Rex Orange County

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. 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 had worked. He became a drummer and later taught himself piano. He attended the BRIT School. ==Career==

2014–2016: Early career and Bcos U Will Never B Free At age 16, O'Connor began playing the guitar and started to produce his own music using Apple's Logic software. On 4 September 2015, Bcos U Will Never B Free was self-released by O'Connor free of charge on Bandcamp and SoundCloud. 2017–2018: Rise to prominence and Apricot Princess 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, 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. 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 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. 2019–2023: Pony and Who Cares? 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. 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. In July 2022, O'Connor cancelled tour dates in Australia, New Zealand and Europe due to "unforeseen personal circumstances". He then released a stand-alone single, titled "Threat", on 10 August 2022. In late 2023, O'Connor toured in countries throughout Australia and Asia. He then performed at the 2023 Camp Flog Gnaw festival. 2024–present: The Alexander Technique On 9 July 2024, O'Connor announced his fifth studio album, The Alexander Technique, after first teasing it one week prior on X. On 18 July 2024, O'Connor released two songs, "Alexander" and "Guitar Song" and shared the 16-song tracklist for the album, which was released on 6 September. The following year, on Valentines Day, Rex Orange County released a collaborative project with Daniel Caesar featuring two songs, "Rearrange My World" and "There's a Field (That's Only Yours)". The same year on September 9th 2025, he released 'Take A Drive" which was collaboratively produced with Pharrell Williams. ==Artistry==

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. On his song '2008' from the Alexander Technique he mentions Nas' Illmatic, The Black Album by Jay-Z, Paper Trail by T.I., Tha Carter III by Lil Wayne and 808s & Heartbreak by Kanye West as rap he listened to and was inspired by to begin his musical career. ==Personal life==

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. He sang about her in several of his songs, and they collaborated on the tracks "Sycamore Girl" and "Never Had the Balls". On 24 November 2020, he confirmed on Twitter that they were separated, tweeting "i am not in a relationship". On 10 October 2022, O'Connor appeared in Southwark Crown Court and was charged with six counts of sexual assault of the same woman, alleged to have taken place in June 2021. He pleaded not guilty to all counts and was bailed, with a trial provisionally scheduled for 3 January 2023. A representative for O'Connor released a statement on his behalf which read: "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". On 22 December 2022, O'Connor released a statement saying all charges against him were dropped and the case was to be dismissed following an investigation by the Crown Prosecution Service. O'Connor claimed in his statement that CCTV footage and a police interview with the complainant's partner – who was with her on the night in question – did not match her account, meaning the case did not meet the CPS's legal test for a prosecution. ==Accolades==

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

Studio albums • Bcos U Will Never B Free (2015) • Apricot Princess (2017) • Pony (2019) • Who Cares? (2022) • The Alexander Technique (2024) ==References==