Personal Trainer, the Amsterdam collective orbiting frontman Willem Smit, have announced their third album Human Assholes, set for release on 4th September via Bella Union. The 15-track follow-up to 2024’s Still Willing arrives today alongside first single Punch Drunk Love, which lifts its title from the Paul Thomas Anderson film, watch the accompanying video below.
Smit explains: “‘Punch Drunk Love’ reminds me of a very strong feeling of being in love, or at least being infatuated by someone, which can then lead to obsession. The band is joined on this song by Susanne Linssen of Hospital Bombers, one of my favourite Dutch bands, and (ex-member) Franti Maresova.”
For Human Assholes, Smit and his longstanding co-producer Casper van der Lans changed tack. Where the laptop-driven sessions for Big Love Blanket and Still Willing had the pair fixated on minutiae, this time the acoustic guitar was the starting point — songs were written in a physical room with the rest of the band, and the bulk of the record was tracked live across six days. Three years of constant touring shaped the looseness of the approach.
On the album’s artwork, the press shares: Smit paints a character pulling off the rather buffoonish act of balancing an egg on a spoon between his teeth behind a blindfold, imagery lifted quite literally from the album’s closing track “Letter from a Scentless Realm”, a tongue-in-cheek reference to Smit being born without a sense of smell.
Pre-order Human Assholes: https://bfan.link/pi-ha
UK and EU dates follow across summer and autumn, including London’s Scala on 20th October.
Personal Trainer UK & EU live dates:
17th July — Knokke-Heist, Kneistival (BE)
25th July — Balen, Rock Olmen (BE)
27th–30th August — Into The Great Wide Open (NL)
12th September — Merksplas, Backyard Festival (BE)
18th September — Amsterdam, Carré (NL)
20th October — London, Scala (UK)
22nd October — Manchester, Band on the Wall (UK)
23rd October — St Davids, Boia Festival (UK)
24th October — Bristol, Thekla (UK)
27th October — Bruges, Cactus Club (BE)
28th October — Antwerp, Trix (BE)
29th October — Hasselt, Club AFF (BE)