Cordelia

Cordelia O’Driscoll is a storyteller. Her lifelong fascination with the lore of classic songwriters has grounded her in the folk tradition of meditating on life’s small moments. On her debut Caramel EP and its standout single ‘Little Life’, she muses on fulfillment, gratitude and being happy with what you have. The track’s runaway success in the winter of 2023 proves that her message has a global resonance.

Raised in a creative household in Stroud, South-West England, O’Driscoll’s Scots-Irish lineage places her as the daughter of a photographer father, screenwriter mother, and the middle of three children alongside her two brothers. Music and performance filled their home, with artists like Bonnie Raitt, Joni Mitchell and Lauryn Hill forming the basis of O’Driscoll’s musical education. At 15, she left home with her guitar to go and perform at her local pub. “I was ridiculously relaxed about it,” she remembers. “I have a separation that’s like, nobody’s actually listening. I really didn’t think anyone was ever watching.” From there, her own songs began to flow, originally about abstract concepts before a bolt of inspiration from Joni Mitchell struck. “I listened to an old interview where she talks about how to overcome writer’s block; about honesty and writing from the heart. Since then, everything has been autobiographical.”

Much as her folk heroes inspired her writing talents, O’Driscoll’s love of theatre taught her to weave magic on stage. Her first creative success came with BURIED, a musical rom-com about two serial killers falling in love that became the talk of Edinburgh Fringe in 2017. Written alongside collaborator and friend Tom Williams, the entire run of the show sold out before returning the following year. “That was the first time I saw my songs come to life.” The show won the Cameron Mackintosh Award at the National Student Drama Festival and was taken to the New York Musical Festival in 2019.

On stage is where O’Driscoll’s stories are animated into life. Having cut her teeth gigging around the country since she was 15 years old, her tales are sung with wisdom and world class, ethereal vocals. Her love of communal musicianship shines through both alone and as a player in her band.

Living in London since 2020, O’Driscoll worked in the Pavilion Cafe in Victoria Park through two years of pandemic lockdowns. Despite the 5am starts in deep winter and 12-hour shifts, she fell in love with the simplicity of the job and her uninterrupted life outside of work. “I thought, maybe I’ll just do this, maybe I don’t need more.” Bottling that realisation, she wrote ‘Little Life’. “My goal ultimately is just to enjoy my life. I don’t think there’s anything that I would make myself miserable to achieve,” she explains. “I really just thought this EP would come out, my friends would like it and I’d be proud of it; that would be enough.” Since the song’s release in October 2023, millions of people all over the world have connected with its messages of simplicity and escape; the perfect introduction to the work of a generational talent.

As her Caramel EP continues to surpass its origins, 2024 starts as O’Driscoll’s most prolific year. Forthcoming releases muse on the ebb and flow of friendship, drunken arguments, and notes on growing older. Regardless of whether they’ll be officially released, O’Driscoll writes songs like journal entries. “This might not be something I would release but this just happened,” she explains. “Capturing these moments in time, sometimes they’re incredibly fleeting. Then you perform them and you’re put back in that headspace, going back in time. It’s like life flashing before your eyes.”