In Conversation With...Long Fling

HIDEOUS Magazine
Oct 10
7 min read

Words by Luke Bower

Over the course of a decade together, amidst the album campaigns and separate tumultuous touring schedules of their other projects, Pip Blom and Willem Smit’s (of Personal Trainer fame) attempts of musical collaboration have been few and far between. Writing sessions were often met with arguments and fragmented ideas, leaving demos and rehearsal tapes on the cutting room floor for years. Now, the result is a self described compiled assembly of songs, a DIY record that maps out their artistic idiosyncrasies and fuses their musical personalities together through energetic, wry, off-kilter love songs. I caught up with Pip and Willem off the back of their first UK show of their project at End of the Road Festival, to talk all things Long Fling.

Photo by Joni Spaan — Photo by **Joni Spaan**

The ideas for this album have been around for quite some time - how and when did you decide to pull these songs together for a full length record?

W: I think ever since we’ve known each other we’ve been trying to make music off and on. In the first couple years it was kind of hard and we were both really nervous when making music, we got into these arguments and it didn’t really work out that well. Maybe the tension was a bit too much. Neither of us are used to working together with people when writing songs, so that was quite scary and difficult, but we kind of got the hang of it. I think there was always this idea maybe at some point to make a record out of it, or do something that wasn’t just making a song together at home, but the main difficulty was that we both have our separate bands. Between alternating schedules, putting out records and touring, Pip and I could never find the time, but we found a gap around a year ago, and just decided to do things very quickly!

How has the festival season been for you guys?

P: It’s been really fun! We haven’t been doing that many, which was kind of the idea. We’re used to playing a fair bit, but this felt like a project we wanted to do less intensely. Now that we’re nearing the end of this run of shows, it’s been feeling more and more relaxed on stage especially with the last festival we played, which is funny. Although all the band members have some experience being on stage, it still takes a bit of time figuring out being in a new band. I’m playing a whole new instrument, but it’s been really fun even if I have been really nervous every single time.

W: Yeah me too. It’s weird that with the last festival show we played, we finally feel like we’re getting the hang of it.

How has it been playing Long Fling material at the festivals as opposed to your other projects?

P: I think if I view it from the audience’s perspective, when you go to a festival you see a lot of bands, so that already takes up quite a lot of your focus. But then if you see a band that have only released one song like we had over the summer, and you still stick around for the whole set, that’s quite impressive. It’s happened quite a bit, and especially at End of the Road, that felt very special.

W: Yeah it’s cool that we got to play a couple festivals where people are just curious to hear new music, that’s really helped.

It was my first time attending End of the Road and you could really feel that everyone was transfixed by every artist they saw. How was the rest of that weekend for you guys?

P: We got really really wet! Willem’s other band Personal Trainer played on the Saturday, and I was walking around absolutely soaked at that point. It finally got dry in the evening and we went back to the tent to find it flooded. Luckily someone had an extra tent so we could save some stuff!

W: The show with Personal Trainer was very emotional and very fun, and it was really weird getting off stage to go straight to a flooded tent!

Were these shows the first time you’ve played live together? How has that been?

P: We’ve done it a couple times. Willem’s played with Pip Blom a couple times because of band illness, and I’ve been in Personal Trainer once or twice. Obviously it’s a bit different as we were filling in, and Long Fling is our mutual project, so that’s been a lot fun. I find it very funny to read the reviews for these festival shows, because some of them say you can notice the chemistry between us straight away, and others say we are way too far apart on the stage! We are still focused on playing a gig, but we’re laughing quite a lot together which is great.

W: When we’ve played in each others bands before it’s felt like you’re there to fulfil the role you’re asked to fulfil, but with Long Fling it’s different. I feel like if we tried this 8 years ago it would not go well, we’d be way too nervous to properly deal with it like adults, but now it’s going ok! The rest of the band are so good and well prepared too, and they’ve been super cool about it.

Has it been interesting to translate the minimal album recordings in a live setting?

W: From the get go with Long Fling and with the record, we wanted everything to be quite dry, and for things to sound a little strange, and then for me I like the idea that when you play live it becomes more rock focused. But I remember when we played the first couple times I was very surprised how rocky everything sounded, almost like Foo Fighters or something. We had a tech rehearsal in a venue to maybe try and dial that down a little bit, but I think we still sometimes just rock out which is really fun.

P: I think Willem is a big part of that, he used to be in a different band a long time ago that was a bit more rock focused, so sometimes it feels like he’s losing himself a bit when he’s soloing now in a super fun way.

W: haha yeah it’s definitely my bad!

How did the recording process for this record differ from your other projects?

P: We had two periods of recording, with the second period in January where we finished the record and then mixed it at home afterwards. That went really well and was very smooth, it was just a lot of fun. There was a lot of energy around the project from us both as we decided to mix the record ourselves which we’ve never really done. We’ve always finished demos to a certain level, went to the studio, recorded and then got it mixed. I think doing it differently this time gave us a newfound spirit which was exciting.

Everything before recording though was a bit more rocky, with figuring out how to actually make songs together and giving each other space. I always think it’s a bit annoying when people say ‘learning to speak the same language’ when you make music, but it’s kind of true.

W: Yeah for sure. I think the biggest difference was doing almost everything by ourselves. There were a lot of songs recorded over the time span of 10 years on this one record, and with Personal Trainer I tend to use old ideas but always re-record everything. With this project it felt way more natural to keep the old way of recording intact and retain that quality.

You’re set to tour the UK and Europe in a few weeks. Are there any venues that you’re particularly excited to go back to with this new material?

P: We’re only doing a handful of shows, but I’m especially looking forward to the dates in the UK as they’re venues we really really liked playing towards the beginning of our other bands. I really like The Lexington, that’s one of my favourite venues, so I can’t wait to return there. Playing these songs in a venue isn’t something we’ve done, so I think in general I’m excited to do that.

W: Yeah me too. I like all the venues we’re playing for sure. We’re playing Hope & Ruin in Brighton and I think with my other band we played there like 6 times over the course of 2 years or something!

P: I’ve never been there so I’m looking forward to that one too, I’ve heard it’s really cool.

Were there any artists that you drew influence from for this project that people maybe wouldn’t expect?

W: When we were compiling the record from the old songs we had recorded in the past, it became very obvious to me what we had been listening to over that time span. It was very much a lot of guitar music, and then later on our tastes maybe became slightly more left field and beat driven. But we still listen to a lot of bands that you’d find on and End of the Road bill. Long Fling has just been a very nice way of making music that just made a lot of sense to us both - sticking with what we like and listen to and basically focusing on making music together instead of reaching outwards for inspiration.

Any Personal Trainer or Pip Blom news?

W: We’ve just started a little break with Personal Trainer, and we're not going to be playing for probably over half a year. That’s a long time for us as we’ve been playing for like 3 years straight. But after that we’ll be putting new music out and doing lots of shows I’m sure.

P: I’m writing right now which is always quite a slow process, but we’ll see what happens after that.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about the Long Fling project?

P: If people are interested in the music, this run of shows will be the only ones we’re doing. After that, who knows? It could be years before we pick it up again so now’s definitely the time to catch us live.