Antony Szmierek, the 35-year-old "pop poet" and spoken word performer, is on the edge of releasing his second album, Decoding Birdsong, a rapid follow-up to last year's critically acclaimed Service Station at the End of the Universe.
Szmierek has always been a show-off. "When I was young my mum used to say — and I'm not sure if she meant this in brackets complimentary or in brackets derogatory," he says, making the brackets with his hands, "that I should be on stage." His granddad had harsher feedback. "He'd say, 'Stop staring at yourself in the mirror!'" he laughs.
High-energy performances and comparisons to Mike Skinner
Since his first album's release, the Mancunian lyricist has become well known for his high-energy performances and charisma on stage. And indeed off stage — during performances, Szmierek will often deliver his verses while riding on the shoulders of someone in the crowd, a technique employed by another musician with whom he has drawn constant comparisons: Mike Skinner.
Like Skinner, Szmierek began writing at a young age. He recalls one short story he wrote aged eight about a young boy who was scared of his own shadow. "I was very Goosebumps-pilled, clearly," he smirks. And like Skinner, Szmierek has a talent for finding beauty in a distinctly British mundanity — whether that be Tesco meal deals, pub quizzes or the fact that no one actually knows the words to Auld Lang Syne.
From university rejection to pandemic breakthrough
Unlike Skinner, Szmierek did not launch straight into a music or writing career. In fact, he was actively put off this pursuit by a university lecturer on his creative writing course at the University of Huddersfield. "It was my first bit of writing submitted to a uni lecturer," he remembers. The lecturer's feedback? "He said: 'It has zero merit. That has zero merit as a story.'"
It was only during the Covid pandemic that Szmierek decided to start setting his poetry to music and making it public. He gained widespread attention in 2022 with single Hitchhiker's Guide to the Fallacy.
Giving happiness back through new album
He is now a verified BBC Radio 6 Music darling and music industry insiders cannot stop shouting about his new album, which focuses on themes of coincidence, loss, loneliness and the oft-overlooked birdsong that soundtracks it all. While the themes are not entirely jubilant, Szmierek's strength is that he manages to translate his own experiences of life in our troubled times into something hopeful.
"I feel like my responsibility is to give the happiness [making this music has given me] back," he says, "siphon that happiness down, or that hope down, even if I don't feel it all the time." Decoding Birdsong is out now.
