TONY HARNELL Says Next TNT Album Will Contain 'A Lot' Of Songs That Are 'Very Different'

Reunited Norwegian/American hard rockers TNT are continuing work on their new studio LP, tentatively due next year via Frontiers Music Srl. Singer Tony Harnell told Maxlokal.no Sunnmøre about the progress of the recording sessions (see video below): "We are trying to finish this album, which is very promising. I'm pretty excited about it. I think we've created something which is maybe… some of the songs are familiar TNT-sounding, and a lot of it is very different. So far, Ronni [Le Tekrø, guitar] and I are pretty excited about it. We're kind of focused on getting that done, but we're getting rushed a lot by the business people. But we're trying to kind of make sure it's great. It's always that sort of thing of meeting a deadline but making sure that it's great at the same time. Because, you know, we don't make a lot of records anymore — most bands don't — so it's important that… it's more like every album counts now. And not that it didn't before, but in the old days, it was just more like [a constant flow of releases], and if you got lucky with one of them, that was great. Maybe the next one sucked, but it didn't matter, because another one was gonna come in the next year."

He continued: "I haven't made an album with TNT since 2005, so that's a long time. So that's the next plan. And then, of course, we're playing shows right now and we will probably continue playing shows until December. Actually, we already have January booked a little bit.

"I don't know when the record will be finished. People keep pressuring me to give them a date, but I refuse to do that. It'll be done when we're happy, I guess."

TNT's current lineup is completed by drummer Diesel Dahl, bassist Ove Husemoen and keyboardist Roger Gilton.

Harnell rejoined TNT in May 2016, less than a year and a half after his most recent departure from the group.

Speaking about what keeps him coming back to TNT after all these years, Harnell — who spent eight months fronting SKID ROW in 2015 — told Radio Trondheim in January: "It's really funny, because I think that what people think about that is not really correct. So, I think it's really just a matter of there's always been a time where it seemed like a good idea to take a break at times, and I think it's been ultimately good for the band, really, to take breaks and then come back together again. Like right now — we're selling out all the shows. What if we didn't take a break for the past couple of years and we kept going, would this be happening or would people lose interest?"

According to Harnell, interpersonal conflicts within TNT "get blown out of proportion." He explained: "There's really not any major problem between any of us. It's just a matter of, we work for a while, and then we say, 'Ah, this isn't really the way we want it to be, exactly, so then we kind of go our separate ways and we come back together. But we always come back together for the music, because we have all these songs we worked on together. Ronni and I wrote all these songs over the last thirty-five years or something, and Diesel was a part of the original lineup and he's been there from the very beginning and actually was one of the people that created the band. And [original TNT frontman] Dag Ingebrigtsen, of course."

The singer went on to say that he is once again deriving enjoyment from performing with TNT, something that hasn't always been the case. "I think that's part of it. I think when I'm not having fun anymore, that's the break time," he said. "And when I come back, I think, 'Oh, do I wanna do this again?' But as soon as I get in front of the people and I see how much they love the songs, it makes me like the songs again. If I just listen to them when I'm learning them again for the tour, which I don't prepare very well… but when I do listen through the songs, I think… there's, again, a love-hate thing of going, 'Oh, gosh! I have to sing these again.' But when I get in front of the people, I learn to love the songs again, because I see how happy they get. [That's when I realize] these are actually pretty good songs."

Harnell last quit TNT in January 2015 after a fifteen-month stint with the band.

British singer Tony Mills appeared on three studio albums from TNT: 2007's "The New Territory", 2008's"Atlantis" and 2010's "A Farewell To Arms".