Sorcha Richardson

Sorcha Richardson grew up in Dalkey, on the Dublin coast, and formed her first band at the age of ten with schoolfriends. As a teenager she left for Brooklyn to study creative writing, and spent most of her twenties there writing and recording before returning to Dublin in late 2017.

Her songs work in close detail: a petrol station, a garden, a conversation half had, sung in a low, conversational register over guitars and synth pads that stay out of the way of the lyric. She writes about drinking, friendship and the slow drift between people without raising her voice much.

Back in Dublin, she was named one of RTÉ 2FM's Rising Artists and worked with the band All Tvvins. Her debut album, First Prize Bravery, released in 2019, dealt with the shifting terms of friendships and relationships and was shortlisted for the Choice Music Prize.

That same year she joined Soulé and Elaine Mai on the single "Butterflies" for the Three Ireland Made by Music campaign. Her second album, Smiling Like an Idiot, followed in 2022, with arrangements that had grown fuller while keeping the same room-sized scale.