Since studying under composer and conductor Joe Duddell (New Order, Elbow, and Richard Hawley collaborator), Richards has picked up a number of commissions – notably including composing a new score for famed Hungarian-born director Paul Fejos silent comedy-drama Lonesome, as part of Manchester arts centre HOME’s Film and Music Project in collaboration with the Royal Northern College of Music. He also collaborated with visual artist Clara Casian on Birdsong – Stories from Pripyat, a film and original live score project inspired by personal testimonies of those affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.  Most recently, Richards was commissioned to be music director and composer for From The Crowd, an event commemorating the 200 year anniversary of the Peterloo massacre in Manchester.

As composer, arranger and bassist with Dutch Uncles, he has released five LPs that were consistently championed by BBC Radio 6 Music (among others) and toured the world (with pleasingly incongruous support dates with Paramore and long-time friends Everything Everything). Now signed to PRAH Recordings and Domino Publishing, Richards has been honing his own separate identity – his exploration into neo-classicism and composers such as Arvo Pärt is far flung from the atypical rhythms and 80’s inspired guitar pop of his bandmates, but crucially retains much of the playfulness and sense of wide-eyed exploration of his group compositions.