Get To Know: Personal Trainer
If the Dutch are looking across the Atlantic Ocean or spanning the European continent in search of layered, dynamic pop music, they need to look no further than their home soil to find Amsterdam’s Personal Trainer. The group, which is a musical project by Willem Smit, will release their second studio album Still Willing Friday, August 2 on Bella Union.
Personal Trainer has many hands contributing to Still Willing. Smit often changes up the lineup accompanying him on Personal Trainer records, singles and shows. There are seven members right now. He often likes to do something different to keep the act fresh, like having an orange stand-in for him at a recent free show at an Amsterdam rehearsal venue called Helicopter. Smit is stepping back behind the microphone soon, though. Personal Trainer is on tour in Europe now and through the beginning of 2025. They will even play a series of in-store shows at several iconic Rough Trade locations. Read on to see a full list of Personal Trainer tour dates.
Between his busy schedule of touring, writing and even designing the band’s artwork as often as he can, Smit sat down to tell Beyond The Stage about Still Willing. He’s in the studio space he shares with his partner and another Dutch musical phenom, Pip Blom. It’s the day after Personal Trainer performed at a festival in The Faroe Islands and just a short while until tracks like street stylish “CYAN” and powerful “Testing The Alarm” find their way onto the LP’s release. Here’s what Smit has to say:
Beyond The Stage: You are in the middle of playing quite a few shows. You’ve got the iconic Rough Trade East in London coming up and a very long stretch of tour dates in Europe. How do you like playing so many live shows? Is there one you are very excited to play?
Willem Smit of Personal Trainer: For the last two years, we played a lot of shows, more than I’ve ever played. I think we played over a hundred shows in both years which is more than I normally do. Last year we were in the van half of the year, really almost the entirety of the year. It’s pretty DIY, so it can get a bit tiring to be in a very tiny van with seven people all the time, but it’s also the greatest thing ever.
BTS: Tell us about your new album Still Willing and how it has come to life.
Willem Smit of Personal Trainer: We made one record before this one, called Big Love Blanket. That was the first time I made a full record with my friend Casper van der Lans, who used to play bass in the band. He convinced me to start recording Personal Trainer’s music because it used to just be a live act. The second record is picking up where we left off. We kind of made it in the same way. I write here in my home studio and record most stuff here. And then Casper and I explore and go to different places. Sometimes he would borrow his parents’ car and put a lot of microphones and mixers in there. Sometimes we would go record in a big space because we needed reverb or someone who knew how to play the saxophone’s home when we needed one.
BTS: There are lots of different sounds on your new album. Some of them feature aggressive singing and others are soft. How do you write and record songs in different styles?
Willem Smit of Personal Trainer: A big difference for me between this album and the last record is that I decided not to do vocals with Casper, but just on my own this time. We have a rehearsal space and I went there for like two weeks recording guitars, and then also sometimes vocals. That felt freeing because I just get very nervous when someone’s in the room with me and I have to go over the top with my performance. That was an easier way to work for me, being alone to do the biggest parts of my vocals.
BTS: The band Personal Trainer is your project, plus having band members play the parts you write. Talk about how that works. Do other members come in and contribute their ideas when you record?
Willem Smit of Personal Trainer: It’s all very instant. Stuff just happens and I play with people and if they decide to play something else, I can’t stop them really, because they’ve already done it. I like that because that makes recording exciting. I also like making the records because there’s a lot of control of a sudden sound and you get to make a lot of decisions. If I come up with certain parts, I can bring one or two people in at a time and ask them to just play those parts. And sometimes it can be really functional and organized.
BTS: You’ve recently begun working with Bella Union, which is a notable independent record label. Your music has already been well-received by many people. Does being on a reputable record label give you more resources, and do you think this will help your music reach more people and create new Personal Trainer fans?
Willem Smit of Personal Trainer: It’s been nice so far. It’s been great. The most important thing to me is thatcthe people who run the label are really enthusiastic about the band and they’re excited about the music itself. They’re still sitting in the third row if they can make it to our shows and like telling us very exact details they liked about the newest song. So they’re, they’re invested in the music itself. It’s all I can ask for basically.
Personal Trainer’s second studio album Still Willing is available for purchase here.
Personal Trainer EU & UK Tour Dates:
Thu. Aug. 1 – London, UK @ The Shacklewell Arms
Fri. Aug. 2 – London, UK @ Rough Trade East (In-Store)
Sat. Aug. 3 – Portsmouth, UK @ Pie & Vinyl (In-Store)
Sat. Aug. 3 – Brighton, UK @ Resident (In-Store)
Sun. Aug. 4 – Totnes, UK @ Drift (In-Store)
Mon. Aug. 5 – Bristol, UK @ Rough Trade (In-Store)
Tue. Aug. 6 – Liverpool, UK @ Rough Trade (In-Store)
Wed. Aug. 7 – Leeds, UK @ Jumbo (In-Store)
Wed. Aug 7 – Nottingham, UK @ Rough Trade Nottingham (In-Store)
Thu. Aug. 8 – London, UK @ Banquet (In-Store)
Sat. Aug. 10 – Lierop, NL @ Nirwana Tuinfeesten
Fri. Aug. 16 – Crickhowell, UK Green Man Festival
Sat. Aug 17 – Biddinghuizen, NL @ Lowlands
Sun. Aug. 25 – Portsmouth, UK @ Victorious Festival
Sat. Sept. 14 – Bergen Op Zoom, NL @ Popmonument
Sat. Sept. 28 – Antwerp, BE @ Thorn in my side
Sat. Oct. 5 – Eindhoven, NL @ Come as you are
Tue. Oct. 29 – Zurich, CH @ Dynamo Werk21
Thu. Oct. 31 – Milan, IT @ Arci Bellezza
Fri. Nov. 1 – Bologna, IT @ Covo
Mon. Nov. 4 – Anger, FR @ Jokers Pub
Tue. Nov. 5 – Laval, FR @ La Fosse
Wed. Nov. 6 – Paris, FR @ Point Éphémère
Fri. Nov. 11 – Reykjavik, IS @ Iceland Airwaves
Tue. Nov. 12 – Schorndorf, DE @ Manufaktur
Thu. Nov. 14 – Vienna, AT @ Chelsea
Fri. Nov. 15 – Warsaw, PL @ Bardzo Bardzo
Fri. Nov. 16 – Berlin, DE @ Shokoladen
Tue. Nov. 19 – Copenhagen, DK @ Loppen
Wed. Nov. 20 – Hamburg, DE @ Aalhus
Fri. Nov. 22 – Groningen, NL @ VERA
Thu. Nov. 28 – Zwolle, NL @ Hedon
Sat. Nov. 30 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso Grote Zaal
Sun. Dec. 1 – Rotterdam, NL @ Maasilo
Thu. Dec. 5 – Tilburg, NL @ 013 NEXT
Wed. Jan. 29, 2025 – Madrid, ES @ Siroco
Fri. Jan. 31, 2025 – Barcelona, ES @ Razzamatazz 3
Thu. Feb. 6, 2025 – Ghent, BE @ Wintercircus
Fri. Feb. 14, 2025 – Manchester, UK @ Gorilla
Sat. Feb. 15, 2025 – Newcastle, UK @ The Grove
Sun. Feb. 16, 2025 – Edinburgh, UK @ Mash House
Tue. Feb. 18, 2025 – Glasgow, UK @ Room 2
Wed. Feb. 19, 2025 – Belfast, UK @ Ulster Sports Club
Sat. Feb. 22, 2025 – Liverpool, UK @ District
Sun. Feb. 23, 2025 – Birmingham, UK @ Castle & Falcon
Mon. Feb. 24, 2025 – Bristol, UK @ Thekla
Wed. Feb. 26, 2025 – London, UK @ EartH
Thu. Feb. 27, 2025 – Portsmouth, UK @ Wedgewood Rooms
Fri. Feb. 28, 2025 – Oxford, UK @ Academy 2
Sat. Mar. 1, 2025 – Brighton, UK @ Chalk
Wed. May 7, 2025 – Opwijk, BE @ Nijdrop
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