In Conversation with Personal Trainer

By Ben Bagley

 Hidden down a piss-splattered alleyway off Cowgate, the Mash House is probably my least favourite venue in the UK. It was here that the tinnitus which soundtracks every waking moment of my life was sustained at an afternoon punk gig – a regrettable lesson in the irreversible nature of cilia damage.

Edinburgh’s surprising lack of small venues means that a number of touring indie bands have no option but to tread the Mash’s sticky wooden boards. Tonight, Amsterdam-based septet Personal Trainer are in town in support of their sophomore album Still Willing.

Before the show, I caught up with band leader and mainstay of the Dutch indie scene Willem Smit. He cracks open a can of Heineken 0.0% as we sit down in the band’s dressing room for the evening. “We get this everywhere,” Smit seems resigned to the inevitable roadie. 

“We’ve basically been playing continuously over the last few years,” Smit tells me. The band have garnered a loyal following across the country, playing shows from Guildford to Glasgow and everywhere in-between. 

The seven-piece is made up of a lead guitarist, bassist, drummer, keyboardist, percussionist, frontman and rhythm guitar-cum-saxophonist. The geographical difficulties of staging such an instrumentally extensive outfit in 200-cap venues are clear.

Folding themselves into what must be a Tardis-like van for the duration of their tour seems to be the greatest challenge on the road. “It gets pretty cramped in the van. This time we’re also travelling with our sound engineer, Katie, and we’ve got a tour manager for the first time. Two of us have to get the train every day.”  

Our talk turns to the new album: “The songs are a bit more produced this time with more layers. It’s been fun trying to translate it to the live setting. We had a proper two weeks of rehearsal which we don’t usually do.”

Album single ‘Round’ was accompanied by a music video featuring a tangerine as the protagonist. “I liked the idea because it was cheap. I didn’t want to be in the video, so I had the idea of putting an orange in my place. The rest of the band took it from there.”

Quirky PR stunts have become synonymous with the band. They released a trading card collection of their songs. Fans can trade in the hope of gaining the full back catalogue. 

Away from Personal Trainer, Smit has embarked on a side-project with Pip Blom, Amsterdam’s most successful frontwoman of the past decade. Long Fling, as the new outfit is titled, will appear at End of the Road Festival this year before releasing an album and embarking on a string of dates across the UK and Netherlands.

“Pip and I have been living together for nine years now and making music sometimes. We both had gaps in our schedule, so thought why not take all the songs we’ve written and make a record out of them. It’s going to be loose and very short-lived, but that’s all part of the fun.”

As Willem scurries off for a soundcheck, I decamp to a nearby pub. This dreary Midlothian evening is no occasion for alcohol-free beer.