Five years ago, Alex O’Connor’s life changed in the blink of a Tweet. O’Connor was on the Tube in London, staring at his mobile phone, when he received a ping over social media from Tyler Gregory Okonma, aka Gen Z hip-hop icon Tyler, The Creator. Was O’Connor, who writes and performs as Rex Orange County, interested in a cameo on Tyler’s next record, Flower Boy? Something moved under O’Connor’s feet. It could have been the train lurching around the next bend. Or his life, tilting on its axis.
“I was pretty much an unknown artist,” says O’Connor, from his home in south London. “But I knew anyone who was going to hear me on Flower Boy, which is an amazing album, was then going to go and check out my music. I knew I had to get myself together.”
I know I'm going to have a lot of albums over the years. I'm at peace with where I'm at. And with doing this for my lifetime
If Ed Sheeran gave us the boy next door as global pop titan, O’Connor represents a geeky alternative. Christened a “sadboy” by the internet after he and Tyler worked together on the 2017 track Boredom, the 23- year-old songwriter is actually something more interesting than that depressive caricature suggests. A throwback to such heartfelt 1970s troubadours as Harry Nilsson and Cat Stevens, his songs are sprinkled with both despair and sunshine. That’s especially true of his just-released fourth record, Who Cares?, which swoops, in a dizzyingly wonky fashion, between self-recrimination and joy.
“I feel I’m in a place where I can take my time and put out what I want, when I want,” he says. “I know I’m going to have a lot of albums over the years. I’m at peace with where I’m at. And with doing this for my lifetime. I tried not to think too much and not go into the details. In the past, I’ve spent a long time torturing myself with details. With this one, I tried to put a deadline on it. Make a lot of songs, make a lot of ideas. We did 20 tracks and cut it down.”
The loose-limbed quality that runs through Who Cares? didn’t come about through happenstance. It represents a conscious pivot by an artist with a history of embracing stress as a creative tool. This problematic working method caused all sorts of difficulties in the past, particularly during the recording of 2019’s Pony.
Emotional grinder
That was the LP he made in order to build on the momentum of Flower Boy. In the studio, O’Connor very consciously put himself through the emotional grinder. The blessing of Tyler, The Creator would, he knew, introduce Rex Orange County to far wider audience. And he wanted to show the world what he was capable of. But when Pony proceeded to go top five in America and the UK (and reached 12 in the Irish charts) he was overwhelmed.
“It was an entire shift for my life,” he says. “And nobody is mentally prepared for that. I certainly wasn’t. I struggled.”
Even as he fretted about fame, Pony was taking on a life of its own. The album was hailed by the NME as a “total delight”. Rolling Stone praised its gleefully gawky single 10/10 as “an amalgamation of the plot of every single John Hughes movie” – though the reviewer went on to acknowledge that O’Connor’s music sometimes feels like an “overdose of saccharine” (when Rex Orange County is happy, he is very, very happy).
Those same emotions shimmer through Who Cares? Yet there is a newfound undertow of unease too, as O’Connor wrestles with overnight prominence.
“Every time I open my mouth/I have regrets in my mind,” he protests on single Keep It Up. “I guess it’s stress/It’s making me feel so depressed.”
“I was beating myself up, a lot. And I still do to this day, here and there. I’m in a much better place. I try to look after myself more,” he says. “I’ve been in therapy forever. And just looking at myself, trying to take care of myself.”
As with many of us, O’Connor feels he’s emerged from the pandemic a different person. Some of those changes have undoubtedly been for the better. “Being alone was not great. But being off the internet was,” he says. “And having a break from, like, real life. Talking to people in real life [was a welcome improvement]. Not being so engrossed in my phone. Trying to stay in real life. The break was definitely beneficial.”
Vicars on bicycles
O’Connor was born in 1998, the son of a teacher mother and sports photographer father. He grew up in Grayshott, Hampshire, one of those picture-postcard Home Counties villages where vicars twirl by on bicycles and Agatha Christie murder mysteries invariably unfold.
He didn’t hate the rural isolation, as creative young people sometimes do. Still, getting out and moving to London to attend the Brit School in Croydon – alma mater of Adele and Amy Winehouse – was clearly the making of him creatively. It’s also where he received his musical alias, which began with a teacher referring to O’Connor as “The OC”, in reference to his surname.
It's not really a break-up record at all. I didn't feel the need to go into that subject. I wanted to be free to write about whatever
The first Rex Orange County album was recorded in 2015 when O’Connor was 16. Bcos U Will Never B Free was a bit of a lark he put up on SoundCloud and shared with friends. As these things do, it got out into the world – and so was eventually discovered by Tyler. The rest is a pop rollercoaster ride which has left O’Connor still attempting to get his breath back.
Who Cares? comes with a significant footnote. During the making of the LP, O’Connor split from girlfriend of seven years, Thea Morgan-Murrell. Fans, who can have a prurient obsession with O’Connor’s romantic escapades, will be undoubtedly sifting through the lyrics looking for clues as to what went wrong. They may be wasting their time.
“It’s not really a break-up record at all. Who Cares? for me was definitely more of a . . . it was very separate as far as subject matter,” he says, mumbling slightly. “I didn’t feel the need to go into that subject. I wanted to be free to write about whatever. Whether it be about someone or not.”
Whatever about his private life, one thing he’s eager to clear up is the idea he’s perpetually moochy. The “sadboy” reputation still follows him. And if not obsessive about image, he is anxious for it to be known that his songwriting isn’t just about angst and insecurity. There is lots of happiness and celebration, too (not that this would not have been already obvious to anyone going to the trouble to listen to his music).
“I’m not like that all the time,” he says of the “sadboy” persona. “I understand why people would think that. I have leaned into exaggerated feelings. But I’m really not [a sadboy]. It is me being honest. It is also artistic [licence]. I’m between things. I’m up and down, like absolutely everyone else.”
Who Cares? is out now. Rex Orange County plays Iveagh Gardens Dublin on July 15
