As part of our bumper student special, we select the 20 trailblazers who will define the future of music, including Matt Healy, Fontaines DC, Lorde, Kendrick Lamar, the Berghain crew and more. Elsehwere, in our action-packed offering, we look at the top student bars, select essential reading material, recommend the best ways of dealing with stress – and much, much more!

As part of our flip cover, we have and extensive interview with Marcus O’Laoire. As the creative mind behind some of Dublin’s favourite club nights, including Hijinks and Sicko at Tramline, Marcus discusses his rise to the top of the club scene – and how vital it is to fight back against club closures.

On top of that, in the second part of our jam-packed Electric Picnic special, we interview Biig Piig and Brittany Howard. Plus, Roisin Murphy answers a selection of queries from Hot Press readers.

In the Hot Press interview, Stuart Clark sits down with Martin Beanz Warde. As a gay traveller standup, Martin is charting new territory in Ireland, but says that some venues won’t book him because of his background. Ahead of his Electric Picnic debut, he talks to us about the prejudices prevalent within his community, taking on Peter Casey, and the halting site sitcom he’s writing.

In an extensive music feature, we look back on 40 years of The Radiators. On the occasion of its 40th Anniversary, Aidan Gillen moderates a conversation with the Dublin punk legends about their magnus opus- and one of the lost masterpieces of Irish rock – the extraordinary Ghostown.

In our frontlines this issue, we have an exclusive interview with former US Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis. With a seemingly unending series of horrifying mass shootings, gun violence is currently one of the biggest and most contentious issues in American politics. But, according to Michael Dukakis – who as Governor of Massachusetts made it one of the country’s safest states – a straightforward combination of strict laws and effective enforcement might just be the answer.

In our film section this issue, director Ivan Kavanagh talks to Roe McDermott about his gritty new western, which stars John Cusack as an outlaw wreaking havoc on a small town during the California gold rush. Elsewhere, we review new releases, including The Souvenir and A Million Little Pieces.

On top of that, we have all the news, interviews and previews you’d expect from Hot Press, including reviews of the latest releases from Taylor Swift, Iggy Pop, Tinariwen, Sheryl Crow and much more.

The new Hot Press is available in all good stores from August 29, or you can order it online below: