Where It All Began

​​Liz Larin didn’t ease into the music business. She graduated high school by working at a music store — and on graduation day, she walked out the back of the gym where the ceremony was being held, got into her VW Bug (with a hole in the floor), tossed a copy of Billboard Magazine onto the passenger seat, and drove straight to New York City. No backup plan. Just belief.

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She would take money earned playing Detroit bars, travel back to New York, tear pages out of the Yellow Pages listing record label offices, and stand at pay phones calling A&R departments trying to book appointments. When she got in the door, she played cassettes. The response was always the same: “We’re looking for whatever’s hot this week.” She would drive back to Detroit without a deal.

This went on — trip after trip — until something shifted.

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Back home, Liz convinced a bank to give her a revolving line of credit and started Midtown Press Records. She hired Detroit producer Gary Spaniola, known for his work with Ready for the World (including the Top 10 hit “Love You Down”), productions for The Romantics, and soundtrack work tied to Beverly Hills Cop II. Together, they produced songs Liz had written with Michael King — songs already tested in packed Detroit clubs where questionnaires were left on tables and audiences helped pick the strongest material.

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The records came out. They sold by the boxload from the stage.

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Then a local radio station took notice. They started spinning “In Hot Pursuit.”

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It became a hit.

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Suddenly, the same industry that had sent her home was paying attention. MTV’s Basement Tapes contest launched the next wave — a DIY video made by friends won. A bidding war followed.

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But success rarely arrives cleanly. Another company held the trademark to “Press.” The band had to change its name. Rebel Heels became the new identity — and the title of the next album.

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That chapter led to England and work with legendary producer Rupert Hine, whose credits include landmark albums for Tina Turner, Rush, Stevie Nicks, Howard Jones, and The Fixx. Engineering those records was Stephen W. Tayler, Hine’s longtime collaborator and primary recording engineer at Farmyard Studios in Buckinghamshire. Tayler engineered many of Hine’s most notable productions throughout the 1980s, including albums for Saga, The Fixx, and Howard Jones — shaping a sound that defined an era. It was an education at the highest level of record-making.

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By the second album, the band fell apart. Liz was offered the record deal alone.

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That could have ended the story.

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Instead, it marked another beginning — including her first collaboration with Ben Grosse, one of the most respected producers and mixers in modern rock. Grosse’s credits span artists such as Marilyn Manson, Disturbed, and Depeche Mode, along with mixing major hits for Red Hot Chili Peppers and co-producing Vertical Horizon’s No. 1 single “Everything You Want.” Known for his massive, precise mixes and instinctive musical translation of an artist’s intent, he became — over time — Liz’s favorite producer and mixer.

Decades later, as Liz completed her 2026 album Don’t Blink, she sent Ben tracks and rough mixes from her studio. When his mixes came back, she was stunned. They sounded exactly like what she had been hearing in her head all along.

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She told him, “Ben, I think I’ve been working with you this whole time in my head. I think you’re in my head.”

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He replied, “I am.”

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And somehow, that sums up the full circle.

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Liz Larin and Michael King reunited for the closing track on the new album, “Another Way To See It,” born from conversations about division, perspective, and finding common ground again.

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From pay phones and Yellow Pages…

From driving back to Detroit empty-handed…

From selling records out of boxes on stage…

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To building a second label — Bona Dea Music — on ownership, experience, and hard-earned wisdom.

Life doesn’t move in straight lines. It spirals.

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And sometimes, the people and the sound you were chasing all along are right there — waiting for you to circle back and meet them again.