Manchester’s musical resurgence is well and truly underway, assuming it ever faded away at all. Between Blossoms’ gorilla-centric new album and the understated (or not) return of Oasis, the North West is deservedly back under the microscope. In amongst all the Britpop buzz lies an artist quietly building up an indie-dance portfolio that will see him battle in the big leagues. Whether it’s in the form of a big glass pyramid in Greater Manchester or an intergalactic motorway service station, Antony Szmierek is here to inject some much-needed heart and soul into these increasingly grey, unpleasant lands.
Since the release of ‘Poems To Dance To’ in 2023, Antony’s played approximately six million shows, had singles spun on BBC radio, and appeared on Later… with Jools Holland. Oh, and he ended 2024 on tour with trip-hop legends Faithless, just to top it all off.
Now, he’s starting 2025 as he means to go on, releasing his debut album ‘Service Station At The End Of The Universe’ before heading back out on his hectic hamster wheel of sold-out solo shows and festivals all over the shop.
“Honestly, I’ve not had time to process anything since [‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Fallacy’] got on the radio,” Antony grins, “I’ve lost all sense of objectivity, and I’ve got no idea if it’s still going well, but I absolutely love the job and wouldn’t change it for the world.”
Before transitioning into a full-time musician, Antony spent his days as a teacher, grounding him and his work in the realities of life in the oft-neglected suburbs of England’s bigger cities. Creating a humble nature that permeates through all of Antony’s work, he keeps an inherently working-class suspicion of creative industries to ensure that he doesn’t lose sight of the whole purpose of the mission: to keep making a difference through his music.
“As hard as a day can be now, I can always think to myself, ‘Well, I could be teaching Year 10’!” When I first decided to stop teaching and pursue music, I struggled because I thought it was a really selfish, ego-driven decision – which, of course, it is – but I feel relieved now when songs have a bit of an impact on people, it feels like I’m doing good.”
The track that most clearly resembles that sense of impact is “The Words To Auld Lang Syne,” a deeply emotional track that quickly worked its way into the hearts and tear ducts of Antony’s fans globally.
“I get the most mental messages,” Antony posits, “people telling me that they used my song as their first dance at their wedding, or that they’ve lost their mum and one of my songs reminds them of her.”
He continues: “We played New Century Hall in Manchester, and people were hugging their partners and crying,” he wistfully recalls, “but we even played [Electric Castle] in Romania and there was a woman who clearly related to [‘The Words To Auld Lang Syne’] and let go of anything she was feeling. It’s mad that it can connect like that in a place that doesn’t even share the same language.”
“The album is almost like ‘Antony Szmierek: The Movie’, where everything is glossier, bigger, and better”
Antony admits that their performance at Electric Castle was one of the highlights of the last year, embodying the energy that seems to be surrounding him and his bandmates at the moment, most easily summed up as the culmination of years of starry-eyed ambition and steely-eyed determination finally resulting in some success.
“There was something in the air that day man,” Antony fondly recalls, “playing in this amphitheatre in the grounds of an old castle in the middle of nowhere, all these people dancing to our tunes and completely letting go in that moment. The energy just felt like it had this extra sparkle; I went off stage and burst into tears, but then we had to come out and do an encore because the crowd were so into it! It was unreal, man.”
The live show is where Antony Szmierek, both as a person and as a musical entity, really sparks into life, blending together rave-inspired hooks with a determination to deal with the big questions. Both of these ideas are placed at the centre of his upcoming debut album, ‘Service Station At The End Of The Universe’, due out in February 2025.
“I definitely wanted it to be more informed by the live show. I wanted to bring the audience with me because there’s always something different in every show that makes it all worth it. It also meant that I could really make those euphoric moments of people being together shine brighter because there’s a lot of sadness on the record, so it was important to bring in some hopeful energy.”
‘Service Station At The End Of The Universe’ transforms a motorway services on Antony’s fantasy motorway, Andromeda Southbound, from a place where dreams go to die into a study of social complexity, following the lives of the different characters that pass through on their way to a yoga class, a wedding, or back home to the one they love.
Introducing characters that in part represent Antony’s beloved North West upbringing, such as “the Patron Saint of Withington” in ‘Rafters’, but also illuminate parts of Antony’s own personality and questions that he himself deals with on a daily basis. Whether it’s accusations of being a class traitor in ‘Yoga Teacher’ or trying to cope with overthinking and existentialism in ‘The Great Pyramid of Stockport’, Antony’s whole self is poured into every aspect of the record, making it as genuine and believable as it could be.
Drawing on his eternal love for ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy’, one that ignited Antony’s passion for language, as well as local landmarks that have become key pillars of his life thus far, every picture is painted with nuance, style, and an observational accuracy that even the most experienced novelists struggle to recreate.
Pulling different literary ideas to the edges of their existence and rewinding threads to fit his huge new universe allowed Antony to create more lyrical layers than is possible on singles and EPs and underscores his immense writing talent.
“I guess in a way writing it was a lot like teaching,” Antony posits, “there’s something for the five kids in the class who really want to listen and pick up hidden meaning, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t also something for people who just want really fun tunes with a good hook. I sort of take on this role of almost an omniscient narrator but also become the characters, it all winds together in the end.”
This ethos is at the heart of almost every track on the record, taking a seemingly everyday object or idea and elevating it into something with a profound and often existential meaning. The most obvious example of that comes from single ‘The Great Pyramid of Stockport’, which sees Antony take a local landmark and draw threads to the Pyramids of Giza, using two structures built centuries apart to explore legacy in a world that values speed and innovation.
“I was really surprised that nobody had written a song about it before; I was certain that Blossoms were gonna mention it on their album! On the surface, it just sounds like a song about this insurance company’s office in Stockport, but there’s a lot on there about getting older and time never stopping. There’s also a line about me cancelling plans because nothing feels real and I’m in tears in my bedroom, which sounds mad to have in a song about a big blue pyramid. I basically use observations as a way of projecting quite a complex idea, so the Stockport Pyramid actually ends up representing the question: ‘What’s the point in any of this?’”
“I just don’t want to be hemmed in; I want to be able to do a metal song on the next album if I want to!”
Taking his cues from goth giants The Cure, Antony tried to be as sneaky as possible with his introspection, peppering super vulnerable lines into songs that you can only pick up on after a few listens. In this way, the album is able to bring together complex trauma responses and deep-rooted existential anxiety without ever getting weighed down by heavy topics.
“I definitely consider the album to have a Side A and Side B, and it is a spiral; everyone’s meeting at this service station before they go off and do whatever it is they do to make this meaningless existence worthwhile, like falling in love or going to a yoga lesson, and then it’s like ‘fuck, what if none of this means anything?’”
This hitman-like style of hiding his vulnerabilities comes to a head in ‘Restless Leg Syndrome’, a stream of consciousness that acts as the end of the album’s spiral, representing rock bottom before the album bounces back to peace, love, and joy. It’s fair to say that it’s the song on the album that is likely to become a fan favourite thanks to its brave open-heartedness, but also the one that Antony struggles with the most.
“I just worry it’s a bit much,” Antony states, “I’m proud of it, and I’m glad it’s on the record, but it’s the only one where I didn’t hide any lyrics, and it’s a bit scary. We’ve had to play it back to management, and the label and stuff, and people seem to like it, but I have to cover my ears and look away. I’m dreading playing it live the first time because I can’t get through it without crying at the moment.”
He continues: “I still wanted the record to be optimism bottled, though, and that’s why it ends on ‘Angie’s Wedding’. I guess it’s an allegory for heaven, it’s not elitist, everyone can go, it’s a celebration. I just needed to resolve it and say, ‘It’s all going to be ok in the end’, instead of ending on ‘Restless Leg Syndrome’ or ‘Crashing Up’, which is about getting older and having eczema; what a nightmare life is!”
Sonically, the record is as rooted in Antony’s personal and local past as the lyrical subject matter, clearly marked by Forton Service Station’s Pennine Tower adorning the album cover. Initially, though, re-establishing these close ties to the historically well-documented Manchester music scene was something that Antony pushed back against.
“I looked away from Manchester at first because I was trying to subvert my own expectations and second-guess what might come later, but it reached a point where I was like, ‘Nobody knows who you are yet; you’ve got to stick to who you are and what you do’.”
The record combines the dance-pop, Haçienda-inspired beats that were present on ‘Poems To Dance To’, but turned up a notch to create a bigger, juicier sound. Alongside that, there are guitar-rock riffs, late-70s synth-pop, and a healthy whack of ambient house and jaunty, warped beats that illuminate links to classic Manchester bands.
“People in bands ask me for advice about how to ‘make it’ or how I got here – which is insane, by the way – but how do I answer that question? The only thing I can ever think of is that the bands that don’t make it are the ones that are just trying to be their favourite band, they’re just imitating something that’s already happened, so I was desperate to push back against any expectation of me in that way.”
“In the end, I realised there was a way to lean into the bands and the history that nobody up here shuts the fuck up about but still keep it different,” he chuckles defeatedly. “It was the first and last tracks that really cemented the sound. ‘Service Station At The End Of The Universe’ sounded like a Primal Scream track, and ‘Angie’s Wedding’ had that 90s wonky piano; when we first played that track to management, they were like, ‘Can we get more of that beat at the end?’ and we had to say, ‘No, because it’s not a Happy Mondays record!’ I could lean into that Manchester sound but still include nods to LCD Soundsystem and Orbital; the whole album distils down to dance music played by an indie band with loads of words.”
He continues: “I wanted it to feel like a step up from anything I’ve done before, almost like ‘Antony Szmierek: The Movie’, where everything is glossier, bigger, and better. I did a lot more thinking about the music this time so that I could keep it all cohesive. It’s like if someone was driving down the motorway in 1996 with a mixtape on, so it’s eclectic, and there’s that rave influence, but also songs like ‘Crumb’ where it’s like ‘ok, what if Backstreet Boys did poetry?’”
It’s an album that plays at the fringes of indie-rock, EDM, and alt-pop, all coming together to create a sound that bends and moulds itself to each unique idea, whilst still ultimately returning to the same hopeful core that Antony puts into all of his music.
It’s this hopefulness that allows the album to stretch at the seams without feeling muddled or over-exaggerated, journeying from the hedonistic euphoria of homage to raves in ‘Rafters’, through to a full-throated declaration of love in ‘Crumb’, via a confusing visit to a ‘Yoga Teacher’. Intelligent lyricism is interspersed with quick wit and open-hearted anxiety to create a tapestry that is as rich as it is diverse and distinct.
“I just don’t want to be hemmed in, I want to be able to do a metal song on the next album if I want to!” he giggles. “I don’t want to release something in the future, and people think I’ve taken a left turn, so it’s sonically open-ended. I’ve been listening to loads of John Carpenter horror soundtracks to see if you could dance to the soundtrack to ‘Halloween’. Spoiler alert: you can’t.”
Always thinking about what’s coming next is what keeps Antony’s ideas refreshing and current, using his ‘touch of the ADHDs’ to good use, throwing his inability to switch off into creating new music, even if that means waking up at 4am to write a song.
“I’m always writing, and with the way I’m feeling right now I think I could write a song a day; I actually woke up this morning and wrote this idea down that could be a great song! If you put me in a cottage with some synths and a producer, I could probably have another album written in about three months. It’d probably be shite, but it’d definitely be done!”
His constant creativity is predominantly inspired by the fact that Antony wears his heart on his sleeve, doing all he can to write songs that mean something, enriching his relationship with his audience by keeping earnest modesty at the heart of his work. As much as Antony might be loathed to admit it, there’s no doubt that his growing up in Manchester hugely influenced his songwriting, and there’s also no doubt that he’s one of many spearheading the resurgence in regional art that keeps the British music scene vibrant and fresh.
In another thing he might not like to admit, Antony’s influence in turning heads away from the Big Smoke is undeniable. Not only is his partner English Teacher’s Lily Fontaine, but he’s also toured with Black Country punk priests BIG SPECIAL and is taking Bristol disco-anarchists Get Down Services with him on his UK/EU springtime tour.
“There’s definitely a responsibility to decentralise from London, but it’s weird to be a part of it,” Antony ponders. “I look at bands like English Teacher and what they’ve done winning the Mercury and think it’s so great for them, but also so great for the rest of the country that’s not London.”
“It feels like up here we have better ideas because they’re ideas that nobody has heard before or haven’t been voiced as much. I spend a lot of time in London, but still, I definitely feel like the stuff I write about is representative of where I’m from.”
“It’s all about sincerity; you have to mean it”
Looking back to his debut mixtape, ‘Poems To Dance To’, it was his ability to illuminate nostalgia in a genuinely human way that saw fans gravitate towards him. Tracks such as ‘The City Is Safe With You’ and ‘Working Classic’ underlined his desire to write stories which people could relate to, singing honestly about unity, perseverance, and resilience in a way that uplifted stories that are so often told through a lens that makes 21st Century working-class life sound like a Dickens novel.
“Mentally, I’m pretty robust, but I feel everything really deeply and on the surface. It helps with the songwriting, but it does leave me in quite a vulnerable position on stage, and it means I’m knocked sideways by pressure pretty frequently. But I don’t see the point in writing catchy songs that don’t mean anything.”
“If you take Confidence Man, for example,” he adds, “their music works because they live that life; they party all night and take god-knows-what, then write really great dance tunes. Everything I’m writing about has happened to me or is something I’m living with. It’s all about sincerity; you have to mean it.”
Heading into 2025, Antony is still every bit the Stockport-born-and-raised book addict who wrote poetry in his bedroom, and it’s through these eyes that he sees what’s yet to come. “I’m really proud of it, and I think it’s the best thing we’ve done so far. No matter what comes next, if people like the album or not, these are still all extraordinary things that I wasn’t supposed to be doing, so it’s all a bonus, really.”
Picking up his keys, about to get into his spaceship and fly away to colourful planets in brand-new galaxies, Antony Szmierek symbolises the good that can come from honest, wholehearted writing. He’s Stockport’s answer to Ford Prefect, and he’s dragging us all with him to see the stars.
Taken from the February 2025 issue of Dork. Antony Szmierek’s album ‘Service Station At The End Of The Universe’ is out 28th February.
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