Image Credit: Brian To/Film Magic

On Castle, Stana Katic plays Kate Beckett, a no-nonsense detective who often has to reign in partner and paramour Rick Castle.

In her life outside of network procedurals, however, Katic is a little more footloose—she regularly travels the world in search of new culture, and spends a great deal of that time on the road listening to and collecting new music.

She also got an education in punk rock history for her upcoming film CBGB, in which she plays producer and club mainstay Genya Ravan. Check out some of Katic’s favorites below, and spin them all on the Spotify playlist at the bottom:

Queen, “I Want to Break Free”
“F— yeah. I never knew about until very recently. There are just these classic rock songs that for some reason weren’t on my radar growing up. It speaks to me on so many levels. Everyone around me was like, ‘How do you not know this song?’ And then I watched the video and was even more in love with it. Freddie Mercury is incredible. He’s an amazing vocalist, and his story was really wonderful as well. It’s that amazing mix of classical ballad vocals with rock, and I see that happening a lot now. The lead singer for fun. or Neon Trees—these guys have voices that could fit elegantly and comfortably on any Broadway stage, but here they are entertaining us with rock music. Their vocals are so complex and capable of inspiring a lot. Freddie Mercury, I think in so many ways led that path. He’s an incredible performer. I like this song because it’s got a great beat, it’s got a lot of fun going for it, but it speaks to my restlessness, my wanderlust right now. I feel like a caged cheetah sometimes.” READ FULL STORY »