Personal Trainer

Dutch septet Personal Trainer churn out songs that sound like all your favorite indie rock luminaries jam-packed into big-beaming pop psalms. One of the band’s early career highlights was a 24-hour (!) performance at Amsterdam’s legendary pop temple Paradiso. After releasing their debut EP Gazebo on Holm Front in 2021, the band released their first full-length LP Big Love Blanket in 2022.

The band's formative years were marked by a revolving door of plucky scenesters, with Willem Smit – the band’s conductor and cheerleader – as its affable pivot figure. But now with shows at festivals such as SXSW, End of the Road Festival, Great Escape and Best Kept Secret under Personal Trainer’s belt, the band nascent state-of-flux has cemented into a steady line up: along for the ride with Smit, the band consists of Kilian Kayser (percussion), Leon Harms (drums), Mart Boumans (guitar/sax), Franti Maresova (guitar), Ruben van Weegberg (bass), and Abel Tuinstra (keys).

The signing to Bella Union marks a new and exciting chapter for Personal Trainer, who have been a tumultuous DIY-operation up until now. “It's funny: when we talked to (label founder) Simon Raymonde, I found out during our first conversation that he was in Cocteau Twins, the very first band my dad (John Cees Smit of Dutch indie legends Scram C Baby) ever saw live,“ Smit enthuses. “I thought that was a funny idea too. It’s a nice, exciting new stage for the band. It feels like a new sequence of trying new things.”