RELONDON-BASED, SINGER-SONGWRITER ALEXANDERO′CONNOR AKAREX ORANGE COUNTYIS A SOULFULARTIST FOR THEINTERNETAGEXORANGE COUNTYByJORDANYEAGER20 BEATROUTE JANUARY 2020
Rex Orange Countydoesn’t mindputting himselfunder the magnifyingglass. E arlyon, he realized hewasn’t the bandtype, finding itcreatively nourishing to do it all himself. Fromwriting deeply insular lyrics, to producing synthy,sunshine-soaked melodies to accompany them,it’s been the prerogative of the multi-instrumentalistto be the sole narrator of his own story.While the reflective, insular nature of his workhas worked in his favour—he boasts more than8.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify and 1.1million followers on Instagram—his artistry is anargument for the benefits of thriving in solitude.The only person Rex follows back on Instagramis his girlfriend of four years, Thea.Rex Orange County hails a long way from hissunny west coast namesake. Born AlexanderO’Connor in the Surrey village of Grayshott,England, the singer-songwriter spent his formativeyears in the suburbs, dreaming of escapingthe school system and taking control of his life.At 16, O’Connor moved to London to attendThe BRIT School, a highly selective performingarts institution notable for renowned alumnilike Adele, Amy Winehouse, FKA Twigs, andLeona Lewis.“I was dying to go, so I worked a littleharder,” he says over the phone fromthe UK. Though notoriously difficultto get into for anyone outside ofLondon, O’Connor managed to securehis spot at the school by committinghimself to mastering thedrums, his instrument of choicesince his elementary school choirdays. He turned out to be one of onlyfour drummers in the class of 2016, whichenabled him to work with a wide range of peersand genres – after all, everyone needs percussion.The variety exposed him to possibilitieshe hadn’t considered for his own music before,like taking up guitar, honing his singing skills andlearning music production software.“Everything I do to this day is thanks to [TheBRIT school]. My friends there were doing allthese different things, and I had nothing otherthan drums. I was like, ‘I should probably dosomething other than this.’” Of the school’simpressive roster, he was inspired by the level ofambition the school normalized. “I just think peopleare driven there,” he muses. “If I’m honest, Ithink they had a good run with a few people inthe beginning, and that inspired others to go. I’mnot going to lie, I think ultimately it’s the peoplewho went there that made it for themselves, notnecessarily the school itself.”“I only have good things to say about my timethere,” he continues. Some highlights? “SimonCowell came in one time. He was giving aspeech about music, but it didn’t last very long.I think he had somewhere else to be. And Ne-Yocame in! Do you know Ne-Yo? Of course you do;I just had to make sure.”In 2015, before he had even graduated,O’Connor released his debut album, bcos u willnever b free, an entirely self-produced, quintessentialbedroom pop album. Tyler, the Creatorfound the mixtape on SoundCloud and, impressed,reached out to compliment O’Connor’sstyle. Then he flew him out to L.A. in late 2016to collaborate on Flower Boy which resulted inO’Connor featuring on “Foreword,” and earninga writing credit for “Boredom,” with a writingcredit for the former.“I thought it was somebody else,” O’Connorremembers about receiving that first email fromTyler. “He had an email address that soundedlike it would be him, but I thought it wasn’t. I waslike, ‘Why on earth would he reach out to meright now, at this point in my life?’”At the time, O’Connor had not completedApricot Princess, his ultra-personal sophomoreeffort, but his work on Flower Boy had beenrevelatory. Wanting a similarly well-roundedportfolio of his own material, he continued working.Hard. And ended up releasing 2017’s ApricotPrincess before Flower Boy had even come out.That’s one of the benefits of operating solo: youmaintain total control not only of production, butalso of when your work is released.“On Apricot Princess, I produced pretty muchall of it myself, other than a couple helpinghands,” explains O’Connor. “The mixing wasdone by Ben Baptie,” who went on to play aheavy hand in not only the mixing but also theproduction, composition and lyrics for 2019’sPony.“This time around, [on Pony], Ben and Iactually got deeper. [He’s on] pretty much all thesongs from the ground up. There were a coupleother musicians as well, but no feature artistslisted or anything like that.”His introverted method of making musicmakes sense, considering the personal nature ofeach of his projects – he revels in getting to thecore of universal experiences, which often feellonely and isolating from the inside. WhereasApricot Princess was an upbeat, rose-tintedode to Thea, the subsequent two years ofO’Connor’s life took him to parts of his soul thatwere previously unknown. On Pony, O’Connordelves even deeper into his own psyche throughthemes of love, longing, and growing distantfrom old friends.On the first lines of the opening track, “10/10,”he muses, “I had a think about my oldest friends/ Now I no longer hang with them.” The restof the album takes its listeners on a journeythrough the poignant ups and downs of thisperiod in O’Connor’s life – a sort of in-betweenphase, when he’s achieved what he’s alwayswanted and it came with some downsides hedidn’t expect. When O’Connor turns inward, hewears his vulnerability on his sleeve. His lyricsare delivered with a confident cognizance ofwho he is, and what he stands for, and thatself-assurance seems to stem from the ability toadmit when he’s unsure.“I still wanted to be the only one telling thestory, and not relying on anyone else to makethe song better. It’s a blessing and a curse:you’re the one that makes all the decisions, soyou’re happy with it, but at the same time that’s aburden to take on.”CONTINUED ON PG. 22 kALEX WAESPIJANUARY 2020 BEATROUTE 21
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