Personal Trainer — Postcards from the Underground

Dutch collective Personal Trainer announce new album ‘Still Willing’ due 2nd Aug via Bella Union and share the albums second single ‘Round’ following previous single ‘Intangible’.

Commenting on the track frontman Willem Smit says: “Round was one of the last songs to make it onto the album. I had most of the record mapped out, but I felt it needed something that in The Netherlands I would call “een lekker nummertje”, which I guess means something in-between ‘a banger’ or ‘a tasty little ditty’. Or something. I tend to want one of those on records I make.”

Alongside the single comes video directed by Kilian Kayser who adds: “The idea of making a video with an orange playing the role of Willem seemed fun. So we organized a last-minute show with an orange on lead vocals at the Helikopter in Amsterdam and spent a day wandering through the city to shoot the video. A major inspiration is the video for ‘Tom Courtenay’ by Yo La Tengo. I thought it would be a fun idea to end the clip with a live show. It's my favourite typical music video trope. A sort of feel-good happy ending with a band making everything right for the protagonist on an uncomfortably small stage.

Now signed to Bella Union, Personal Trainer in essence the project of Willem Smit (working with co-producer/collaborator Casper van der Lans), Willem returns with second album Still Willing, a multi-faceted album of shining contrasts and spry melodies, effusive arrangements and subliminal sounds, playful lyrics and self-reflection: in short, a pop album executed with dynamism, vim and charm. As Willem says, “When I listen to the records I make, the main thing I hope is that every time something happens on them, you’re like, ‘Wow.’ I like to be taken by suprise like that on a record, to kind of be thrown around.”

Discussing the working relationship Willem and Casper share, Willem states “I felt that we had grown and built a language together. We don’t have to say a lot, but we understand each other well. There was a lot less like trying out stuff and taking stuff away compared to the last one, because it felt like we were on the same wavelength.” Continuing “I write the songs and record most of the stuff, like kind of the skeleton, and then we record drums together. That’s the first step, most of the time. From there, we build. I don’t know much about compressors or weird effects. But Casper knows a lot about that and is really enthusiastic. If I want some part to work better, he’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, I have an idea for that.’ And there were times when I would say, ‘Do you feel like playing this part?’ And he just plays it.”

Recorded between home and says Willem “places that don’t cost much to record at”, the result is a DIY pop album brimming with ideas and colour. Alongside Lena Hessels and The Klittens, contributors include drummer Kick Kluiving and (for half of the songs) bassist Ruben van Weegberg, also Willem’s bandmate in the band Canshaker Pi, who numbered Stephen Malkmus among their producers. Most of the percussion comes from Kilian Kayser, and discreet sounds are served by Abel Tuinstra and Otto de Jong.

Willem is the epicentre of the band, which originated from impromptu and exhilarating live shows featuring ever-shifting members of different local bands sharing a bustling stage. The live line-up has solidified somewhat but Willem still welcomes the contrast with his recorded work: “When I make the record, it’s me calling the shots. But I can’t tell everyone exactly what to do every second when we’re on stage. There’s, like, shakers flying around or instruments being thrown all over the place, so I don’t have the capacity to control that. And that’s really exciting to me.”

Still Waiting is released 2nd Aug via Bella Union pre order here.

Personal Trainer UK & EU live dates:

(NL) - 05.07 - Wilde Weide - Kraggenburg
(NL) - 06.07 - Madness festival - Ameland
(UK) - 25.07 - Unstead Festival, Tunbridge Wells
(UK) - 27.07 - Deer Shed Festival
(UK) - 28.07 - Truck Festival
(UK) - 02.08 - Rough Trade East London [INSTORE]
(UK) - 03.08 - Pie & Vinyl (lunch) // Resident (evening) Portsmouth + Brighton [INSTORE]
(UK) - 04.08 - Drift - Totnes [INSTORE]
(UK) - 05.08 - Rough Trade Bristol [INSTORE]
(UK) - 06.08 - Rough Trade Liverpool [INSTORE]
(UK) - 06.08 - Jumbo (lunch) Rough Trade Nottingham (evening) Leeds + Nottingham [INSTORE]
(UK) - 08.08 - Banquet - London [INSTORE]
(NL) - 10.08 - Nirwana Tuinfeesten - Lierop
(UK) - 16.08 - Green Man Festival
(NL) - 17.08 - Lowlands, Netherlands
(UK) - 25.08 - Victorious Festival - Portsmouth
(NL) - 14.09 - Popmonument - Bergen Op Zoom
(BE) - 28.09 - Thorn in my side, Antwerpen
(NL) - 05.10 - Come as you are, Eindhoven
(CH) - 29.10 - Zurich - Dynamo Werk21
(IT) - 31.10 - Arci Bellezza - Milan
(IT) - 01.11 - Covo - Bologna
(FR) - 04.11 - Jokers Pub - Anger
(FR) - 05.11 - La Fosse - Laval
(FR) - 06.11 - Point Éphémère - Paris
(IS) - 08.11 - Iceland airwaves - Reykjavik
(DE) - 12.11 - Schorndorf - Manufaktur
(AT) - 14.11 - Chelsea - Wenen
(PL) - 15.11 - Bardzo Bardzo - Warsaw
(DE) - 16.11 - Shokoladen - Berlin
(DK) - 19.11 - Loppen - Copenhagen
(DE) - 20.11 - Aalhus - Hamburg
(NL) - 22.11 - VERA - Groningen
(NL) - 28.11 - Hedon - Zwolle
(NL) - 30.11 - Paradiso Grote Zaal - Amsterdam
(NL) - 01.12 - Maassilo - Rotterdam
(NL) - 05.12 - 013 NEXT - TIlburg