They may be oceans apart in their music, but both Wild Youth and Idles are set to have landmark years in 2019. We kick off the new year by putting them on our special two-cover edition.
Dublin band Wild Youth may only have a couple of singles to their name, but the band's rise to the forefront of Irish music is genuinely astounding. Having packed out Electric Picnic's Rankin Wood tent, signed with Warner, and written songs with Danny O'Donoghue, Wild Youth are set to cement their place as one of the best Irish bands in the country with their debut EP, The Last Goodbye. In this, their first cover story - and the first Hot Press issue of 2019 - we hear the full story of the band on the cusp of greatness.
On our second cover is Bristol-based hardcore band Idles. 2018 was, in many ways, dominated by this band. With the release of their second album, Joy As An Act of Resistance, they gave voice to a new type of sound entirely - one which was attuned to the problems of toxic masculinity, racism, and the fraught politics of the modern-day UK, but also one which was packed with the raucous noises of hope and optimism. It rightly topped the Hot Press poll of Albums of the Year 2018. Now, Idles are already at work on their third album, so for our new issue, we'll be catching them at their most intensive and creatively fertile.
