Get to Know: Rex Orange County

We caught up with the exciting new artist to find out a little bit more about him and his music...

Thursday, October 26, 2017 - 16:25

This week's featured artist is an incredible artist from the UK.

Rex Orange County, born Alex O'Connor, has had an incredible year. He released a critically-acclaimed mixtape, Apricot Princess, in April and since then has also featured on Tyler the Creator's album, Flower Boy, and performed with Frank Ocean.

We were lucky enough to catch up with the 19-year-old.

Check it out below...

1) For those who don't know about you and your music, tell us a little bit about who you are and where you're from.

My name is Alex and I’ve been making music under the name of Rex Orange County since 2015. I grew up in a small village on the border of Hampshire and Surrey. When people ask, I tend to say that I’m from Haslemere.

2) Describe your sound in three words.

Guitars, pianos, drums...

3 Who inspired you to start a career in music?

Besides being introduced to a fair few solo artists that I really loved, I was partially encouraged by this hour-long Skepta interview that I watched in May, 2015. His answers and mentality made me realise that actually, anything you wanna do in this life is entirely achievable if you believe you can do it. It was really inspiring, so much so that I actually wrote the day’s date on my wall. I didn’t actually tell him that when I met him like a month ago but maybe he’ll read this haha.

4) Who are your biggest musical influences?

A lot of music influences me in other ways than this but, I’ve always taken a lot of influence from Stevie Wonder, Frank Ocean and Jeff Rosenstock for the Rex music. They were also the first three artists that released albums where I enjoyed every song.

5) Tell us about the writing and recording process for your new single.

I’ve been a big fan of this Dutch artist, Benny Sings. for a while so in February this year, I mentioned Benny to my manager as one of the few artists that I’d love to collaborate with. Within a week or so after reaching out to him, he had put in dates for me to come by his studio in Amsterdam. Between then and now, we have made a bunch of songs that we’ve co-produced, some of which should hopefully see the light of day.

6) What can we expect from your live shows?

You’ll hear some of my music and probably a random cover too. It’s a bunch of people singing along but you don’t have to if you don’t want to.

7) What has been your biggest career highlight so far?

I sold out my most recent show at Village Underground. It was definitely the best show we’ve done and that would be the highlight because as far as being ‘Rex’ goes, performing live is all that matters to me.

8) What's on your iPod/playlists that people wouldn't expect?

I don’t know what people would or wouldn’t expect from the content of my playlists. I’ve recently been listening to Brenda Russell and Hall + Oates, specifically the songs' Little Bit of Love' by Brenda and 'Rich Girl' by Hall & Oates.