Hawley's inspiration has largely been found in his local Sheffield and 1960s rockabilly, but also stating that "I've only ever wanted to make music that's soulful, that has some depth and heart in it." From early on in his career he was "really obsessed with things like Chess Records, Sun Records, the Bihari brothers and those records of that time were all done in the blink of an eye and it was about capturing a moment, and there was a degree of musical alchemy in all that." Clash magazine noted the "Orbison and Walker comparisons" attributed to Hawley's early work. He described himself as "a jack of all trades" when commenting on his career as both a (session) musician and a Songwriter, describing them as "running parallel". The covers and names of his albums often reference his home-town: "I know what it's like to live here in Sheffield and therefore it seems perfectly logical to write about it."
In 2001, Late Night Final, named after the cry of vendors selling the Sheffield Star evening newspaper on the streets of the city, was released to positive reviews from the press. Hawley later explained that prior to going into the sessions "all I'd got was the riff to "Baby, You're My Light" and that the majority of songs were written during the sessions. As an Example he cited "The Nights Are Cold" that was done in one take after Cooke asked "look, we've got a gig tonight, are we doing this or what?". Clash magazine called it "a remarkably assured, often truly gorgeous, collection of warmly evocative lullabies" singling out the songs "Baby, You’re My Light" and "The Nights Are Cold" as "mesmerising". The album was produced by Alan Smythe.
In 2002, Hawley produced the debut single "So Young" by Sheffield band Hoggboy, co-produced the band's two albums Or 8? and Seven Miles Of Love, co-wrote second album track "Hello", and also played on a cover version of Little Walter's "Come Back Baby", which was released as a B-side to the single "Believe". Hawley also produced material by lead singer Tom Hogg's next band The Hosts.
Two years later Hawley released Lowedges, named after a suburb of the city. The NME called Lowedges the "first great album of 2003" and it topped an end-of-the-year poll held by Virgin Radio. Of the two albums he later stated that " as those three records progressed you can see the band thing taking over more and more. By the time you get to Lowedges there's less of me playing everything and there's more of the guys. I was determined for it to be very ragged-arsed and not to be really polished and produced".
After leaving Setanta Records in 2004, Hawley signed to Mute Records, a division of EMI. Legal wrangling delayed Coles Corner, Hawley's third album, until September 2005. Again, Hawley mined the theme of his home city, this time referencing the location where courting lovers meet. Coles Corner eventually gained a nomination for the Mercury Prize in 2006. Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys, whose debut album won the prize, exclaimed "Someone call 999, Richard Hawley's been robbed!"
Praise from R.E.M.'s Mike Mills led to him being approached to support the group on several concert dates in 2005. After contributing to Nancy Sinatra's 2004 self-titled album, Hawley supported her on a European tour in 2005 and duetted with her on several of the tours concerts.
Hawley provided vocals for "Bad Woman", a B-side to Arctic Monkeys' single "Teddy Picker", released on 3 December 2007. He also co-wrote and provided vocals and guitar to the song "The Fix" on Elbow's Mercury Prize-winning 2008 album The Seldom Seen Kid. Hawley also performed the song with the band at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2008, on The Culture Show in June 2008, at Elbow's homecoming gigs in Manchester in 2008, Wembley Arena in March 2009, Blackpool's Empress Ballroom in March 2009 and at the MEN Arena in September 2009. He reprised his collaboration with Elbow on 17 January 2009 for a special recording of The Seldom Seen Kid with the BBC Concert Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios, which was subsequently released as a special edition CD and DVD set titled The Seldom Seen Kid Live at Abbey Road in March 2009. He appeared with Elbow on 19 March 2011 while the band were in Sheffield to perform "The Fix" during their UK tour.
Hawley's song "Baby, You're My Light" was included on the CD Soundtrack for the 2008 film Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Hawley himself made an appearance in the 2007 film Flick.
In October 2009, Hawley was joined on stage by Lisa Marie Presley in London for an encore, she sang vocals on a song the pair have been working on called "Weary". The two embarked on a song writing partnership in which Presley wrote the lyrics and Hawley the music. Her album, Storm & Grace, was released in 2012 and included the track "Weary" featuring Hawley.
Hawley's track "Tonight The Streets Are Ours" was chosen as the title track for the Oscar nominated 2010 Banksy film Exit Through the Gift Shop which premièred at the Sundance Film Festival on 24 January 2010. His 2011 song "There's a Storm Coming" was used at the end of the film Brighton Rock.
Hawley worked again with Arctic Monkeys in January 2012, providing vocals for the "Black Treacle"'s B-side, "You And I", which was released on 23 January that year.
As a member of the Longpigs, Hawley released two albums, The Sun Is Often Out and Mobile Home. After the demise of the band, he joined Pulp as a touring Guitarist while also working as a session musician. During his time with both bands he was able to "quietly hone" his songwriting skills, citing that "I was never really very good about bleating on about being a songwriter". Impressed by a home demo of his songs, both Cocker and Mackey urged Hawley to record the material. He used some left-over studio time to demo material and to experiment. Pointing out that "I just wanted to make something gentle for myself – I never expected it to be released". He recorded a song per day, recording most of the instruments himself "with a boom mike in the middle so I could walk between instruments – I mixed it in my head". His eponymous debut was a mini-album that featured seven songs and released in April 2001 through Setanta Records. It was supported by the single "Coming Home". While Hawley played "90% of the stuff" he was assisted by former Longpigs Drummer Andy Cook and Colin Elliot, who became his long-term Producer. He later commented that "I think with anybody's early stuff you can batter it and take things apart. [With] doing those early records I was trying to get back to a way of being creative with recording rather than taking this dogmatic approach to it". He admitted that he didn't get "it right every time but I got what I wanted to achieve. It was to try and find something in the song. And also, with those early records, there was no money". Clash Magazine described it as "a rather brief burst of seven mid-paced, ’50s-flecked moments of jangle. Listening back now, it’s easy to spot the early signs of the grandeur that was to come, especially on standout "Sunlight" amongst these tentative 22 and a half minutes". The cover of the album was shot in front of a bingo hall in Cleethorpes.
In October 2014, his previous record company, Setanta, re-released the first three albums both on vinyl and CD. He also contributed a number of songs to the Soundtrack of the documentary film Love Is All in 2014. In September 2015, Hawley released his seventh album Hollow Meadows.
