In the magazine September 2025

Featuring Big Thief, Biffy Clyro, Joy Crookes, Sprints and more.

There are some moments in musical lore that’ll stay with you for a lifetime, and we reckon that Big Thief’s headlining turn at last year’s Green Man Festival will likely be one of them. Even for those of Team DIY who weren’t there on the night, there was something mightily special about hearing of the band’s evocative power, as capped off by a heart-wrenching rendition of their newest album’s lead single, ‘Incomprehensible’. As soon as we heard the spellbinding track at DIY HQ a few months ago, we knew they had to be our next cover stars, and that’s why we’re thrilled to welcome them for our September 2025 issue.

“I think that’s the hardest, to look at yourself and see all the beauty that’s there,” says frontwoman Adrianne Lenker in the cover feature, reflecting on that song’s poignant origins. “I mean, maybe for some it isn’t, but for me it has been. [‘Incomprehensible’] is written out of this desperation to grow to love myself, and to see myself as beautiful, and to get out of this nauseating and exhausting maze of appearances that we live in, where for some reason [we’ve] been conditioned to only see a certain shape, or palette, or age or whatever as beautiful. We’re just aging the whole time, so most of your life is not in that initial youth period, and it’s so sad to me that a lot of people spend the beautiful years of their lives feeling that they shouldn’t be getting older or looking older.”

Elsewhere in our September mag, we’re returning after a hectic summer of festivals (including All Points East, Reading & Leeds, Mad Cool, Nos Alive and more!), firing on all cylinders for what’s a massive month for music. This issue, the gloves are off with King Princess as she tells us all about new LP ‘Girl Violence’; we sit down and take stock with Biffy Clyro; and learn more about Joy Crookes’ forward-facing second chapter. Plus, we also take a quick trip to Amsterdam with Sprints, catch up with Glasgow dance-punks VLURE, and go back to basics with Jehnny Beth to talk Oasis, moshpits, and new outing ‘You Heartbreaker, You’.

Over in this month’s Neu section - aka your one-stop shop for all things new music - we meet riotous Texan trio (and Jack White’s latest label signees) Die Spitz, delve into the dreamy sonic world of Night Tapes, and find out just why Silver Gore is the band everyone is talking about. We also give you a taste of our In Deep feature with jazz-pop prodigy Laufey, and deliver our verdict on the new albums from Hayley Williams, JADE, Blood Orange, Olivia Dean, and many more.

So go on - get stuck in! Order your print copy via our online shop below, or check out the digital edition at the top of the page.