Wesley Gonzalez is on the cover of Loud And Quiet 85 – in stores Saturday

From the age of 15, Wesley Gonzalez spent a decade in DIY band Let’s Wrestle, releasing three albums and exceeding expectations throughout their turbulent lifetime of in-fighting and… well… out-fighting. Now Wesley is out on his own and riling again the indie world he was a fixture in with a debut solo album called ‘Excellent Musician’, made without the use of any guitars.

For this month’s cover feature, he had an idea – to play ‘Excellent Musician’ to some excellent musicians in the guitar shops of London’s Denmark Street: the guys down there are hard to please, and of course Wesley ultimately wanted them to hate his new direction of song-writing on a Korg synthesiser, and his new love for saxophone. You can see just how well this exercise went in Loud And Quiet 85, in stores Saturday.

Also in this issue: Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan looks back on a life of rock ‘n’ roll (that sounds like hyperbole but the guy did technically die of a speedball overdose once), The Bug and Earth are in conversation about their collaborative album that centres on the alienation of Los Angeles and Kevin Morby talks about Porto, paintings and how to exit a hotel quickly.

Leeds trio Drahla are our new favourite British band so Dominic Haley took a turn around the Tate Hockney exhibition with them. We’ve been listening a hell of a lot to the new Chastity Belt album too, so they’re in, talking about how they’re growing up… but not too much.

For the first time a cartoon (Noodle from The Gorillaz) completes our Getting To Know You questionnaire; Brix Smith Start recalls her difficult times as a 16-year-old; and Party Wolf gives fanfiction another go, penning a groundbreaking piece of writing called ‘Can I Stop Being Keith Lemon Now?’.

Pre-order a copy here.