Rex Orange County

Alexander James O'Connor (born 4 May 1998), known professionally as Rex Orange County, is an English singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.

NPR Music journalist Zoë Jones has described O'Connor's music as "a bright blend of hip-hop, jazz, and bedroom pop".

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, Hampshire near Haslemere.

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.

At age 16, O'Connor began playing 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 with exposing him to new music.

Teaching himself how to produce his own music at the age of 16, he released his debut album, Bcos U Will Never Be Free (2015), free of charge on Bandcamp and Soundcloud.

On 4 September 2015, O'Connor self-released his debut album, Bcos U Will Never B Free, free of charge on SoundCloud and Bandcamp.

Upon listening to the album, fellow English musician and producer Two Inch Punch got in touch with him, 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".

O'Connor then released numerous solo singles throughout 2016 and 2017, including the platinum-certified singles, "Sunflower" and "Best Friend", and released his second studio album, Apricot Princess (2017).

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."

Bcos U Will Never B Free caught the attention of the American rapper Tyler, the Creator, who sent him an email describing his enjoyment of the project.

This led to Tyler flying O'Connor out the following year to Los Angeles to collaborate on his album Flower Boy, O'Connor co-writing and contributing vocals to the songs "Boredom" and "Foreword".

After catching the attention of Tyler, the Creator with Bcos U Will Never B Free, they collaborated on two songs from Tyler's fourth album, Flower Boy (2017), which caused O'Connor to rise to prominence, allowing him to sign with RCA Records.

On 25 January 2017, he released the single "Best Friend" (premiering on Apple Music's Beats 1 station), followed later in the year by the release of his second studio album Apricot Princess.

His work was compared by Aimee Cliff of The Fader in 2017 to "other artsy, post-genre teen artists, such as Kevin Abstract or Steve Lacy".

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, he performed the song in his television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

On 31 May 2018, he 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".

O'Connor released his third studio album, Pony (2019), lyrically exploring more personal topics, such as human emotion, and experimenting with different genres.

The album became his first to enter the Billboard 200, peaking at number three on the chart.

His fourth studio album, Who Cares? (2022), topped the United Kingdom, and reached number five on the Billboard 200.

On 14 February 2019, O'Connor released the single "New House".

Later that year on 12 September, he released "10/10"; the lead single from his third album Pony.

Released on 25 October 2019, Pony was his first major-label album release through RCA Records.

Review aggregator Metacritic gave the album a rating of 76/100 based on 11 professional reviews.

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 documentary released 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, he began officially teasing the album, sending out postcards containing a phone number that when called, a snippet of a song would play.

The album was released on 11 March 2022, and was his first to top the UK Albums Chart, entering ahead of Impera by Ghost.