Rex Orange County is not from Orange County at all, but you would be forgiven in thinking he’s American given his first big break came from LA’s very own Tyler, the Creator in 2017. After appearing twice on Tyler’s album ‘Flower Boy‘, Rex Orange County released his own debut album, ‘Apricot Princess’, and he hasn’t looked back since.

Nine years later, Rex (real name, Alex O’Connor) is performing at All Points East close enough to his hometown of Surrey, at Tyler’s curated two-day affair. Taking the penultimate slot on the main stage, Rex is one of the only big British acts of the day. Opening with the classic, ‘Apricot Princess’, Rex and his large band emit pure joy out onto Victoria Park. With the visuals on stage announcing the tracks as they start to play, it feels like a sing-a-long show where he really wants the crowd to get involved with every track. As was a slight theme of the festival, there were points where Rex tried to amp up the audience energy and although it worked to an extent, this said a lot more about the crowd than his performance. 

He brought out the ethereal Ravyn Lenae for their collaborative track, ‘Love Me Not’, which was a wonderful moment, and seeing Rex pick up a new instrument for almost every track added a depth which most artists aren’t able to access. My favourite part was when he asks the crowds to put their phones away for the last song, and says, “No one else will see this shit like it’s 2002.” There’s something about an artist being this direct with their fans for the sake of an intimate moment on stage that is highly refreshing, especially for a festival audience that is heavy on content capture.

I was fortunate enough to catch up with Rex Orange County backstage ahead of his set, where he was kind enough to talk about his creative process, working with Tyler, and a slightly unexpected fanbase.

Tyler put you on the map with ‘Flower Boy’, and so this is such a full circle moment to be back at his curated festival in the UK. How does that feel?

It feels amazing, it feels really good. I feel so grateful for the connection with him, I was a fan of him before I ever released any music so I’ve always been inspired by him. He’s someone that loves chords and produces, so I’ve already been influenced by the way he does things, so I’m very lucky that he heard the music and found the music at the time, and it’s so nice to still be in touch and in similar worlds.

You still spend a fair bit of time in the US, which is comparative to other British great alternative artists like James Blake and Dev Hynes. What is it about the US creative community or studio atmosphere that inspires you?

I live in the UK, and I love being in the UK…There is more of a studio culture because there are more studios and there are more producers and there are more writers. People who are like, “I’m a songwriter, I’m going to go to LA”, which means you kind of come across some of that if you want, but you can choose to be as involved in it as much or as little as you want.

Recently honestly, the best times I’ve had have just been in hotels anywhere. I did a fair bit in New York and a fair bit in Toronto. One of my other collaborators, Dev [Hynes], was on a trip to Jamaica and we went and made music. We went to Ethiopia, we went to Egypt and went to Rome, and did a bunch of different trips that were mostly friends and then making music on the side. So as much as I think America has those industries that exist there in a different way, I really think the process of making it, you can do it anywhere.

You were just in Jakarta, and looking at your top listeners on Spotify, they are mostly Indonesia and The Philippines, which I find curious. Do you know why that is?

I don’t know the exact reason…But I was at a festival and a few other people were playing, Matt Maltese was playing, Steve Lacy was playing, there’s a few people who have just a certain harmonic sensibility or chord choices. But more than that, it’s the heartfelt, sentimental writing I think…It’s a lot of love songs and ballads, kind of this more emotional thing. I’m sure they listen to so much music there, and they have original Filipino, which is a whole genre of its own, but there’s some kind of love for saddish, emotional music with certain chords I think, and that’s the conclusion I’ve drawn so far.

Your music is extremely raw and vulnerable, especially you’re really bearing your whole soul. How does it feel performing those tracks now versus when you were writing and recording them?

I’d say I’m “fortunate” in inverted commas because I don’t live it in a certain way when I’m performing it. When you’re writing it, you have so much room to consider all the things you could say and there’s so many questions being asked. But when it comes to actually just playing, I feel like I’m focusing on staying in tune, saying the right words, not getting the words wrong, performing in one way or another, making sure I’m present and not just staring with a guitar…I know a lot of artists who don’t have that choice and they just do live the songs when they are on stage and it’s painful, but it’s incredible to watch people in that way because they are actually going there…But I also don’t sing loads of ‘The Alexander Technique’, because I did a tour that was particularly for that, and I knew the music was so far away from other things I’d made that I wanted to maybe immortalise it for a few years and be like, if you came to see it there that’s where it was. 

Your latest release, ‘Indecision’, is with Daniel Caesar and you’ve released other singles together before. I know Toronto and London have a lot of cross over, but why do you work so well together?

I think we like a lot of the same things. Again, he produces himself, he plays a lot of instruments. I think he does phenomenal arrangement and production, and the way he writes music without just singing and writing the lyrics, and his voice is unbelievable and his harmonies. He just kind of covers a lot of the stuff that I also do, and when we met, we were both like, usually we don’t want other people doing xyz but we were both comfortable with each other contributing to those elements. Some of the songs like ‘Indecision’, he had written a lot of the lyrics, the other songs we arranged. There’s always a lot of trust, and he’s also just a great friend and I’ll try and catch him tomorrow.

In a few words, what can we expect from today’s set?

Hopefully a lot of energy, hopefully a lot of loud singing back and hopefully a guest or two.

Words: Nicola J Davies //
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