Art & Creativity Quote by Michael Hutchence

Hutchence frames a stylistic choice as an existential bet, and that’s the point: he’s describing how a band becomes a band by refusing the safety of being merely competent. The phrase “stick to this mix” reads like a small, almost technical decision, but he immediately enlarges it into an origin story - the moment when INXS stopped trying on identities and started committing to one. “Power chords and funk” isn’t just genre description; it’s a cultural mash-up that signals swagger and bodily movement, rock’s blunt force fused with dance music’s pulse. It’s the sound of wanting mass appeal without surrendering edge.

The real engine of the quote is how he uses courage as a creative tool. “Courage to take that decision” treats taste as willpower, implying that authenticity isn’t discovered so much as chosen under pressure. There’s subtext here about the music industry’s quiet coercions: trends, gatekeepers, and the temptation to sand down whatever looks risky. By calling it “a gamble,” he admits they didn’t know it would work; certainty is for cover bands and executives.

Then he goes for the throat: “not just with our music but our lives.” That line smuggles in the cost of commitment - touring, instability, ego, exposure, the way a public persona can colonize private selfhood. It also reflects the 80s rock logic where artistry and self-destruction get romantically entangled. Hutchence isn’t bragging about recklessness; he’s naming the terrifying intimacy between making a sound you believe in and becoming someone who can survive it.