Once you press play on Human Assholes, its melodic and tonal familiarity immediately sets you at ease. The range of sonic reference points it invokes –everything from Black Country, New Road on opener “Marvin’s Curtain Up”; Cake on the darker “Bones”; a Dirty Projectors-Phoenix-hybrid on the compelling title track and the unmistakable slacker sensibility of Pavement on the standout closer, “Letter From The Scentless Realm”– is a testament to its frontman’s adoration for music, not just playing it, but absorbing it. The latest from Personal Trainer carries its distinct, charming personality of its predecessors, Big Love Blanket (2022) and Still Willing (2024), but hears how Smit and his ever-changing band of collaborators have landed on the strongest songwriting and musicianship within their impressive discography. The compelling arrangements, exuberant energy across the instrumentation and engrossing lyricism are acutely and masterfully honed in these irresistible 15 tracks.

Northern Transmissions caught up with Personal Trainer’s leading force, Willem Smit, on adopting new attitudes and approaches with this new record, learning from collaborators and what, in his opinion, makes someone an asshole.

Northern Transmissions: The making of the new Personal Trainer album, Human Assholes, followed a period of being on the road for three years. For you, how much does playing live inform and inspire the direction you want to take with songs in the studio?

Willem Smit: For the most part, the big difference to me is that the last two records were basically recorded by me in different places with a friend called Casper van der Lan who also engineered and mixed this record. It was mainly just me doing a lot at home, and then over the period of a year and a half, I was adding layer by layer of all these bits and then taking stuff away again. It was a cut-and-paste approach. This time around, it felt logical to try something new.

We’d been touring with this group of people for a while. They’re great musicians, so it felt like a good move to try and explore that more, given that everyone was so used to playing live together. We had been talking about music a lot, as well, and so we were all on the same page on a lot of levels. That’s basically why it felt like a good idea to change up how I recorded and see how that went.

NT: This is the third Personal Trainer album in four years. With this album, another new approach was to begin the songs on an acoustic guitar. Going off how dynamic and inspired the band’s music is across the albums, I’d love to hear about the different driving forces when making a Personal Trainer LP. This time around, was there perhaps a more instinctual feel when writing and developing the songs, coming from the live aspect and only having 6 days in the studio? Did that make you more accepting of leaving in happy accidents that occurred while recording?

Willem Smit: Yeah, for sure. The biggest part for me is that I just really enjoy playing music and making  songs. That’s what I like to do and why I do it. What I like about the live situation, where, as you say, there’s a lot more accidents happening, but what I like about playing live is that it’s very instantaneous. Stuff happens; in that way, happy mistakes don’t really exist because everything happens that way. That’s interesting and inspiring, and also really nice to go with when you’re recording. We have enough confidence as a band to go with what happens in the moment and guide it toward something we feel is good.

Also, the fact that you try to capture something that happens in a room, which is exactly what’s happening when you play live in front of people. That was interesting and new. The idea of trying to get out of a place you’re already in, or change things up; that’s also something that drives me, personally. I get easily bored with my own mannerisms. If I do something twice, it either has to be fully on purpose or not. If it’s not, and I don’t notice, that’s fine too, of course, because there are definitely things that keep happening over and over, and I don’t mind that. As long as I don’t notice it, I’m fine. But if I notice stuff echoing, it either has to be fully confronted, or I just get bored and try something different.

NT: With that, not wanting to do things twice, I’d love to hear about how, with this album, you found new ways of approaching songwriting, recording or playing around with studio effects that made this feel like a really invigorating creative experience that you want to bring into the next Personal Trainer LP?

Willem Smit: In general, it’s just the way I write songs. On a song-level, I feel like I want to change things up constantly, or lean into the fact that it’s a rehash or something. I like that a lot, too. I like that meta layer to it. For this particular record, what I was enthusiastic about was when I had a batch of songs, and I was like, ‘This is probably gonna be the next record’. What I liked about it, going away from the last record, Still Willing, was that the last one felt like I was constantly busy trying to take people by surprise or something, or at least myself. I try to think of it as if I were listening to it for the first time while I’m making it.

I was trying to take control of every moment, to put in as much contrast as possible, which is really nice to do if you’re laying everything out. You can just go back and forth all the time and change things up and record different parts of songs in different places, take everything away and put something else in there. There’s nice control there.

What I liked, what I got really enthusiastic about for some reason –because we’d been rehearsing all these pretty crazy songs that are relatively difficult to play with a bunch of people– is that it felt like an accomplishment if we finished the song. This time around, I was a bit worried. I was like, ‘Guys, I’m really excited about this, but the songs are gonna be a little more boring this time,’ which was something I was really interested in. I say boring; I don’t want to be too mean to my own songs, but it was just a word I used for that because I like the idea that the songs were just taking their time a little more and not too worried about having too much effect instantly. I like songs to feel like they’re playing hard to get!

NT: I loved how there’s a unifying thread between these songs, sonically, yet they all have their own distinct personality. With each track having so much vibrancy and individuality, what challenges did you face while recording the album? Especially working in such a tight timeframe.

Willem Smit: That’s a good question. First of all, it was honestly probably the most, I don’t know if gratifying is the right word, but it felt the best making this record because it went by like a breeze. Even though it was quite difficult to write the songs and relatively emotional, when we got in the room to record it, everything just went like that. My biggest challenge was that I was gonna have to trust a bunch of people to play the songs without me being able to edit everything. I could have done that, but I like the idea of not doing that too much. I was worried about what can sometimes happen when you’re in a room together: talking about music or working on a song where everyone starts talking about their own ideas and sometimes that’s hard to channel into something productive.

I felt as though we needed to rehearse a lot to get all of the talking and the discussions about how things were supposed to be out of the way. I was a bit weary about that at first, but I felt like we succeeded. For those five, six, maybe seven days, everyone was tuned in to their own instrument and their own bit, and, of course, into playing together. I thought I was gonna have to say a lot or give directions, but it felt like it was thought out really well amongst the six of us. We had an idea of what was supposed to happen, basically. Then, everyone was tuning in and putting their own soul into it.

It all happened relatively fluidly. It felt very good. There were fewer challenges than the last two records, which I’m happy about! I felt that very actively when we were recording the record. We would have days where we’d start in the morning and then go on with the band to track live or do some overdubs until 6 p.m., and then they would go and make dinner, and I would start doing vocals. I would be texting my girlfriend, telling her that it was all going really nicely, and it’s going like a breeze, basically!

NT: That’s great! With Personal Trainer, there’s an open and revolving door of friends and musicians who come and play with you both in the studio and/or for the live shows. How has working with so many different people opened up your own artistry? What ways have your collaborators inspired you to explore new ways of writing and working?

Willem Smit: Everyone I work with, I’ve learned something from. I don’t know if I can put my finger on every single time that’s happened, but for sure everyone takes their bit in a whole new direction. I love to have control, but I also really love to let loose and see what happens in the moment.

I’ve learned so much from Casper van der Lan, who did all three records when it comes to sound engineering. When I recorded stuff, it used to be extremely terrible; now it’s a little less terrible! That’s definitely thanks to him, for the most part, with the way he approaches mixing and recording. There’s this patience he has that I can learn a lot from. Aside from him, I mean, basically everyone in the band has taught me something. Mart Boumans is a really good saxophone and guitar player, and really good at talking about the lyrics and thinking about them with me. He’s a great player, to be honest, and I learn something new every day because he knows stuff about all these instruments I’ve never played.

Abel Tuinstra, who plays keyboards and piano on the record, is a mastermind. He’s always been great at everything since he was a kid; he was a super talented kid and knows everything about music. However, when it comes to taste, there are hardly any similarities! I can’t stand most of the music he listens to, and vice versa. That is very interesting too because he listens to the music very differently and asks very interesting questions about why I pick certain chords or something. That’s really interesting, and has also helped me take some aesthetic choices that I made in the past a little less seriously and get a bit more of a bird’s-eye view of it all. When it comes to looking at the music, I’ve always been too serious about it. So, he gave it that other dimension, which has been really good for me. Everyone has been super informative and interesting to work with.

NT: Each time I listened to Human Assholes, I would have a different favorite song. One I always really loved, and was fascinated reading about where you got inspiration for it, was “Letter From The Scentless Realm”. Am I right in saying that you don’t really have a sense of smell? That song is basically about that, but then delves into a story of someone losing their senses to a point of not feeling human anymore. I thought that was a cool concept for a song, and use of autofiction. Can you tell me about writing that one?

Willem Smit: At first, because with most of the words, it just starts with me just mumbling in this fake Dutch-English language. I’m mainly worried about how the words sound together. With that one, senses started popping up all over the place. I had written probably 20 verses because I had this idea for this one driving thing with these four chords that kept continuing on. It made sense to me that there would be a lot of words on top of them. I’m normally not the biggest fan of writing lyrics, but it felt right for this one.

It ended up that way, and the whole thing about me not being able to smell, for sure it’s in there, but I guess there’s this thing of someone losing their sense, or their way, to perceive the world around them and also fading away or something. That was interesting to me for sure.

NT: The album is called Human Assholes. What, in your opinion, is the smallest thing someone can do to warrant being called an asshole?

Willem Smit: The smallest thing someone can do? That’s an interesting question. It depends on who’s doing it. Maybe someone getting up in your space a little too much. Even if it’s by accident, or talking a bit too loudly and not being aware of their surroundings.

Pre-order Human Assholes by Personal Trainer HERE