INXS is making no assumptions about its future.

In fact, following the 1997 suicide of charismatic frontman and lyricist Michael Hutchence, two members of the Australian rock group said yesterday in Toronto they feel like they're testing the waters again.

"I think we're really just kind of finding out if people care about INXS still, and whether we care," the band's saxophonist-guitarist Kirk Pengilly said in an interview to promote Shine Like It Does, The Anthology (1979-1997).

Added keyboardist-guitarist Andrew Farriss: "We didn't really know what the hell we were when Michael died."

Months earlier, the group had released a well-received new studio album, Elegantly Wasted, and was in rehearsals for its 20th anniversary Australia tour when Hutchence was discovered hanging from his belt in a Sydney hotel room.

When asked if they have come to terms with Hutchence's shocking death, Pengilly and Farriss had different answers.

"I was annoyed with him for a while," said Farriss, who was Hutchence's songwriting partner for 25 years.

"It was a responsibility thing to the people around him. But it was interesting too, out of all the people who called, (U2's) Bono called me at home actually and was talking to me, and we were both angry. We were both having this strange conversation. After I got off the phone I was a little embarrassed because I thought I don't even know him that well. It was really weird and I don't think I've since talked to him."

Bono has been dedicating one of U2's new songs, Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of, to Hutchence on U2's current tour.

For his part, Pengilly said of Hutchence's passing: "For me, I don't sort of feel any remorse or any pain, or even really any sadness anymore. I feel like I've sort come through it. It doesn't irk me to watch certain things, or to hear certain things we've done. I feel kind of at peace with it, really, for my own reasons."

Both band members said even though Hutchence seemed to be in good spirits in the hours preceding his death, he had fought depression and always gravitated toward darker, more mysterious artists such as Nick Cave or Iggy Pop.

"Michael was an intriguing guy, an intriguing character," Farriss said. "As we said at the time, just watch out for the people that tell you that they're okay."

"He was an international man of mystery," Pengilly said jokingly. "Although we knew him really well, there were sides of him that no one knew, or we didn't know."

Most recently, INXS has been performing with fellow Aussie Jon Stevens as lead vocalist. He's a longtime friend who first sang with them at a club show in Melbourne about a year ago.

But Pengilly, who was scheduled to play three INXS songs acoustically with Farriss last night at an invitation-only show, said nothing is set in stone as far as finding a replacement band member for Hutchence.

"It's a very tough decision," he said. "We've just been sort of taking it day by day. I'm not kind of ready to commit to anyone or anything at this stage."

INXS, with Stevens, did have a tentative date at the Molson Amphitheatre on June 4, the day before the Anthology release, but the Aussie-rock triple bill that included Men At Work and Midnight Oil fell apart.

INXS will work on a band documentary over the next six months after signing a deal with Columbia-TriStar in Australia. The group was inspired after seeing what they call inaccurate programs on VH-1 and the BBC.