, a sound that lived up to the creative integrity that drove him.
After a number of collaborations with different writers and producers, he connected with Andy Gill and they rapidly built up a batch of songs. But Michael still felt something was missing. This is when he reached out to me initially, to bring another sonic dimension to his sound. Our rapport was immediate and it wasn’t long before he and I began writing together to fill out the material he built up with Andy. Over the next 2 years we became very close collaborators and that was in retrospect one of, if not the best, periods of my life.
I had just broken through with a number 1 record and having Michael in the role of a big brother taking me around London and seeing the world through his eyes at that point of my life is something I’m very grateful for. It's one of the primary motivating factors for continuing to work on music with him posthumously.
V2 Release
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In 1999 the album "Michael Hutchence" was released. It was the material we had been working
on up until his death in 1997. There were 12 completed songs for the most part minus mixing.
The origins of “The Last Rockstar” and this “New" music
In 2006, a number of unreleased song ideas had surfaced in a tape locker in London.
This was material CIL, Michael’s IP company, had financed and he had been developing for his solo endeavor. In going through the ideas it became apparent this would be something worth exploring, starting with 'Friction' and what became 'One-Way'. I began the process of producing finished masters.
The general consensus was that One-Way had the potential to be a single and as a documentary film on Michael had yet to be made, it seemed the obvious way to go.
This began what became a 10 year odyssey.
The process of producing the documentary film was initially all about finding the right director to tell the story. The list of directors I was able to get traction with was a Who’s Who of the top documentary film makers in the world, including David Leaf, Mark Pellington, and Julian Temple, who actually went into a development / research period. Though Julian ultimately passed on directing the film, we amassed over 100 hours of 'Stock' footage of Michael and INXS which became the foundations of what ultimately became "The Last Rockstar."
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We finally secured a deal with Seven Networks Australia in 2017 to produce a documentary film that aired on New Zealand / Australian TV over 2 nights. I pursued a deal for a worldwide release for a number of years but between Covid and a myriad of delays, I finally decided to move forward with what you are presented with here and get the ball rolling on bringing Michael’s fans this new music.
And this brings us to where we are !!!!!