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puschen & little league shows prsnt:PERSONAL TRAINER / indie-rock, nl
personaltrainer.bandcamp.com / instagram.com/personaltrainertheband
+ tba.
at Schokoladen. doors 19 uhr, concert starts 20 uhr. pre-sale tickets available --> vvk.link/3817hw0
aftershow DJs tba!
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If you like pop music to keep you on your toes, Amsterdam collective PERSONAL TRAINER provide that service fulsomely on their second album. Essentially the project of Willem Smit (working with co-producer/collaborator Casper van der Lans) on record and a band live, Personal Trainer showed a facility for DIY indie-pop exuberance and experiment in sync with 2022’s debut, Big Love Blanket. Now signed to Bella Union, Willem returns re-energised with Still Willing, a multi-faceted album of shining contrasts and spry melodies, bursting arrangements and subliminal sounds, playful lyrics and self-reflection: in short, a pop album executed with dynamism, vim and charm.
As Willem says, this is a record fuelled by its extremes: sometimes energetic and loud, sometimes quiet and thoughtful, always full of hidden pleasures. “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 surprise like that on a record, to kind of be thrown around.”
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.”
The band consists of Willem Smit (vocals) Kilian Kayser (percussion), Leon Harms (drums), Mart Boumans (guitar/sax), Franti Maresova (guitars), Ruben van Weegberg (bass), and Abel Tuinstra (keys/synths).
“A triumph of creative soundcraft, knitting together samples, studio trickery, and towering hooks.”
Under The Radar
“Cushily familiar yet riotously unique; pantomiming and compelling.”
So Young Magazine
“Dutch indie-rockers expertly juggle with pathos, clatter and Malkmus-esque deadpan.”
MOJO
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Schokoladen, Ackerstraße 169, 10115 Berlin, Deutschland,Berlin, Germany
Tickets
