He should not be confused with the other London-based musician called Charlie Cawood (who leads the acid/roots rock project Time Space Reality Band). Even before graduation, Cawood was heavily involved in both London's live music scene and in touring music. By the age of seventeen, he'd become a professional musician. In 2006, at the age of eighteen, he toured as a backup guitarist for Icelandic alt-folk singer Hafdis Huld, during which time he also made his debut radio broadcast on Gideon Coe's BBC 6 Music show. Between the ages of nineteen and twenty-one, Cawood played guitar and bass guitar in Achilla, a Gothic progressive metal band (also featuring future Haken keyboard player Diego Tejeida) which got strong reviews from "Metal Hammer" for their eponymous debut EP (plus an 8/10 live review). Cawood is currently the principal backing instrumentalist and co-arranger for Mediaeval Baebes (for whom he plays up to eight different instruments on tour) and he plays bass guitar, electric guitar, sitar and tzouras for the "electronic gamelan" group My Tricksy Spirit. As an art-rock band member, Cawood is the bass guitarist for Knifeworld and Lost Crowns, and a guitarist for art-pop group Tonochrome, heavy rock/prog band Khronicles and the Frank Zappa cover band Spiders of Destiny. Cawood has also contributed guitar/bass guitar/bağlama to "noir art-deco pop" project Spiritwo and has covered for guitarist Keith Moline in Kev Hopper's "micro-riffing" art-rock quartet Prescott. He sometimes plays chamber folk with fellow Mediaeval Baebe Sophie Ramsay and currently performs hammer dulcimer with occasional sea shanty band Admirals Hard (alongside Knifeworld/Lost Crowns bandmates Kavus Torabi and Richard Larcombe plus other London art rockers). He has worked with goth/post-punk/industrial pop band Neurotic Mass Movement. As a classical musician, Cawood is best known for having performed the pipa part for the UK premiere of Philip Glass' chamber opera "Sound of a Voice" but has also worked with the Chamber Music Company and the Temujin Ensemble. Cawood is also a noted player on the London world music scene. He has performed Chinese music (mostly on daruan) with Yin Yang Collective, Central Asian music (on oud, bağlama and pipa) with Uzbek singer Alla Seydalieva, and Turkish/Romani music with Opaz Ensemble.