Simon Hussey

Simon Cyril Hussey (born 7 July 1960) is an Australian multi-instrumentalist, songwriter-arranger, record producer and audio engineer.

Simon Cyril Hussey, was born on 7 July 1960 in Lismore – a town 170 km west of Melbourne and grew up in Mount Eliza.

During the 1980s and 1990s Hussey was a Supreme Court legal reporter recording and transcribing criminal and civil court cases when not working in the music industry on a full-time basis.

In the early 1980s he was the record producer on a single for Lisa Bade, which included Mark Greig (ex-Runners) on guitar.

In 1984 he formed Cats Under Pressure on keyboards with David Reyne (ex-Australian Crawl) on vocals and Mark Greig on guitar.

Cats Under Pressure were a pop band formed in Melbourne in 1984 with Hussey on guitar, keyboards and backing vocals; Greig on guitar and David Reyne (ex-Australian Crawl) on drums and lead vocals.

In that year they issued a self-titled extended play on Freestyle Records – the label owned by Reyne's former bandmates from Australian Crawl.

It was produced by David Reyne's older brother, James, Australian Crawl's lead singer.

Cats Under Pressure followed with a single, "Let Me Be", which was co-written by Hussey with David.

On the Australian Crawl album Between a Rock and a Hard Place (August 1985), Hussey co-wrote four tracks with the band's lead singer, James Reyne (David's older brother).

In 1985, Greig joined the Australian Crawl demo and recording sessions for their fourth studio album, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, and Hussey co-wrote four of the album's tracks with lead singer, James Reyne.

Meanwhile, Cats Under Pressure recorded another single, "On Again Off Again", in September, which was issued later that year.

Greig remained with Australian Crawl until they disbanded in 1986.

In 1987 when James undertook his solo career, Hussey joined his backing band on keyboards, and co-wrote six tracks for James' debut self-titled album including top 10 hit singles, "Hammerhead" (October) and "Motor's Too Fast" (June 1988).

Hussey joined the James Reyne Band and worked on Reyne's self-titled debut solo album (September 1987), co-writing six tracks with the artist.

Braithwaite had heard some demos of Hussey's work and "in 1987 I approached him to produce the album and after quite a lot of hassling he said yes".

In the following year Clinton Porteous of Rolling Stone described how "Braithwaite was trying to make a comeback... [and] record companies urged [him] to use a name producer... he insisted on the untried Hussey. 'I saw someone who was a little bit hesitant... a little shy but who was really talented ... he really did seem to care about the music... he doesn't do things half heartedly.' Braithwaite's instincts paid off: Edge went to Number One, relaunching his career."

In May 1988 Hussey was the producer, and provided keyboards and song writing, for Edge (November), the comeback album by Daryl Braithwaite (ex-Sherbet), which peaked at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart for three weeks in mid-1989.

Hussey worked on further solo material by both Braithwaite and James Reyne.

Four of these were issued as singles, "Hammerhead" (October), "Heaven on a Stick" (February 1988), "Motor's Too Fast" (June) and "Always the Way" (November).

James later told Debbie Kruger that "['Hammerhead'] was not necessarily about me, but let's say I thought I knew what I was talking about. I wrote it with Simon Hussey; the music Simon and I wrote together and I wrote the lyrics. From memory it seemed to come quite easily".

The album peaked at No. 4 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart, while "Hammerhead" reached No. 8 and "Motor's Too Fast" at No. 4 on the related Kent Music Report Singles Chart.

"Motor's Too Fast" also reached No. 6 on the ARIA Singles Chart.

During May 1988 Hussey was the record producer and arranger on Daryl Braithwaite's comeback solo album, Edge, which was issued in November.

He also played keyboards, programmed the drum machine and wrote or co-wrote four tracks: "You Could Be Wrong" (by Hussey), "Let Me Be" (from Cats Under Pressure, by Hussey and David Reyne), "All the Same" (by Hussey, Bade and Greig) and "Edge" (by Hussey and Jef Scott).

Edge peaked at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart for three weeks in mid-1989.

Kathryn Whitfield of The Canberra Times felt the album was "Verging on noddy-land, this piece of plastic is soft-sell. Easy listening, inoffensive, palatable, commercial pop music."

She explained that "Hussey (keyboards) appears to have been the one to roll up his sleeves and get to work on material for this offering."

Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, opined that the album and singles had "captured a wonderful summer-filled mood, and a sense of freedom and happiness".

Four tracks on Edge had John Farnham on backing vocals.

By February 1989 Hussey was in London working on James' second solo album, Hard Reyne, he co-produced the album with John Hudson.

In 1991 Hussey formed Company of Strangers with Braithwaite, Reyne and Jef Scott (backing and session musician for both artists).

In May 1991 Braithwaite told The Canberra Times' Bevan Hannan that he had met Hussey about two years before they worked on Edge.

The group issued a self-titled debut album (November 1992) which peaked at No. 9, and provided three top 40 singles "Sweet Love" (June), "Motor City (I Get Lost)" (September), and "Daddy's Gonna Make You a Star" (January 1993).

At the ARIA Music Awards of 1992 Hussey won Producer of the Year for his work on various tracks: Craig McLachlan's "On My Own"; Braithwaite's "The Horses", "Higher Than Hope" and "Don't Hold Back Your Love"; and James Reyne's "Slave".

For "The Horses" Margaret Urlich provided backing vocals.

Hussey won the same category in 1993 for Braithwaite's "Nothing to Lose"; and Company of Strangers' three singles.

In 1994 he won Engineer of the Year for Braithwaite's "Barren Ground" and "The World as It Is"; and Company of Strangers' "Baby, You're a Rich Man" and "Daddy's Gonna Make You a Star".

He was nominated for five ARIA Music Awards for his production or engineering work.

Hussey has received two APRA Music Awards for his song writing.