There is no doubt that TNT fans were rocked by the news that ‘Live in Madrid’ would be the swansong for Tony Harnell, lead vocalist for over twenty years. Since then the enigmatic singer has been updating his fans via his website and Myspace page, but otherwise he has been keeping rather a low profile. As we’ve had a longstanding arrangement to do an interview when the time was right, the release on 1stAugust of ‘Love’s Dying Wish’, the follow up to Starbreaker’s highly acclaimed self titled debut seemed like the ideal opportunity.

It’s hard to believe it’s been two and a half years since your departure from TNT. How has life been treating you since then?

Much more peacefully than before I left [laughs]. No, it's been great for the most part. I didn't really have a plan when I left other than I would figure it out, I guess that's a testament to how badly I wanted to leave. But you know the old saying “one door closes and another opens” and it has seemed to work that way. I love being in New York and spending time with my wife and friends and writing and just living life. I go to Sweden sometimes to work on stuff and out west to visit my family. I’ve been working with a couple of guys who I guess could be described as alternative/indie singer/songwriters. They’re very Beatle-esque in their influence and we’ve been writing together and they’re actually part of the band that I play with when I play in New York as a solo artist. My other band is the one I produced in Sweden, Pound, and they are going to be backing me up at Firefest in October [unfortunately, since this interview took place Tony had to withdraw from Firefest for family reasons – Ed].

The new Starbreaker album ‘Love’s Dying Wish’ is quite different to the debut – it seems to explore more melodic and moodier sides. How would you describe it?

Well, it’s definitely different, definitely darker, and in a way we set out to do just that. I didn’t really feel like doing a hardcore metal album where I’m just screaming all the time, and I’m not really into doing a traditional straightforward old fashioned metal kind of thing. Doing something darker and moodier just seemed to make sense to me. I didn’t want to do a happy metal record because that’s something that I’ve done for many years; I wanted to try something new. So we talked about down-tuning the guitars a little bit more just to give it that flavour and also lots of minor key stuff which automatically puts everything in that space. Then it was just a matter of me putting the right melodies and lyrics to the whole thing. I would describe it as a mixture of old school hard rock with a modern Goth edge.

What have been the early reactions to the album so far?

So far it’s been mostly really good. I expected some people to not quite know what to think when they first heard it, and that’s sometimes been the case, but I’d say probably 90% of the reviews that I’ve read have been super positive. People seem to be getting the fact that they have to listen to it a few times to let it soak in. When you first put it on, it probably gets under your skin, but it’s not one of those super commercial albums.

The “grower” albums are the ones that tend to have longevity on my shelf ...

I completely agree, which is why most of the albums that I like I’m not wild about on the first listen. That’s not to say that there are some albums I put on and I just don’t like it right from the start, and I know I never will, but there are some where maybe I really like the artist, so I give them an extra chance. I often find when I do that I get to the core of what the record is about. There are so many websites now and everybody can be a critic even though they don’t even need the proper credentials to do so these days. I don’t think that you can do that job if you have a pre-conceived idea of what something ought to be and that’s one of the biggest mistakes that a lot of these “critics” make. I think that each record, regardless of how well known the artist is, should be given its own fair shake. If the artist goes way off into left field and it’s kind of shocking at first, understandably you’re going to have to get over that to get to the core of whether it’s any good or not, or is it just left field and it sucks. I’m a big Chris Cornell fan and I’ve been listening to his new tracks on his MySpace page that he did with Timbaland the producer, and talk about left field! It’s another world. It’s quite shocking but after a few listens it became more interesting. I’m just not sure whether I love it yet or not. (Check out www.myspace.com/chriscornell for a listen.)

Are there any tracks that you are particularly proud of? Can you talk us through the stories behind some of the tracks?

I’m not one for getting into the lyrics too much because I like people to make their own minds up about what they mean, but one of my favourite songs is ‘Hide’ which is a really cool mainstream song. It’s one of those songs I feel I could record with almost any project that I’ve done, and it can be produced in different ways and could be on the radio today and fit in really nicely with everything else. The title track is something that the Tony Harnell fans can latch on to right away with the super melodic chorus, then there is a song that closes the album called ‘This Close’ which is a beautiful song and I really like the opening track ‘End of Alone’. I dig the whole energy and vibe of that one - that’s why we put it first, and it’s about something that most people probably don’t get right away. You’ll have to dig into the lyrics a little bit to get the real darkness of what’s actually going on there. I’ll put it this way, it’s not necessarily about mortal love, and I’ll leave it at that.

I have the promo but don’t have the benefit of the lyrics, but I’ll have to give it another listen as soon as we’ve finished this interview! Did you and Magnus Karlsson actually sit down together as a team to write the songs for this album, or was it all done across the airwaves?

I spent a week at his house and we just wanted to get a couple of things written so we could map out the direction of the album a little bit, so that’s what we did. We wrote about three or four tracks, talked a lot, listened to a lot of music and decided the direction of the album. Then that way when I came back to New York it was much easier. Not every song we wrote ended up on the record, but we did pretty well.

Is Magnus a strict disciplinarian?

Well, Magnus has a very young baby who was keeping him busy, although his wife was home during that period because the baby was pretty new. Let’s just say it wasn’t super disciplined. Magnus definitely likes a beer or two, so I think it was a very casual relaxed week with 50% hanging out, 50% writing, which was really good for us. The whole first album was written across the airwaves and we met each other for one day when we shot the video. This time we actually got to know each other much better, and it really has made a difference. I wish that we’d had a bigger budget and more time because the possibilities of what we could do together are incredible.

On the promo it doesn’t state who is credited for writing the songs. Who did what?

Magnus and I wrote everything together. Generally speaking, and I’d say pretty much 95% plus on everything I’ve ever done I’ve written the lyrics. I wrote all the lyrics on this one and probably 85% - 90% of the melodies; Magnus takes care of all the music.

What’s inspiring you to write these days, and are you writing for other people also?

A little bit, but I’m mostly just working on my own stuff right now. I’ve realised that I’m in a period now when I need to find some new inspiration and I’m starting to listen to music that has very little relationship to anything I’ve been doing before. I’m a bit bored with my own voice against a hard rock guitar, especially as I’ve been doing it for so long, so I’m looking at other things. I’ve got my studio set up in my apartment now, with a really incredible vocal set up with a high end microphone and pre-amp, so I am able to write and record and experiment with things. I’ve been experimenting with weird music tracks and coming up with some strange things to sing over just to change it up a bit. I’m having an interesting time with it, and I like the idea of putting my voice into different atmospheres. I’m not saying I’ll never sing over guitar riffs again, it’s just that for the time being I’m finding that in order for me to expand musically I need to find new outlets for my voice and my music and lyrics. I’ve been writing a lot with acoustic guitar as well, with other singer-songwriters who really focus more on the melody and less on what the guitar is doing, which is more fun for a singer to do sometimes.

This album is co-produced by you and Magnus. Could you define “co”produced?

Basically, Bruno [Ravel] and I produced the vocals together, but production is more to do with everything from making decisions on the arrangements to deciding on which songs make it onto the album. It was very much a team effort from our two camps, and Magnus and I talked about each thing we were going to do and sent each other things when we were finished. He got the rough vocals when I was finished, and he’d send me the guitar parts. Generally speaking whatever we both did was what ended up on the record because we trust each other pretty well. If there was something that either of us felt strongly about, we’d take each other’s comments into consideration, so it was a good partnership in that respect.

The last album had Fabrizio Grossi on bass as well as production and mixing. Now you’ve got Jonni Lightfoot on bass. How did you get him involved?

Jonni got in touch with me about three or four years ago because he was actually a TNT fan and he was interested in writing and playing together. He’s been Air Supply’s touring bassist and musical director for quite a few years now, but he’s a metal guy who’s also into jazz and hard rock and comes from a similar background that we all come from. He is one of the best bass players I have ever heard. If anyone’s interested in checking him out, he’s at www.myspace.com/jonnilightfoot. He’s very much from the Billy Sheehan school of bass playing, but he can also tone it down and just lay down a great bass line. He got the best bass sound that I’ve heard in a long time on the Starbreaker album; it was perfect. When I was selling Magnus on the idea I asked him to let him do three songs. When he got the tracks back he was blown away. Jonni is such a nice guy and I just knew he’d get it done quickly, easily and painlessly and he delivered above and beyond.

Was there ever an option to use Fabrizio again?

Fabrizio and I are great friends and he really wanted to do it, but he wanted to produce and mix also, and we had decided we wanted to try something different in that regard. We’d have loved him to play bass on it, but he wanted to have all or nothing, so we respected that and decided to go forward ourselves.

Is that the reason you ended up at Tommy Hansen’s door?

Well, I’ve worked with Tommy so many times now and I probably drive him crazier than other people do because I go back and forth a lot before we get the first song sorted out. I did it with him on ‘My Religion’ and ‘All The Way To The Sun’, but ultimately he gives such great results and knowing that this album was going to be a little bit more modern, I didn’t want to risk getting a mix that would have taken it too far. I felt that by having Tommy on board it would reel the sound in a little bit and make it more accessible to our current audience and the Frontiers audience, and I think that comes across. He just knows sonically what this music is supposed to sound like.

Are there any plans to take Starbreaker out of the studio and turn it into a live act?

We’re always open for it. We’re all busy doing other things, but if the right situation comes along we would absolutely look at it, there’s no doubt. With two guys in New York, one in Utah and one in Sweden, there are a few thousand miles between us, so it would have to be financially viable for us to do it.

I’ve always wanted to know – who came up with the name Starbreaker? Is it based on the DC Comics villain Cosmic Vampire or was it from Judas Priest’s ‘Killing Machine’?

Well, it’s a funny story, but my wife came up with the name. She’s quite a bit younger than I am, and when she met me she only knew a little about my hard rock and metal musical background. She didn’t know all the bands so to give her a bit of an education, we started with the seventies. She loves seventies music, but she didn’t know the specific metal stuff, so we started out with the Judas Priest albums and I was surprised that she really started to dig it. She latched onto the name Starbreaker - and this was way before the Starbreaker project came around – and she said it would be a great band name. I agreed with her at the time, so when this project came around and I knew it was a metal project, I remembered what she said, threw it out there and everybody loved it!

Given that your wife is English and your musical connections seem to be strongly rooted in Europe, have you ever considered moving to England?

Well, it’s one of those things that we talk about every time we go back for a visit and she gets her fix of tea and Cadbury’s chocolate. She gets a bit homesick as her family are still in England. I struggle a little bit with it, because I love to visit, but I’m not sure how I would deal with living there. I’m such an ocean kind of person. I know that sounds weird because I live in New York, but we’re surrounded by water here, and I don’t know how I’d feel if I couldn’t get to the beach from time to time.

Well, we have some good beaches here ...

That’s true, but it’s not exactly warm, is it? [laughs] I’m such a Californian at heart, and I always thought I’d end up back on the West Coast, so we’re sort of thinking in two opposite directions. In a perfect world we’d be able to mix it up and be in two territories at some point. I feel like I’m doing okay in the States with keeping the music career going, but if I lived in Europe I believe that other doors would open.

I remember a conversation we had when you said you disliked the long flights to and from Scandinavia because of the affect they had on your voice, yet you seem to have retained strong connections there. What’s the situation now?

Well, I don’t mind travelling for my work. It’s part of being in the business. However, if you compare TNT’s schedule with another band, let’s say Firehouse for example, who go on tour in the States for three months, then maybe Europe for a month, Japan for a couple of weeks and then come home again, TNT would do weekend gigs, so I would fly over for 2-3 weeks at the most, then home to New York for a week or two, then back for 2-3 weeks, home for another 2-3 weeks. When the travelling is constant and you go through the jetlag for a full week every couple of weeks, yet be expected to get up on stage and perform to a high standard, you just feel worn out all the time; you never really have fun on stage and you’re never really giving it 100% because of the exhaustion. I felt like I wasn’t doing my best and my body was starting to get really run down. Just taking the travelling aspect on its own without getting into all the other aspects of the situation, that was the nature of that particular beast. Maybe as time had gone on something could have been changed, but I would have had to have either moved to Norway or at least to England to make life easier.

It seems the logistics of gig planning hasn’t changed since you left the fold, if that’s any consolation ...

Well, it’s funny because they used to say “if you lived closer we could do three shows a week instead of two” and I would suggest that if they got me over for a long enough period of time we could do three shows a week, but as far as I can tell they haven’t done three shows in a week since I left. So I don’t know what that was all about, but anyway, never mind.

I understand your Swedish management didn’t quite work out. Is anyone representing you in the US now, or are you doing it all yourself?

I’m doing a bit of it myself right now and my wife has been working for an entertainment company for four or five years now and has learned all about the business, so she’s been helping a bit. I’m working with a really good PR guy here in the States and I’ve got another guy in Sweden who’s helping out in the interim right now as well as an agent in Switzerland. I’m not signed to anybody because I don’t feel it is necessary, but there are a few people helping me here and there when I need it as I’m more focussed on getting my music recorded and doing a few shows here and there.

How is work progressing on your solo album?

It’s getting there. I was on a really great roll with it, and without getting into details there were some things that went very wrong with the management company that I was with at the time and things came to a screeching halt. I just continued to write with various people and the best thing that came out of that relationship was that I met some incredible songwriters and musicians in Sweden, and have some great close friends over there now so I really don’t regret it at all and got a lot out of it in many ways. So I’ve realised that I’m not in a mad rush and I’ve decided that once I get the first one under my belt I’m not going to be quite as insane about the follow ups. I’ve been compromising for so many years and putting half the pressure on the guitar player and even though I may not like everything the guitar player does, that’s part of being in a band and you deal with it. With my solo stuff, even though I’m bringing other talents into the process, at the end of the day I’m still the one that has to say yes and no to everything.

Do you feel there’s a danger that fan pressure may ultimately limit your range to explore and incorporate new elements in your compositions?

Being in TNT all those years, that did become the main focus after a while. Every time we’d write we’d ask ourselves whether the fans would like what we were doing, or whether they’re going to want us to do this or that. Then we’d get to thinking I must have ten high notes on every record and Ronni will have twelve guitar solos with machine gun sounds. For my solo album I’m just feeling my way through it and most importantly trying to come up with songs that l love, and not concentrating so much on what I think my fans would like. It’s not that I don’t care what they think; I just want to express my music in a very honest way without worrying about what people will say about it. I didn’t hear the last TNT album but I heard that they went off into a strange direction.

Yes, there were a few bits and pieces that were a bit “out there”.

I think it’s a cool thing, though, and it’s something that Ronni and I always talked about doing. I do believe, however, that we always felt we had to honour the name and the history of what we created which was a very specific sound. We would veer off a little bit, but always stayed within a certain parameter to be successful.

What are the chances of a further Westworld collaboration?

Bruno and I have been talking about it. Mark Reale is so busy with Riot that we don’t think he could be involved in the actual recording, so we’re talking about the possibility of Bruno and I writing it and involving Mark in some of the writing but bringing in another guitarist to do the recording. It is something we are definitely talking about and it may happen sooner rather than later.

The Morning Wood album has become something of a cult classic. Did you ever think of doing another one?

Funny you should mention that, because I’m just wrapping up a contract with Frontiers right now to put out an acoustic retrospective album. It’ll be more stripped down than Morning Wood and probably won’t have any drums. It’ll be live in the studio with an acoustic guitar, percussion, bass and maybe some strings. It’s basically going to be my history. No new songs, no new solo material, nothing like that; just a retrospective of whatever stuff I feel like doing from TNT, Westworld and beyond.

I understand you provide some backing vocals on the new Eden’s Curse album. Are you a fan of the band? How did you get involved?

They approached me; I listened to the material and figured it would be a fun project to do. I had just finished my studio at home and thought it would be an ideal project to get my chops around recording myself because I’m a late bloomer when it comes to that. It worked out great and they were really happy with it.

Can you give us an update on Graham and Jodi Russell's Rock Opera ‘The Heart of the Rose’ where you are slated to play the part of Robin Hood?

That’s been put on hold right now due to the fact that Graham has been touring with his band and working on other projects. It’s still very much in the future, though. I’ve been trying to get my own musical project off the ground; it’s something I’ve been working on that I’m going to start giving a bit more attention to. I can’t say anything more than that at the moment, but as it develops I will put more out there.

As you’re based in Manhattan, I wondered if you’d ever considered going down the route that Sebastian Bach took and move into musical theatre for a while?

If I could get a role like the one Sebastian got, I would absolutely love to take it. It’s a lot of work, more than people probably understand. It’s a lot harder than touring with a band, even if the lead has an understudy who takes one or two shows a week, and you have to be really disciplined. I feel really confident that I could do it, plus there’s no travelling so at least I’d get to be home every night. It’s something that I would love to do and shall be working a bit harder to get into as the years go by. I’ve been so focussed on the solo album that I haven’t been actively looking for opportunities as often as I should.

Are you still giving vocal coaching lessons?

It’s not a huge focus, but I am doing it. I have quite a few students online and I have a couple that I do in person here in New York. I’m still working on finishing up the book that I’ve been working on with Jaime Vendera. It’s a strange book, but in a good way. I guess you could call it an inspirational book that’s directed towards singers, but could be fun for anybody to read.

What are the logistics around coaching online?

I use Skype and IChat depending on what’s easier for the other person. IChat is actually even better because I can record the lessons with Garageband and send them a digital file. After the lesson I just edit it down and take out all the bits that weren’t necessary and send them a digital file of the lesson.

Thus far we’d mentioned TNT a few times, but I felt that now was the time to ask some specific questions.

Do you keep in touch with your former bandmates, in particular Ronni who you once described as being like a brother?

Unfortunately and sadly no. It’s too bad, and it’s definitely not my choice, that’s for sure.

Do you have any regrets about your time with TNT?

I don’t have any regrets other than the last round that I did was probably about a year longer than it needed to be. The ‘My Religion’ period for the most part was really fun; we did a lot of great things and played some great shows. That would have been the ideal time to call it a day, but I hung in there a bit longer than I really needed to. As for regrets, sometimes when you leave something behind you get to thinking about certain things, but at the end of the day, and in life in general, there’s no point in having regrets.

Was ‘All the Way to the Sun’ more like “A Bridge Too Far”?

At the time it felt okay. There are a few really great songs on it, there’s no doubt about that. It wasn’t a complete waste, and we’ve done worse albums in our career, but it just didn’t have the sparkle. When we got back together and did something as good as ‘My Religion’ I’d thought that things would only get bigger and better and more creative, but without getting into the whys and wherefores of the whole thing, it just became very apparent to me when I went to write with Ronni on ‘All the Way to the Sun’ that it wasn’t going to work, and it was literally like pulling teeth to get that record done. I felt that making that record come together and sound like a completed work was all on my shoulders at a certain point. There’s a lot behind it that is very difficult to talk about and as I’ve already mentioned the travelling was playing a part as well. Even if I’d been living in Europe at the time, I couldn’t say for sure whether I’d have stuck around.

Why did John Macaluso not come back when TNT reunited for ‘Firefly’?

In the long run, I don’t think that Ronni appreciated the kind of drummer that John is. I love the way that John plays, but I couldn’t honestly say that I would choose him to play with me on every project that I do. He’s great for Starbreaker and that’s the kind of project that he fits into very well, but he’s such a wild player, so over the top, that it doesn’t really fit the exact TNT sound that needs more of a straight ahead drum style. Even if the band hadn’t broken up after ‘Realized Fantasies’, I don’t think Johnny would have been in there for the long run.

I interviewed your successor in TNT shortly after he got the position, and he told me about the rap version of ‘10,000 Lovers (In One)’ and quipped that it was their ‘Run TNT’. You were very upset about the treatment of the lyrics by the Paper Boys. Can you tell us your side of the story?

I was told that it was to go on a compilation album that combined young artists with older more well known artists; people that would never normally be combined. I didn’t have a problem with that; my problem was that they broke the law in that I was the co-writer of the song and they needed to actually run the lyrics by me before they did it. I was appalled by the lyrics because they didn’t have any respect to what the song was about. I sent some very strongly worded letters and their lawyer acknowledged that basically we had all the power and we could stop them from doing whatever we wanted to. I did let them play it live a few times, even though I could have stopped it, but even that wasn’t good enough for them, and they still continued to attack me in the press and in other ways. At the end of the day Universal obviously felt that it was more trouble than it was worth, and on the basis that our grievances were 100% right the song was taken off the album.

I may have misunderstood, but I thought that Dag Ingebrigtsen wrote the song?

He wrote an early version, and this is where a lot of the lying and the flak come from which you hear from a lot of fans and people close to the band. As far as I know Dag wrote the riff and the melody for the chorus. His song was called ‘10,000 Lovesongs in One’ and the melody for the verses was completely different. I wrote all the lyrics and melody for the verses and I changed the title to ‘10,000 Lovers in One’ which I thought made more sense. In my mind that’s a fairly significant contribution to the song in terms of just developing the story and so forth. There were a few of us that had some input on that one, and a lot of fans identify TNT with that song. In all honesty it’s probably my least favourite TNT song, but from another point of view it’s a fan favourite and it definitely means something in the history of the band.

What is your proudest moment with TNT?

There were many of those. Since this is an English magazine I'll mention one time when we sold out the old Marquee club in London and had hundreds of people outside that couldn't get in. It was hot and sweaty inside and we rocked! Fabulous fun. Playing at Madison Square Garden was for me also fantastic as was the first trip to Japan when we felt a bit like the Beatles (laughs). But above all that stuff I think when fans come up to me and say that a song changed their life in some way; that’s the thing that holds the most pride. That's really for me what it's all about. I recently had a friend tell me about a girl who was into cutting herself and somehow got into the last Starbreaker album. Apparently because of my lyrics on that album she stopped and hasn't done it since. That's everything to me. That one story would keep me doing this on my worst day.

What’s in the immediate future for you?

It’s like an open book. I definitely have my goals and plans and thing that I want to do, but such as it is in the music business, you move forward with plans and then things some in that you don’t expect and you sometimes follow up on those. I didn’t think I was going to do another Starbreaker album, for example, but Frontiers just kept hammering away at me until we came to an agreement about it. Obviously that took me off the solo record for a good six months, but that’s part of the game. The future is going to be basically as a solo artist doing my own thing and also doing shows where I play songs from my past where it’ll be a sort of two pronged attack, doing the Tony Harnell retro set and the new solo stuff.

That brings me back full circle to the start of the interview where you briefly mentioned the band in New York. Can you tell me more about them?

Two of the guys used to be in a band called This Way which was signed to Reprise/ Warner Brothers in the nineties. They had a minor hit in the States with a song called ‘She Takes’ and they recorded their last album with Reprise with Ken Nelson who produced the first two Coldplay albums. They actually did their album in Liverpool, then they came back to the old story where the A&R guy got fired and then they got dropped from the label. They have a new band called Black Bunny which is really good; you can find them on www.myspace.com/blackbunnymusic. They’re a Radiohead/Beatles/Coldplay type of combination. They are really talented, good songwriters and great guys too. Brandon, who is my bass player and writing partner, is a fantastic singer and I love having another great singer in the band. Here in New York I have him and my wife singing with me on stage, and the harmonies are beautiful. It’s a lot of fun and it feels like a real family, almost like a Fleetwood Mac kind of vibe (laughs).