Vocalist Tony Harnell (ex-TNT) discusses his new project, TONY HARNELL & THE MERCURY TRAIN, and his past in an interview with Sea Of Tranquility. An excerpt is available below.

SoT: The album itself is a wonderful collection of songs from your previous bands – with one new composition, all reworked into a mainly acoustic setting. Where did that idea come from?

Harnell: "I was just playing live shows with these guys and Frontiers found out about it and asked me if I wanted to do a live album, I decided instead to do a live sounding studio album [laughs]. I wanted to explore the direction the band was taking with these songs a bit further than a low budget live album could do."

SoT: It has been interesting watching fan reaction towards TNT since you left the band. They have tried to diversify their sound; however there has been a lot of fan resistance. Is this something you think you can avoid?

Harnell: "To be honest I haven't paid any attention to that. But when you build a brand name I suppose there is a level of responsibility to the fans to uphold a standard. There is a lot of talent in that band and it can be directed wherever the boss now chooses. I don't really concern myself too much with that as I do not have to live up to the name anymore. I can just be me."

SoT: Obviously TNT is in the past for you. Do you have any plans to record with WESTWORLD or STARBREAKER again?

TH: "One never knows, but right now though it's all about my own music."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

On July 2nd in Europe and July 27th in North America, Frontiers Records released Round Trip, the debut album from Tony Harnell & The Mercury Train. A video for the album track 'Northern Lights' is now available. Check it out below.

Round Trip is a very special record: a stripped down, reinvented retrospective of Tony Harnell's past classics originally recorded with his previous bands TNT, Westworld and Starbreaker, with one brand new song, 'Anywhere But Here', recorded especially for this release.

The idea of re-recording some repertoire classics came about after Tony performed some low key shows in New York in late 2008, with some talented and accomplished musicians that were not part of the metal / hard rock scene. The desire was to breathe new life into the songs with new arrangements, key changes and added parts, it's like listening to songs you know in a whole new way.

Frontiers Records President, Serafino Perugino liked the concept and in Harnell’s own words, “The idea was originally based on it being the usual cliché “acoustic” album. Well, for us hard rockers that usually means simply playing the songs pretty much as they were but with acoustic guitars. That’s not exactly what I had in mind. If I was going to do this I was going to have some fun. I wanted to strip things down and see what would happen when musicians outside the hard rock community played my songs. That intrigued me. So, I gave all the guys the original album versions and then pretty much gave them carte blanche to reinterpret the songs. That meant key changes (cause you can’t sing like a banshee when you strip things down, sounds silly), chord changes and even arrangement changes if the mood hit. I also wanted a semi-live vibe. What we ended up with is an album that honors the original songs with a little added spice, color, and above all…fun.”

At the end of 2008 Tony and the other musicians entered the studio for a marathon two-day recording session that was supposed to lead into a whirlwind mixing session and an immediate release. But immediately after the session Tony hit some rather intense personal bumps in the road and production stopped. Months later the album was quickly completed.

“Recording this album was an extremely cathartic experience, allowing me to gently close the door to the past with love and gratitude and regain the pride I rightly deserve to have for these songs and for the years of my life I gave to the various periods when they were written”, continues Tony. “This is in no way meant to erase, dismiss or compete with the incredible original recordings of these songs. This is just a little fun reinvention, a way to leave the past behind on my own terms. These are your songs as much as they are mine, some of you, like me, have all kinds of memories attached to them. My lyrics were, are and always will be filled with my experiences, struggles, hopes and dreams and my observations of the world around me. Hopefully you’ll listen to these songs in a new way and hear them with new ears. I know I have”.

Round Trip final tracklisting includes:

'Somebody Told You'

'Intuition'

here

'Month Of Sundays'

'Lonely Nights'

'Shame'

here

'Northern Lights'

here

'Down To The River To Pray'

'Satellite'

'10K Lovers'

'Uninvited'

here

'Ready To Fly'

'When I'm Away' (bonus track)

'Song For Dianne'

'Anywhere But Here'

The Mercury Train:

Jason Hagen - Acoustic guitar and ukulele

Chris Foley - Electric guitar

Brandon Wilde - Bass and vocals

Brad Gunyon - Drums and percussion

Amy Harnell - Vocals and descant recorder

Special guest: Sandi Saraya on 'Shame'