The Amsterdam talk all-action shows, canned food experiments and games to play on tour.

Personal Trainer are building their reputation as one of the most entertaining live bands out there right now. With a mixture of witty songwriting, big, floor-filling choruses and so much going on onstage, they are a magnetic presence. Over from Amsterdam to play at End of the Road, we caught the band ahead of their set at a packed Garden Stage. Speaking to Willem (Vocals, Guitar), Ruben (Bass), Franti (Guitar), Abel (Keys, Synths Trumpet) and Mart (Guitar, Sax), we looked ahead to their set and DJ slot and learned about their experiments with festival food provisions.

Firstly, for the Silent Disco… are you all behind the decks? What’s everyone’s opening song?

Willem: I’m not, I’m going to sleep.

Ruben: I’ll just see in the moment. Check out the crowd, see what they like…

Abel: See whether they like Justin Timberlake or not.

Have you done collective DJ sets before?

R: We did one, but Willem was behind the decks and we just danced.

How should I persuade my mates to come to your set tomorrow?

Mart: It’s at the Garden Stage…

W: There’s quite a lot of people on stage.

Franti: A lot of energy.

W: Lots of things to look at. And most of the time it’s fun music.

R: It’s also gonna be the last show in a while….

What is your favourite thing that someone else does during the set?

R: It happens multiple times during the show, but Abel actually has too many responsibilities. He has to use every limb to make it work and I like that.

M: I like when Franti sings…

F: Awhh. I like it when we are doing chaotic jams, and we don’t know what’s going to happen.

W: I really like Mart’s saxophone solo during ‘Still Willing’, I always find that really cool.

What is the biggest difference between British and Dutch festivals?

M: Kids and dogs… there’s festivals here that have more dogs and kids than any in the Netherlands.

M: Quieter audiences.

W: Yeah, especially here [at End of the Road]. It was crazy when Westside Cowboy started yesterday with a very soft song, and the whole field just went quiet. Not something that’s gonna happen at a Dutch festival.

A: I think in the Netherlands they want us to be a party band a little bit more and they expect really rowdy stuff and when we don’t do that they are really confused. And here they just stand and listen.

What is your go-to festival food? Food truck or brought from home.

[All laugh]

W: [To Abel and Mart] Tell them about your project.

A: We bought twelve types of canned food from Tesco. Cheesey beans, mushy peas…

M: Have you heard of the APROM ranking for food? So A is ‘Amazeballs’…

A: …P is ‘Prima’, which means fine. R is ‘Randje’, which means just on the edge of edible.

M: O is ‘Oink Oink’, it’s for animals.

A: And M is for ‘Medical Hazard’.

So you’re testing the Tesco cans over the weekend? Have you sampled any yet?

A: Yeah. We’ve got the refried beans, they were ‘Oink Oink’ category.

M: It tasted like hot dog water, but then like in a sort of creamy structure.

A: The ravioli was fine. On the verge of A but not quite ‘Amazeballs’. A high ‘Prima’.

R: But most of them it’s expected that you heat them up, right?

As a large band on tour, do you find it easier to get along collectively? Or is it harder?

W: When we started out it felt like a big thumbs up that there’s a lot of us, because you can always go to another conversation at any time, escape other ones. That’s still a big pro.

R: But it’s also easier to escape and sometimes that can be a problem as well.

F: It’s also hard to escape the snorey rooms.

A: There’s always someone snoring.

Do you have any group activities that keep you going on tour?

W: We rate a lot of things, tier lists in the van.

A: We’re playing a murder game right now! There’s a group of like thirteen people, also with Long Fling and their entourage, and everyone has the name and location of one of the other persons. They have to kill the person on that location.

R: But if you get caught by somebody else, you both get killed.

F: Very scary.

A: No one trusts each other anymore.

How do you perform your hit?

R: [Raises finger gun] “You’re dead”… But people in the group are also doing [makes guns signs] to say like, ‘Hey what’s up?’ And then you get super scared.

Do you have a band nemesis?

A: Many [zips mouth].

M: I think we are the nemesis of a lot of bands.

A: We sometimes try to start a beef, but it never really works. They don’t wanna engage.

R: They’re often really nice, it’s terrible.

What’s the biggest band you’ve tried to start beef with?

W: U2.

A: They would’t have any of it.

W: They wouldn’t even reply to any of our nudes.

What is the weirdest feedback you have received on your music?

W: I remember someone saying that I sounded like ‘Kurt Cobain but jazzy’. I really liked that.

A: We get a lot of Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Beatles, from quite old men.

M: I also had an old guy that said ‘I play better sax than you’.

F: Can it be another kind of response, like Egg Lady?

W: Yes tell them about that…

F: In Bristol there was just an old lady with eggs, and she threw them on stage…

R: And she wrote ‘Personal Trainer’ on the eggs.

Ok, so it wasn’t a show of disapproval?

R: No, but this happened twice!

A: First time she did it and after came to us like, “Hello, did you know it was me? I’m the egg lady!” And then years later we played in Bristol again and we hadn’t seen her, but then there were suddenly shells [on stage]. We cracked up on stage because we immediately knew it must be the Egg Lady.