Starbreaker started as Harnell's side project while he was still in TNT. He was initially working on a solo record, but with guitarist Magnus Karlsson, former TNT drummer John Macaluso, and bassist Fabrizio Grossi, they formed Starbreaker. The band recorded its first self-titled studio album in 2005, and it was released on July 13th in the same year.
In late 2007, with Starbreaker as his main musical project, he flew to Sweden to write the bulk of the songs for the new album with Karlsson, and started recording the new songs at the end of the year. The second album was entitled "Love's Dying Wish", and was released on August 1st, 2008. The album featured new bassist Jonni Lightfoot, who replaced Grossi, and was produced by Harnell and Karlsson, with producer Tommy Hansen (TNT, Pretty Maids, Helloween) as the mixer.
Following Harnell's departure from TNT in the second half of 2017, he finally started working again with Karlsson to record the long awaited new album, "Dysphoria", including also a Judas Priest cover of the classic song “Starbreaker",