The new issue of Dork, featuring cover star Lauv, is out now!

It’s easy to be a bit of a crushing bore when it comes to magazine covers. Not to get too far ‘behind the curtain’ about it, Dearest Reader, but we get asked about putting loads of artists on the front of our fair magazine. It’s so easy to find yourself turning to the big, established names with a decade or more under their belt - and don't don’t get us wrong, they're great, and we're delighted to welcome them in - but we’re not sure that’s what we’re really always about.

But our latest cover star Lauv - fronting out October issue, out now - couldn’t be more ‘in the moment’. Clocking up the numbers in a world of streaming, his Spotify stats are really quite ridic. At the time of scribbling, he has twenty seven and a half MILLION monthly listeners. That’s almost as much as Beyoncé. WE KNOW! With an album due in 2020, we’ve bundled him through ‘the doors’ to get a dialogue started on just why he's such a big deal. Can you smell a pop sensation cooking? We can.

He's topping up an issue that also includes some returning Dork faves. Swim Deep have returned with a third album, and are already talking about what's next, while Mystery Jets have songs of important protest to share. LIFE are kicking up a storm, and Sampa The Great is dealing with self-identity and the sense of belonging. You can read new interviews with all of them.

Doesn't end there, either. We head on the boozy bus to Margate with Sports Team for their second annual seaside jaunt, swap notes with the returning Declan McKenna, talk to former Wild Beasts man Tom Fleming about his new project One True Pairing, and introduce hot new gunslingers Phoebe Green and Maisie Peters in Hype.

There's also everything you need to know from Reading 2019, including that barn-storming headline set from The 1975 and new interviews with the likes of Chvrches, The Japanese House, Bastille, SWMRS and more.

Add to that all the usual reviews, ratings, updates and Shura recounting the time she walked into a wall to avoid bumping into St. Vincent (we've all been there, mate), and you've got another really quite exciting month of Dork-based action.

The all new issue of Dork is out now. You can order a copy below or subscribe here. Alternatively, you can pick up one from our nationwide stockists, or read it on Issuu 'digitally' here.