Antony Szmierek is one of Manchester’s newest and most exciting homegrown artists. His debut album Service Station at the End of the Universe fuses poetry, nostalgia, and dance-floor energy into something entirely its own. With emotional sharpness and a boundary-pushing sound, it has earned him praise as one of the city’s most distinctive new voices. Driven by sharp, emotionally resonant lyricism, his music has captivated live audiences across generations. Though deeply rooted in the streets of Withington and Fallowfield, his strong lyrics permeate beyond the Manchester perimeter in which they were born, tapping into an optimism and nostalgia that lives within us all.
Antony’s musical style can be found at the intersection of indie influence, dance beats, and spoken word poetry – a trifecta that fuses into a sound both emotionally rich and unmistakably Mancunian. These three pillars of Manchester’s creative identity conspire to craft a cohesive sonic landscape rooted firmly within the city’s artistic backbone. Antony was not trained musically: instead his music acts more as a vessel of his poetry, creating an outcome that blurs formal boundaries of music and words.
Currently on tour, Antony found time to speak in the middle of rehearsals for his huge show at Manchester’s Albert Hall. What you see on stage is what you get off it – Antony’s confidence and charisma translate into a laid-back, genuine presence that’s a testament of the authenticity which defines his work. His next professional appearance in the city is now due to be Parklife festival in June.
When asked about how growing up in Manchester shaped his musical perspective for his debut album, Szmierek claimed “at first for this record specifically, I didn’t want to mention any Manchester things. I was listening to loads of late 80s early 90s house music stuff, but my music felt indie, so by the end I was really leaning into the Manchester references”. “For example, the yoga teacher is a guy from Withington Baths. I think it glued it together as a very Mancunian album, with the Didsbury dozen as well”, he said, citing references from songs ‘Yoga Teacher’ and ‘Big Light’ respectively.
Discussing his progression, Szmierek told how he “started writing at university, but never with any real purpose, just short stories and poetry. I’ve always wanted to write a novel or a script, but I was never doing it properly or serious about it. But teaching made me more of a critical reader, so when I stopped mainstream teaching in 2020, I had a lot more time and began thinking I could put my poetry into music.” Szmierek cites Arctic Monkeys as “a huge moment for me”, teaching him a thing or two about stage presence. “I discovered dance music as well, so I had that big foundation of indie music alongside discovering the rave and everything that comes alongside it.”
Szmierek is happy to shout out some of his favourite nightlife spots in Manchester, namely White Hotel and The DBA. “I think they are safe places for everyone, and that includes the queer scene which underpins Manchester’s music. My song ‘The Circle of Light’ is a testimony to nights out in Manchester. It’s one of the songs that was genuinely a real night with real memories.”
“I think the live shows are very important to my music as a whole. It’s supposed to be an escape for an hour. Like I could have done things with loads of politically charged lyrics and stuff, and it is things I feel deeply about, but I feel like the music should speak for itself. The background we had when performing at Glastonbury last year said, “Optimism is a political act”, and that’s kind of the point for me. I don’t feel like I need to do a rant about stuff that’s happening because we’re all in it together, we’re all feeling it, but we need to be allowed to have a break. Positivity is contagious, and that puts us all in a better position to help people. So, I make the live shows overly fun on purpose.”
Moving onto his songwriting process, Szmierek says that his songs “always start as a poem, with words that are structured and rhyming. If it’s too sad, I’ll put a beat behind it to make it more upbeat, and if it’s too happy I’ll put something sadder behind to change the words with the music. I think on this record there is a bit more singing, which is fun, but hard for the shows. We have about four shows worth of words crammed into one, I think.”
The next question proved trickier: when asked how he knows when a track is done, Szmierek stated “I don’t think I’ve figured out when it’s finished. There’s a real beauty in things being imperfect, which you’ve got to really hold on to. The temptation is to make everything perfect, but I think the human element is in the mistakes and the voice cracks which is what people want to hear in the end, or I might as well use AI”.
Discussing his next live appearance in Manchester, Szmierek cited 50 Cent as an act he hopes to catch after his set. “I really want to bump into him actually because we’re playing on the same stage. I’m super gassed to be on the Parklife line up. I’ve been loads of times before throughout uni and stuff, through some states… both good and bad. But it’s weird to be playing it and being on the main stage as it’s the first time.”
“I’m from Hyde, but I went to university in Manchester, so I lived in Fallowfield during uni. I even stayed in Fallowfield a year after I graduated when doing teacher training, I just found it so much fun, all the parties and stuff. It’s sick there, it’s kind of like Butlin’s; going from house to house, bouncing between house parties. My big house party memories are ones when they would put them on in basements, even though it was unsafe. There are all those weird myths of the second floor collapsing. I think everyone’s convinced it happened in their year as well. And, of course, where would we be without bedroom DJs? So, I do miss it sometimes.”
When asked for a dream collaboration, Szmierek separated his favourite artists into “two worlds”. “Firstly of electronic music: Four Tet, Jamie XX, Floating Points, Villager, those sorts of people would be great to produce with, and an area I’d like to fly into a bit more. And then I quite like thinking about someone incongruous. There’s no features in this album, but for the second one, I’d like the idea of bringing in some voices that might be unusual for dance music, like CMAT or country singers, something like that. I wouldn’t want to fall into the UK-G vocals, it can all sound kind of the same. There are obviously also people like Loyle Carner that would really work, maybe later down the line.”
Szmierek cites the queer scene in Manchester as the future of the city’s music. “The unusual things that are coming through is what we need to look to. We don’t need another four-man indie band.” Speaking to Antony is a reminder that authenticity is the true driver of creativity. Szmierek’s sound and artistic approach are rooted in the local, but never limited by it – a voice that reflects where he’s from while hinting at where music might be heading next. Somehow, his work transcends taste and genre, offering a message of optimism that disarms criticism.
