Some artists like to play it safe, while others like to put your ears through a workout with many unexpected twists and turns. Dutch singer-songwriter Willem Smit, who leads the eccentric Amsterdam, Netherlands-based rock/pop band Personal Trainer, strives to go for gold in the latter category.
Personal Trainer’s sophomore studio album Still Willing, which comes out Friday, August 2 on the Bella Union label, is a sonic workout. Like the band’s previous effort, Smit teamed up once again with co-producer/collaborator Casper van der Lans. Together and with a talented group of collaborators, they expanded on the template from the band’s 2022’s debut, Big Love Blanket, finding more freedom to experiment and mix it up. The melodies are plenty active, with dynamic arrangements that don’t stay in one place for long. On top of that are Smit’s lyrics that are full of self-reflection and wit.
For example, “Upper Ferntree Gully” starts off in dream pop before erupting into thunderous guitar riffs and pulsing electronics. The title references his mother’s birthplace in Australia and features a recording of her voice. The album also features the more straight-ahead rock song “Round.”
Collaborators included Lena Hessels, drummer Kick Kluiving, and bassist Ruben van Weegberg (who is also Willem’s bandmate in the band Canshaker Pi, who has worked with Stephen Malkmus). Additional percussion comes from Kilian Kayser, and various background sounds are created thanks to Abel Tuinstra and Otto de Jong.
The band formed a few years ago after Smit found a songwriting vehicle in impromptu shows with various musicians popping into play. While the lineup has solidified some, he feels the spontaneity that comes with different members is important.
“When I make the record, it’s me calling the shots,” he says in the album’s press release. “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.”
Scummy Water Tower recently caught up with Smit to discuss why it was important to shake things up more for the new album, why he enjoys sonic surprises and the excitement he feels building chemistry with collaborators. Stay tuned at the end for a track-by-track discussion.
What music have you been listening to lately?
I’ve been listening to Stevie Wonder and also Elliot Smith. I’ve never really listened to Elliot Smith’s music, but I’ve been listening to some of his records. I like this New York band called YHWH Nailgun.
With the new album you sought to push the envelope a little bit more in terms of the sonic extremes and achieve what you called that “wow” factor. Can you talk a little bit about those goals and what you were going for?
At first, I was a bit on the fence about whether I wanted to record the second album the same way as the first one. It’s basically just me playing most stuff, and then I ask people to join me in the studio and I would record them. I don’t play drums. So, all the drums on this record are played by our former drummer, Kick Kluiving. Then half of the songs have bass played by the guy who plays bass with the band now, Ruben [van Weegbergwho]. And I just kind of asked random people, or not random people, good musicians to play their parts on the record. I think because we had made an album before, we kind of developed a language or something to work a bit quicker. So, it felt a lot easier to try out new stuff because it had become quite easy to communicate what stuff should be like. It felt like we had to develop a good working relationship and also just a friendship, and that really helped far more quickly than last time around to build the songs.So, I guess maybe that allowed us to be a bit more out there.
There are moments on the album that are loud and others that are quieter. What do you like about creating a dynamic sound?
It probably has something to do with music I like to listen to. One of my favorite bands is Pixies and there’s a thing going on, the quiet bits and the loud bits. But also, when I listen to music or watch a movie or read a book or something, I like it when I’m a little bit surprised. So, heavy dynamics or certain changes are the things I like. That stuff surprises me and I like to be surprised.
What songs most shaped the direction of the album?
That’s a good question. For the last two records, I think for both of them, I kind of started with an order, like some kind of flow for a couple of songs. And then I have this big database of song ideas and kind of built from there. I think it was the first two, to be honest, but I’m not entirely sure. I mean, a lot of them were there already and then I started picking from my big list of songs that I had to make it work together and flow. But then for this one, I changed it later. It’s important to just not think about a sound overall for the whole record, but to kind of feel a bit of freedom when writing songs and not care too much about it being cohesive. Because I always think that cohesion probably just comes from one person making something.
So there will always be some sort of cohesion. The record’s been recorded in a lot of different places, but also a lot of it is just at my place, in my home. So, there’s probably some spatial qualities that kind of lead into every song or something. There’s not really a theme, but thematically or it is all coming from one brain. So, I hope that that brings a cohesion or something.
You’re releasing the album on a bigger label in Bella Union, but it seems like you’ve been able to keep things fairly DIY. How do you think you were able to balance going to a new label and keeping your DIY ways?
Doing stuff ourselves has been a big thing. The first record we put out ourselves. At first, I was kind of interested in going into a studio with the whole band or something. Caper and I have built this kind of language. So, I thought, why not give it a second go. It’ll probably be easier to make this one, or at least it’ll go quicker, and we understand each other.
I’ve never worked on two records with one person and kind of pick the fruits from that. Maybe the next records will ask different people. But for this one, we kind of stuck with doing it ourselves mainly and recording ourselves. And Casper also used to be in the band, so he is always kind of been part of this deal.
It’s nice. The people from Bella Union give us a lot of freedom to make our own decisions, which was something to be expected because they seemed like people who were really into music, which is pretty awesome and definitely something that I was very keen about when we were talking about signing there as a band. I’m really glad that that really seems to be working out in a very great way.
You were able to take your chemistry with Casper to the next level with this album. How do you think you were able to push each other to the next level?
Casper and I are very different people. Casper is extremely well organized and I’m not. I’m very unorganized, especially when it comes to making music. I record a lot of stuff at home, like demos basically. For me, it’s important to keep going and make it quick, to keep it interesting for myself because I lose interest quite quickly. And Casper really always takes it slow, in the greatest way. He’s very careful about recording and mixing, and that really helps. With recording and mixing, I’ve learned pretty much everything from him. It’s been educational to work with him.
I ask certain things from him how I want stuff to sound that he would normally maybe not go for quickly. You work together for four, five years, and you learn a lot of stuff. I think what I’ve learned most is that I can do some cleaning up when it comes to recording music. He had been cleaning up after me for a long time, which I started feeling really bad about because I hadn’t really noticed or I didn’t really know something like that. And also, he just knows so much.
What’s the story behind the band’s name?
To be honest, I’m not too stoked about the name anymore, but it’s fine. I don’t mind it that much, but I picked it because in the Netherlands we use a lot of English words that we don’t really have a translation for. Most of what we see on television or most movies or music that we listen to is actually from America or England. There’s something about English words that we use in the Dutch language that make them sound instantly cool. It’s like it’s instantly giving Hollywood vibes. We don’t have a Dutch translation for a personal trainer. It sounds cool for some reason because it’s an English word we kind of dislike. It’s maybe something to do with the distance from what the word actually means and it just having a vibe or something.
It sounds like the contrast between the studio and live versions of the songs really fascinates you.
Yeah, definitely. What I like about being in this band especially is that we make both records and play live. I really like to be able to bounce between those two ways of working. With the live thing, you can’t really take that back. You play something, you’re never going to be able to do it again because it’s a live show and with a record you get to spend a lot of time thinking about stuff and it’s really interesting and hard to decide when to take away or add stuff and at what points you have to say something is finished. And I really like being able to do both things with this band.
What are you most looking forward to in the months ahead?
Well, when it comes to the band, I’m looking forward to playing the new stuff. We’ve been playing half of the record already for quite some time, but there’s some of the harder songs on the record to play live that are more produced. We’ve been rehearsing them, and we have three more rehearsals this week and then after that we’re going to try and play them live, which is exciting to me. We have some very nice shows coming up. Also, I am really looking forward to getting the actual record, like the physical thing in my house and looking at it. That’s always nice to have the actual things.
I’ve just been working on it for a long time, so it’s a big release to get the finished product. I really hope I didn’t mess something with the artwork or something. But we’ll be fine. We have a label now, so they’ll probably triple check again after me. Getting to play the songs and getting to look at the records.
Do you have plans to get to the US or any other places around the world?
Yeah, sure. We have a European tour that’s announced now. We’re going to do more in the UK and then we’ll definitely be in the US at some point. Not entirely sure when yet, but we’ll be there next year definitely at some point.
Workout Playlist: A Track By Track Discussion of Personal Trainer’s Album Still Willing:
“Upper Ferntree Gully”: The record starts with one that I really liked working on. It’s a very long song. I wanted a very over the top opener for the record. There’s a sample of my mom who sent me a voice memo while I was recording the song, and I put it in there. The surprises you can get from listening to music or shifts in dynamics or something like that, I think we really try to get that stuff going for this one. The song after was originally supposed to be the first song on the record, but I liked the idea of a very over the top opener.
“I Can Be Your Personal Trainer”: I just really wanted a song that to me sounded a bit like “You Got A Friend in Me” by Randy Newman. So, kind of gave that a go. I think in a way we kind of got to a point where it’s a little bit similar to that song. It’s not exactly the same, but it has some similar sounds. I’m quite happy with the mix on that track. I thought of pop music that was produced with a full band, written with a full band, some early Robbie Williams or something. We really tried to get the acoustic guitars to have a lot of a high-end sound, so it’s kind of sparkly or something, but almost annoying really happy. I think it turned out alright.
This is one of the tracks by the way, also the one after that where I asked my friend Nick Bolland, who used to play drums in a band that was in before this one, he played saxophone on a couple of tracks on this record. So, I think on the second one, the third one, and a couple of others.
I don’t really think too much about what I mean or something, the words, but I guess it probably has something to do in that song with being in a band and making music and there’s a bunch of bands that kind of do a similar thing, kind of mention themselves. I mean there’s a band called Pavement I’m a big fan of, they do that in a song I like…It’s a silly thing. Silly joke.
“Cyan”: There’s a guest singer on the Lena Hessel who used to be my roommate. She’s kind of like a modern pop singer in the Netherlands. At first, the groove on this track felt a lot more stiff when I had made it, but she kind of interpreted it with a lot more swing in it or something and I really liked that. So, she really saved that song for me.
“Round”: It’s kind of a straightforward rock song that sounds most like music I would listen to when I was a teenager. I put some record scratching sounds in there, which I quite liked. And there’s some weird bits that are recorded where the whole master is recorded on an iPhone and bounced a couple of times and then put in there. So, it sounds a bit weird sometimes, which I quite like.
And apart from that, I just wanted it to sound like full big guitars, heavy drums, which is something we had on “The Lazer” on the first record… And Casper really tried to in his own way, kind of go for something like that, have something that’s kind of just bangs or is very in your face.
“New Bad Feeling”: It’s more of an emo song. Overall, our band probably makes quite happy music or happy sounding at least. Most of it is in major scale or something and it’s up-tempo. And I wanted to make an emo song because I thought that would be interesting. I don’t know what an emo song is, but it’s an emotional dramatic song. So, I kind of gave that a go on that one. And there’s an auto tune on there, which I’ve tried before, but I think it never really ended up on the record, so that’s something interesting for me. My girlfriend liked it, so I decided to keep it. I was a bit on the fence, but I like it.
“Intangible”: It’s a funky song. There’s this one guitar part, a sliding guitar part Casper actually played because I couldn’t play it properly and he was like, “can I give it a go?” And he spent half an hour playing that part. And then it turned out really good. I think it’s really hard timing wise because it kind of needs to be a bit behind. And he really nailed it. I think that sound is the slide…I will put in a sound in a song or on the record because I know my girlfriend really likes it…I know she likes slide-y guitar sounds that are a bit out of tune.
“Testing The Alarm”:I wrote [it] a long while back. A version of it that sounded like The Strokes was supposed to go on the first record, but I started disliking the way it was put together too early in the process, so I scrapped it somewhere along the way. When I was working on Still Willing, I was looking through demos, found a couple of different versions of Testing The Alarm, and decided I did still like the song in itself. I just needed to make it short and snappy. I failed to make it short and snappy and now it’s one of the longer songs on the record. I added a Coldplay bit… My friend Otto (A Fungus) came down to hang out while I was recording, and we kind of shaped the first half minute or so. We were listening to that last Ethan P Flynn record from last year a lot, and I think we took some characteristics of his music.
“Still Willing”: It’s a quiet song. I really liked how the drummer and bassist Ruben and [Casper] played this one. They had just learned it, just getting the hang of it and playing it not very extremely tightly, which I’m really happy with. I think they play it very well.
“You Better Start Scrubbing”: That’s one of our first songs. I think we probably played it in our first rehearsal. And back then, none of the memories in the band right now are still here. It’s like five years ago or something, maybe even six years. And the band was completely different. But this song was there. And it was always like the loudest song we had in the set.
The idea kind of started with four chords where I would just bar all the strings on the guitar with one finger, kind of press down on all strings with one finger and then kind of go up and down the neck of the guitar, which felt like a cool start for a song. We made it a little less loud, but we added some noise we made using a technique I’d never heard of, but Casper told me about it. It’s called no input Mixing. You kind of make this feedback loop in just a mixer. You kind of turn it into an instrument.
It’s not very reliable or something as an instrument because it’s very unexpected what’s going to come out. But that makes it a lot of fun to play around with it. And at that point we were in this very large building. We got this big building to work in for a couple of days and we would play those harsh noises from the no input mixing on speakers into this really huge room and re-record them. So, we got some really, really scary sounds out of that. That was a lot of fun to do. And at night it was raining on the roof and that made the sounds even more scary. It was really cool.
“What Am I Supposed To Say About The People And Their Ways?”: That’s one of my favorite ones on the record. We’re just rehearsing them live for the first time to play live for the first time. And I really like playing that one. There’s this sample of a woman talking, and everyone thinks it’s my girlfriend, but it isn’t.
You can follow Personal Trainer on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and listen to the band on their Bandcamp page.
Joshua is co-founder of Scummy Water Tower. He’s freelanced for a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including: Rolling Stone, The Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Guitar World, MTV News, Grammy.com, Chicago Magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, MKE Lifestyle, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, A.V. Club, SPIN, Alternative Press, Under the Radar, Paste, PopMatters, American Songwriter, and Relix. You can email him at josh@scummywatertower.com.
