By Tina Houser
Some artists arrive polished. Others arrive possessed.
Bec Lauder feels like the latter.
By the time Press Play Conversations caught up with Bec Lauder, the frontwoman of Bec Lauder and The Noise was already sounding less like an emerging artist and more like someone in the middle of becoming exactly who she was meant to be. Her album The Vessel isn’t just a collection of alternative rock songs — it’s a messy, magnetic coming-of-age document about heartbreak, self-discovery, timing, and the kind of emotional collisions that leave permanent marks.
And Bec Lauder doesn’t hide any of it.
“I’m the only lyricist,” she says. “My......
Written by Tina Houser
Some bands arrive polished. Autumn Academy arrives real.
When Press Play Conversations sat down with Brandon, Jose, and Cromer, there was no script, no filter — just a band that still believes music should feel something. In a world leaning hard into automation, Autumn Academy stands firmly in the messier, more meaningful space of human creation.
Their discovery story says it all. One TikTok clip turned into a deep dive, and suddenly the songs weren’t just playing — they were landing. Tracks like “Comfortable Grave,” “Another Tomorrow,” “Reset,” and “Burning Up” don’t just sound good......
Written by Tina Houser
The hair is shorter, the jeans a little more lived-in, and the stages swapped from mirrored platforms to wide-open festivals. But the sound? The sound still hits like glam thunder.
Patrick Stone and Richie Onari of Sweet joined The Don and Dean Baldwin in a candid Press Play interview that quickly transformed from a chat into a mission statement. At the center of the conversation? The new single, “Little Miracle.” And from the moment Dean dropped the needle, one thing was clear — Sweet isn’t clinging to nostalgia. They’re evolving the DNA of one of rock’s most underrated juggernauts.
“We wanted to show Sweet thinking in the......
Written by Tina Houser
Savannah Dean Reeves doesn’t write songs so much as she lets them happen to her. They arrive quietly—sometimes as a single word, sometimes as a restless thought looping in her head while she sits alone in her car—and by the time she realizes what’s happening, the emotion has already turned into melody. That instinctive, almost surrendered approach to songwriting is what gives Reeves her edge:C a voice that feels lived-in, a delivery that carries both vulnerability and warning, and a tone that suggests she’s still discovering just how powerful she really is.
On Press Play Conversations, Reeves comes across the same way her music......
Written by Tina Houser
Steven Rosen on Eddie Van Halen, Lost Mystique, and Why Storytelling Still Matters
Steven Rosen didn’t become a music journalist chasing fame. He chased the room — that charged, quiet space where music stops being sound and becomes a person sitting across from you. On Press Play Radio Conversations, Rosen joins Don “The Don” Thatcher, SiriusXM veteran Dean Baldwin, and Press Play CEO Tina Houser for a sprawling, candid reflection on rock journalism, creative intimacy, and what we lost when everything became available all the time.
Rosen has written more than 700 articles for publications like Rolling Stone, Guitar Player, and......
He might’ve stepped back from the spotlight, but make no mistake—Rick Hughes still carries the flame.
Sitting down with Press Play Radio Conversation’s Hosts The Don and Tina, the Canadian rock vocalist offered up a conversation that was equal parts grit, gratitude, and unapologetic truth. Known for fronting Saints & Sinners and Sword in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Hughes isn’t trying to relive the past—he’s here to honor it, build on it, and rip open a few chords while he’s at it.
“I never left music,” Rick says early in the interview, voice weathered but passionate. “I just stopped doing it for the business. I play......
Written by Tina Houser:
In a world obsessed with algorithm-fed music feeds and plastic pop choruses, Steve Conte is still chasing something real — something felt. The singer-songwriter, guitarist, and bona fide rock survivor dropped by Press Play Radio for a raw and winding conversation with The Don, diving deep into the anatomy of a song, the madness of the Dolls, and the unpredictable genius of collaborators like Andy Partridge and Michael Monroe. It wasn’t an interview. It was a living mixtape.
Conte’s newest record, The Concrete Jangle, feels like a vintage jukebox cracked open with a crowbar — power pop harmonies, AM radio ghosts, punk sneer, and a splash of......
Written by Tina Houser
There’s a calm that lingers behind the eyes of a legend who's lived through the chaos of metal’s wildest years—and Michael Weikath has that calm. Calling in from Berlin, the founding guitarist of Helloween joined Press Play Radio’s Don and Tina mid-rehearsal, flanked by century-old architecture, a shopping center, and a mission: to fine-tune guitar parts with bandmate Sascha Gerstner before the rest of the band arrives. “We’re sorting out the ‘what ifs’ before the singers show up,” he said casually, like it’s all just another Tuesday in power metal paradise.
Since Helloween’s official formation in......
Jeremy Calloway Knows When to Let the Music Speak
Written by Tina Houser (Full Interview Available Now on (Home - Press Play Radio)
Some conversations don’t end — they fade out, like the last sustained chord of a song that hangs in the air just long enough to remind you why you were listening in the first place.
That’s the energy Jeremy Calloway brings to Press Play Radio Conversations. No overstatement. No forced mythology. Just a musician who knows who he is, where he’s been, and how to show up when the red light turns on.
As the episode winds down, Don — The Don — does what he does best: keeps it loose, keeps it human. There’s no grand......
Written by Tina Houser (Check out the full interview with the two Frankies at 2pm Eastern / 11am Pacific on Home - Press Play Radio)
Los Angeles has always been a city of fragments—scenes stacked on scenes, sounds bleeding through alleyways, clubs, living rooms, and late-night conversations. Los Frankies don’t try to unify that chaos. They live inside it. The duo—Frankie Clark and Frankie Salazar—operate with the kind of effortless chemistry that only comes from years of shared stages, shared instincts, and shared survival. They aren’t chasing a revival or polishing a throwback. They’re documenting a life lived loud, close to the edge, and......
