Alexander O'Connor (born May 4, 1998), better known by his stage name Rex Orange County, is an English recording artist and songwriter who grew up in the village of Grayshott near Haslemere, Surrey.
Video Rex Orange County
Name
The name Rex Orange County is based on a teacher given nickname, the OC, after O'Connor's initials.
Maps Rex Orange County
Education
At the age of 16 he went to the BRIT School, starting there as a drummer, one of four percussionists in his year. A relative rareness of his primary instrument provided him with wide exposure to various projects of others in his school. The school whose alumni list include Adele and King Krule is located in South London. Rex Orange County is a multi instrumentalist, playing in addition to drums, guitar, bass and piano, and blending in his vocals he was able to produce his own projects.
Work
Rex Orange County shared online the DIY "UNO" recording in 2016 when he was 18. The cut had featured "the buoyant keyboard riff underpins a hypnotic half-spoken vocal, one that veers from topic to topic in a hazy burst of creative mania".
"Bcos U Will Never B Free" was the debut self-produced full-length album released by Rex Orange County in 2016 on SoundCloud. In 2017 he released his second album "Apricot Princess". Three months after the release of his second album, Rex Orange County was featured in Tyler, the Creator's album Flower Boy doing vocals and writing in songs "Boredom" and "Foreword". Tyler picked up on O'Connor because of his debut album, reached out via SoundCloud and brought him to Los Angeles.
As of 9 May 2018, the most popular track by Rex Orange County on Spotify is "Loving Is Easy" created in collaboration with the Dutch artist Benny Sings. The song was covered by the Swedish singer Tove Styrke. On April 16 2018, Rex Orange County performed the single in his television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Awards
In January 2018 O'Connor came in second in the BBC Sound of 2018 award after Norwegian singer Sigrid.
Discography
Studio albums
Singles
- "Uno" (2016)
- "Best Friend" (2017)
- "Sunflower" (2017)
- "Untitled" (2017)
- "Edition" (2017)
- "Loving Is Easy" (featuring Benny Sings) (2017)
- "You've Got a Friend in Me" (featuring Randy Newman) (2018)
References
External links
- Rex Orange County at AllMusic
- Rex Orange County discography at Discogs
Source of the article : Wikipedia