Starbreaker released their first new album in over ten years at the start of 2019, to great critical acclaim and a solid spot in the Billboard charts. I had the chance to talk with frontman Tony Harnell (best known as the former frontman of TNT) just after Dysphoria came out, discussing the making of the record in depth, the experience of recording an album remotely across multiple countries, Tony’s side work as a vocal coach, and a bit about his recent move to Nashville.

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What brings you on the phone with me today is the recent release of Starbreaker’s new record Dysphoria, of course, it came out just the other day, and it’s been around ten years since the last Starbreaker record, what brought you and Magnus Karlsson back to the studio for this? 

We wanted to do it, and the record label was ready. We actually planned on doing it a few years ago, but I got back into TNT and that kind of delayed things a little bit. But I think it was always something we thought about. It was a hard decision for me, because I want to tour behind each record, and Magnus doesn’t tour a lot. But we actually just got off the phone and we were talking about playing some shows, so that was encouraging. I think there’s a lot of potential for this project to be more than just the recording project, so I’m excited about the potential in the future there. But yeah, it was time to do it, Magnus and I love working together, and honestly, I always know we’re going to make a great album, but I didn’t know that we were going to make something that I would say is…you know, it’s not hard for people that have been doing this a long time to make a good album, but I think it’s not something in your control completely when you get lucky and put out something that’s kind of special. I think this album is special, for lack of a better word, I think it came out really unique.

I’d like to go a little into the origins of Starbreaker, it was, from what I’ve heard, originally intended as a solo record project for you, how did it develop into what it is now as a band? 

Right, you know, it’s funny, it never was…I don’t know why that’s going out to the press, but it was never a solo project. But it’s okay, I’ve tried to correct it but it hasn’t yet been corrected, but no, it never was intended to be that. It was always what it is, which is a band project. And when it originally came together, the hope was that we’d be touring and it would be a full-fledged band. So that’s the beginning of that. I actually was originally contacted, made a deal with the label, and I received a bunch of music for the first album and then went into the studio and started writing and recording it. So that was it. And then all of a sudden we were in California making a video, and the first record came out, it got a lot of attention and sold really well too. And so I think from that point forward, Magnus and I forged a bond and wanted to keep making music together, and so we did. He’s a great guy, first of all, and he’s a dedicated musician, it’s what he does 24 hours a day, and he’s very good at it and very talented. I’m lucky that over the course of my career I’m blessed to work with such talented musicians, and Magnus is right up there with the best of the best that I’ve worked with. All the musicians that I’ve worked with have different qualities that they bring to the table, and Magnus just has so many great qualities as a musician and as a person, that he brings to this, and I’m very lucky.

That’s awesome, and a great perspective and attitude to have as well. You and Magnus are basically the staples, the core members there since the beginning, could you talk a bit about how the other members of the band who are here now for this record got involved? 

Well, we landed on this current lineup mostly with logistics. So, Jonni is somebody I brought in for the second album, because on the first album we had Fabrizio Grossi, who is a very brilliant, talented musician and producer – he didn’t necessarily want to be involved again, so we brought in Jonni, a friend of mine, and he’s been a Hard Rock/Metal and Progressive musician for all of his career. But he happened to be the musical director and bass player for Air Supply, I think at least ten years, maybe even fifteen, and that’s how I met him. But when he played me everything that he was doing, I was like, “This guy is like a mini Billy Sheehan!”, he’s like the second coming, he’s really got that flavor to playing, he can just play anything, he can sing. He’s just a really super talented and nice guy, and he’s got the ability to record his own tracks, so I thought, “Perfect, let’s see if this works”, and Magnus loved his playing, so we used him on the second record, and I suggested that we use him on this one, so we did. And when it came time to get the drums together…yeah, we talked about John again, from the first two albums, but we thought logistically, I thought it was important that Magnus get as much as he could get done in Sweden as possible, and the drums are just so important to how a record’s going to come out. And we’ve had issues with the drums not being recorded as well as we’d like in the past, so I thought it was best for him to have as much control over the project as possible, and record the drums close to home, so he did. And he chose Anders Köllerfors, and he did a fantastic job in every way. He played perfectly and just beautifully. It all just fell together, and a lot of it, again, was based on logistics, on “Let’s make it easy, but also pick great guys”. And, we weren’t really worried about who could or couldn’t tour, we just wanted to make a great record and worry about all that later.

So now you’re at the stage where you’re starting to think about that part, right?

Well yeah, especially…Magnus is a producer and guitar player with his own studio, and he just basically does back-to-back projects, and for me, I’m more traditional in that I do a lot of recording, but also would really like to get into the touring more, because that’s where it’s at. To get out there and play for your fans, and meet them, and just get out and play live, that’s where it’s at. So I prefer if I can make a record, especially one that’s getting so much positive attention like this one is, it’s great to be able to get out and support it live.

Absolutely. And I think it’s something to look forward to, because it is a really great record, and I’m sure plenty of fans would love to see it live on stage in a show, and I also noticed the positive recognition it’s been getting – some Billboard recognition there as well, some good numbers, and really great all around.

It feels good, yeah.

You had mentioned before that you and Magnus both had this mind, you had both been wanting this for a while, but other band obligations, let’s say, had gotten in the way…but when it came time to get right to it, was it that you were approached by the label for it, or is it that you and Magnus just said, “Okay, it’s time to go forward with this record”?

It was both. And, you know, we did have a delay on making the record, and when we finally got to it, it wasn’t until the end of 2017 going into 2018 that we actually started to get into it for real. It was hard for me to get into, I was really going through a lot of personal stuff, and I had to push to get to the point where things were really starting to come out of me, and I could really focus on singing and writing. But ultimately, it was really a cathartic, important album for me to do, from the standpoint of just, as an artist, making music becomes your therapy a lot of times, and so I’ve been lucky that I’ve always had the music to keep me going and inspire me and get me through really tough times. This is no different, this record was done under very difficult personal circumstances, and I’m really proud of how it came out. I think, often those are the times where you end up making something really special, because it’s not just a record, it ends up being so much more.

Definitely, music can be very powerful, and of course, I’m sorry to hear that it was under difficult circumstances, but especially if that was the case, it does make it something to be proud of on the other end. And I mean, given the length of time since the last Starbreaker album, how do you feel your other musical – or maybe even life – experiences in between have influenced you as a writer? In other words, if you had to compare your perspectives or yourself as a musician between the last one, Love’s Dying Wish, and Dysphoria, what would you say about that? 

Well, I’m influenced by life and what’s going on around me as much as I am music, and I think a couple of things. One is, sometimes by stepping back and not recording for a while, you absorb a lot more. And it’s always surprising to me that, on one hand, I think you can work too much. Especially if you’re not working from a place of genuine artistry, if you’re working from a place of, “Oh, just record some music and put it out”, I think there are a lot of those records being put out these days. But if you’re really working from an artistic place of experimenting constantly – like, for example, if you take The Beatles in the 60’s, or you take Prince through most of his career, he had his own studio, and he just loved to experiment and work all the time, but that made things better and better and more interesting, because he was looking for something, and he had complete artistic freedom. So that’s a time where it’s a positive to be working in the studio all the time. If you’re in a situation more like musicians like myself, where you always get to make music that is a pure artistic expression, meaning you might have a label that’s like, “We see you as this thing, and so we want you to make records that represent this box that we see you in”, that’s a double-edged thing for an artist, because on one hand, you’re going, “Well, I’m grateful somebody wants me to make a record”, but at least for me, you immediately get this little shock of disappointment running through you saying, but they don’t want me to do exactly what I want to do. So I guess, to answer your question, having time away from it to just absorb life, good and bad, listen to music that’s happening, really just kind of absorb everything. For me, that makes me better. Because I sort of come back to it fresh and I have maybe a better perspective on what could work, what can’t work…I’m still doing these long-distance albums, under some constraints in that you’re not in the same room, you’re producing your own stuff with your partner that’s also involved, like in this case, Magnus, he’s brilliant, but you don’t have 100% freedom because the guy you’re working with is so far away, and also the music is more or less set up the way it is. You can make adjustments, and we do make adjustments, and sometimes things will change, arrangements will change, chords will change. But sometimes, I’m taking the creative work he’s done, I’m putting my creative work together with that. And that music he sends me is generally my…nine times out of ten, sort of an unmovable blueprint. Usually, i don’t try to make a lot of changes to what he’s done, out of respect for what he’s done. So I try to write the best melodies, and the best lyrics that I can, and make the songs really shine, and add my bit to what he’s done, and try to make it as artistic as possible. So, in saying all that I’ve said, I think that in the confines of what we do with this kind of music and these kinds of records, which are relatively low-budget, I still try to pour my heart and soul into them and make them as artistic as possible, and as much of an artistic expression as possible. I think if people give this record a little time, and get past what they might think on the surface, sounds like something they’ve heard before, I think they’ll hear a lot more.

I understand what you’re saying, that’s actually a really interesting perspective, because there are a lot of bands these days who are doing the whole “working remotely” kind of thing. Somebody’s in one country, somebody’s in another, and a lot of it is done digitally, virtually, something’s set up already…and I haven’t heard it described from that perspective before, how it’s kind of like a blueprint, not so naturally flowing as when you’re in the room with the person, and can just say on a whim, “oh hey, let’s change that arrangement, let’s do it this way instead”, it seems more challenging when you’re doing it remotely to be able to put in those changes and on-the-spot creative ideas into it. 

Yeah, 100% right, absolutely. You know, I think that for me, it’s a pride thing. For me, I want to make sure that when I put something out, I don’t expect that everyone’s going to love it, and I’m not going to sit and make excuses about something I put out like, “Well, we didn’t have this, we didn’t have that”, it’s going to be what it is. And so, I know that, so in the context of what a Starbreaker record is, I’m going to make it as artistic as I possibly can, because so far, the feedback doesn’t show me across the board that the fans or the critics have been overly concerned with any of the stuff I’ve been talking about. They’re hearing the music purely on its own merit.

Exactly, myself included in that, I did enjoy the record, I think you got some great results, and especially now that I’m hearing some background on how challenging it may have been from the recording perspective, all the better for that. I agree it’s something to be proud of. Outside of all the latest with Starbreaker and the new Dysphoria record, you also do personal vocal coaching, I’m curious how you got into the teaching side of music? 

You know, it’s not something that I really throw out there – I’m first and foremost an artist, that’s where my heart is, but at the same time, my mother was an opera singer, and I’ve been around singing and I started taking voice lessons with a very, very special world-renowned teacher in New York City when I was 18 years old to get better. I was already singing professionally for at least a year before I started taking lessons, and had discovered that there were some things I wanted to improve upon, and so I have a long history with just trying to perfect the technical side of things. It’s funny to say that because when I work with people, yes, I focus on the technical side because everybody wants to improve various things, whether it be their range or their stamina, so yes there’s that, and I do work with that and I understand that pretty well…I guess that’s why I still have a voice today. But really, I’m just as interested, if not more interested, in helping them find their own voice, their own sound, and to try to tap into deeper emotions when they sing, and so on and so on. Because singing, a lot of people miss this fact, but it’s a form of acting, and you have to express yourself in the best way possible, and get the lyrics to come across. I mean, to me, if I listen to a song, it’s great if the singer is really good, but it’s even better if there’s something going on with the way their delivery is that’s pulling me in and making me feel something. There’s nothing worse than a technically great singer that doesn’t touch any nerves, and to me, that’s a waste of a great voice, and there’s a lot of those out there. There’s so many technically amazing singers that I don’t hear any heart, or any soul or emotion, I just hear amazing singing from a technical standpoint, and honestly, I’d rather hear Bob Dylan singing something really emotional than somebody with a big huge crazy voice that has no emotion or anything interesting about it, you know?

Definitely! Expression is key, it’s the emotions flowing through the voice just as it would an instrument, you have to be able to express in your own way. I sing myself, and it definitely should never be about just, “Get these notes technically right”, it’s like, yes, that’ll be the start, that should be the basis for singing accurately to some degree, but then once you get that down, that’s when the expression is supposed to come out. 

Yeah, exactly! So what I do is, I think I’m definitely a vocal coach versus a teacher in that, like I said, I do help people with technical quite a bit, but I’m definitely looking to coach them in all different ways as a singer, as an artist, and a mentor. And that’s a big part of what I do, and I love it. I’ve been very successful working with other singers and watched them go on to do really great things, and I’m always super proud of that, and would love to keep doing it in one way or another. It definitely is one of the things that I do, but I do consider myself a songwriter and a singer first and foremost! *laughs*

Of course! Now, something else about your life, you recently relocated to Nashville, I heard. A lot of people tend to pigeonhole that, stereotype it as “oh, country music, country scene”, but to my understanding there’s a lot there in terms of all genres really, and a growing rock scene too. It seems like a lot of artists, especially from the classic hard rock genre seem to be flocking there lately. I’m curious, what’s the appeal as a rock musician? And have you found that there is a kind of scene you’re joining in on? 

Yeah, there definitely is a lot of musicians to interact with, a lot of my peers are here, so there’s that. I mean, look, that’s the reason why everybody was flocking to Los Angeles, and still is flocking to Los Angeles. And L.A. is not necessarily a place where you make money, although you can, it’s more a place where you network with your fellow musicians, because so many of them are there, which is why everybody goes to NAMM once a year to just network and meet with people and say hi. And Nashville is, to me, great because it’s more down to earth, everybody’s pretty welcoming here, and it’s very friendly, and there’s an air of wanting to help. Definitely a quality of all of the musicians here of wanting to help each other. So I really love that, and I haven’t been here for very long so I’m still getting my feet wet and doing a lot of work outside of Nashville, recording, and various other things which I’ll continue doing. But being here and having access to so many musicians is a really great thing, and really cool.

That definitely seems to be the appeal, I’m hearing from different people the same kind of perspective on that. You mentioned NAMM, did you go this year?

I didn’t! I had another show in Europe at the same time, so I couldn’t go.

Okay, I think I actually know what event you’re talking about, since there was one I wanted to ask you about, would that be the Rock the Boat Cruise in Norway?

Yeah, I was just there. It was great, I got to sing with my old buddy, Joe Lynn Turner during his show, and hang out with him, it’s been a long time and he’s a dear, dear friend. And Michael Monroe, I got to hear a good half of his new record, which is amazing, and I used to hang out quite a bit in New York City in the 80’s, so it was really cool just playing to my fans, a nice acoustic show that a lot of them had never seen before, and also reconnect with some old friends, so it was a lot of fun.

Awesome, so you didn’t get the NAMM networking, but you got networking in Norway instead, right?

Very, very different and a lot less tiring on the feet.

Good point! So, going back to Starbreaker, moving forward, can we expect any music videos coming from you guys?

You know, we have been working on getting — the lyric video came out for “Wild Butterflies”, and we have been working on doing a proper music video, it’s just, with my move which was pretty intense, from New York to Nashville, which seems like it shouldn’t be a big deal, but it kind of was, it happened at the same time that the record was being prepared, and stuff just kind of got delayed or we had some false starts here and there. So we’re still trying to remedy that somehow, and hopefully we will.

I always like to wrap up with a little summary of the near future for an artist, so give us some outlook on the near future for Tony Harnell.

Well, I’m enjoying having a new record out, so that’s exciting because it’s been a long time, it’s exciting that it’s on the charts, and otherwise, the TNT DVD will be out in March, which was interesting. One of the last shows we did in 2017, and then I have another project that’s getting worked on for release later this year. So it’s all good, it’s all heading in the right direction, I’m just plugging ahead, plan on recording, and playing live shows, looking to book as many shows as possible both here and abroad in the coming months and years. Just looking to keep busy, keep making music and hopefully people like it. I’m really pleased that this album’s getting such a good response.

Awesome, thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me, Tony, it’s been really great.

Thank you, Chelsea, I appreciate it.