Rex Orange County

Alexander James O'Connor (born 4 May 1998), known professionally as Rex Orange County, is an English singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. O’Connor rose to prominence in 2017 following multiple features on Tyler, the Creator’s Grammy-nominated album Flower Boy, including the single "Boredom". NPR Music journalist Zoë Jones has described O’Connor’s music as "a bright blend of hip-hop, jazz, and bedroom pop”.Under the Rex Orange County moniker, O'Connor has released one mixtape, Bcos U Will Never B Free (2015), and three studio albums: Apricot Princess (2017), Pony (2019), and Who Cares? (2022). O'Connor also released a live album, entitled Live at Radio City Music Hall, in 2020.

Alexander James O’Connor was born on 4 May 1998, to Nina and Phil O’Connor, a professional sports photographer. He grew up in the village of Grayshott near Haslemere, Surrey. O’Connor’s interest in music began at a young age. At age 5, O'Connor joined the choir at the school where his mother worked. He became a drummer and later taught himself piano.

The name Rex Orange County is based on a teacher-given nickname, "The OC", after his surname O'Connor. O’Connor attended Frensham Heights School in Farnham, Surrey.

2014–2016: Early career and Bcos U Will Never B Free

At age 16, O’Connor picked up the guitar and started to produce his own music using Apple’s Logic software. At this age, he also began attending the BRIT School where he studied drumming and was one of four percussionists in his year; the relative rareness of his primary instrument provided him with wide exposure to various projects of others in his school which he credits to exposing him to new and fresh music.

On 4 September 2015, O’Connor self-released his debut album Bcos U Will Never B Free on SoundCloud and Bandcamp. Upon listening to the album, fellow English musician and producer Two Inch Punch got in touch with O’Connor, providing him with a management team. The two have continued to collaborate throughout O’Connor’s career in the form of the tracks "UNO", "Best Friend", and "Untitled". The album also caught the attention of American rapper Tyler, the Creator, who sent O’Connor an email describing his enjoyment of the project. This led to him flying O’Connor out the following year to L.A. to collaborate on his then-upcoming album Flower Boy, with O’Connor co-writing and contributing vocals to the songs "Boredom" and "Foreword". On 17 November 2016, O’Connor released the single “UNO”, a song Clash magazine described by writing, "The buoyant keyboard riff underpins a hypnotic half-spoken vocal, one that veers from topic to topic in a hazy burst of creative mania." On 25 January 2017, O’Connor released the single “Best Friend” (premiering on Apple Music’s Beats 1 station), followed later in the year by the release of his second album Apricot Princess. O’Connor’s work has been compared to "other artsy, post-genre teen artists".

2017–present: Apricot Princess, Pony, and Who Cares?

O’Connor’s first release following the success of Apricot Princess and Flower Boy was on 11 October 2017 with the single "Loving Is Easy", created in collaboration with the Dutch artist Benny Sings. On 16 April 2018, O’Connor performed the song in his television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. On 31 May 2018, O’Connor released a cover of "You've Got a Friend in Me" in collaboration with Randy Newman, the creator of the song. He was also featured in Spotify's Rise Program.

On 9 October 2018, O’Connor was scheduled to appear on the French television programme Quotidien, but refused to perform because it featured a sketch by comedian Alison Wheeler parodying the Ku Klux Klan, which he called "tasteless".

On 14 February 2019, O’Connor released the single "New House". Later that year on 12 September, O’Connor released "10/10"; the lead single from his third album Pony. Released on 25 October 2019, Pony was O’Connor’s first major-label album release through RCA Records. The album received a lukewarm reaction among critics, with Pitchfork rating it a 5.0 out of 10. Associate Editor Anna Gaca described the album as "relentlessly juvenile" while criticising its more "childlike" sound relative to his previous releases.

On 30 September 2020, O'Connor released an EP with recordings from his performance at Radio City Music Hall in New York City during his Pony tour titled Live at Radio City Music Hall alongside a documentaryreleased on YouTube. This documentary showed the events leading up to this performance as well as the early conclusion of the Pony tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In October 2020, O'Connor confirmed that he was in the process of recording a fourth studio album titled Who Cares?. In January 2021, he liked a Tweet seemingly confirming that it would be released at some point later that year. However, this did not materialise. On 13 January 2022, O'Connor began officially teasing the album, sending out postcards containing a phone number that when called, a snippet of song would play. The song, titled "Keep It Up" was released as a single on 26 January 2022. Along with this, it was announced on O'Connor's Instagram that 'Who Cares?' would be released on 11 March 2022.

Growing up, O'Connor listened to Queen, ABBA, Stevie Wonder, and American alternative artists like Weezer and Green Day. He cites these artists and others as core inspiration for his own music.

In 2015, O'Connor began dating fellow British singer-songwriter Thea Morgan-Murrell (known professionally as Thea), having met while attending the BRIT School together. O'Connor has sung about Morgan-Murrell in a variety of his songs, and both have collaborated on the tracks "Sycamore Girl" and "Never Had The Balls". On 24 November 2020, O'Connor confirmed on Twitter that he and Morgan-Murrell were separated, tweeting "i am not in a relationship".

Sexual assault allegations

On 10 October 2022, it was revealed O'Connor had been charged in London with six counts of sexual assault. The acts allegedly took place over the course of two days in June 2022. He pleaded not guilty to all six counts and was released on bail, with a trial provisionally scheduled for 3 January 2023. Regarding the charges, a representative for O'Connor released the following statement: "Alex is shocked by the allegations, which he denies, and looks forward to clearing his name in court. He is unable to make any further comment because of the ongoing proceedings."

In January 2018, O'Connor came in second in the BBC Sound of 2018 award after Norwegian singer Sigrid.

Studio albums

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Other charted songs

Music videos

• "Sunflower" (2017) (produced by Illegal Civ Cinema)
• "Loving Is Easy" (2017) (directed by Chris Ullens)
• "10/10" (2019) (directed by Warren Fu)
• "ONE IN A MILLION" (2022)