• May 4, 1998
• British singer-songwriter Alex James O'Connor, who performs under the name of Rex Orange County, has built a global career by turning teenage anxiety, awkward romance, and a random school nickname into a signature bedroom-pop sound.
• His performing moniker came from a teacher who used to call him "The OC," a play on his surname O'Connor and the American teen drama TV series. "I actually haven't ever watched The O.C.," he admitted to i-D. "Maybe I should... but yeah, I used to answer to 'The OC' from one particular teacher, which was not ideal."
  
  He later slapped "Rex" onto the front simply because he liked how it sounded.
• Rex studied drumming at London's prestigious BRIT School, the alma mater of artists like Adele and Amy Winehouse. He was one of only four drummers in his graduating class, a shortage that turned into an advantage. Because "everyone needs percussion," he found himself playing with classmates across all kinds of genres. That constant collaboration pushed him to pick up the guitar, learn piano, and dive into production software, shaping the multi-instrumentalist style he's known for today.
• When he was 17, Rex self-released his debut project, Bcos U Will Never B Free, putting it up for free on SoundCloud and Bandcamp on September 4, 2015. The record got an official release on major streaming platforms in November 2016.
• His music caught the ear of Tyler, The Creator, who invited the teenage musician to Los Angeles to join the sessions for his album Flower Boy (2017). Rex ended up featuring on two of the album's biggest tracks, "Boredom" and "Foreword," which catapulted him onto the international stage practically overnight. Before that fateful phone call from Tyler, O'Connor had roughly 500 followers on SoundCloud.
• Rex has been open about his struggles with mental health, particularly around his 2019 album Pony. "I've been incredibly unhealthy mentally, I feel, for that entire time of making it," he told The Current in 2019. "And to this day I still feel like I'm a different person. But I'm happier now."
  
  He has regularly encouraged his listeners to seek therapy, viewing openness about mental health as "kind of more of a universal thing of this generation."
• Even with lyrics full of self-doubt and melancholy, Rex insists the "sad boy" image isn't the whole story. "I'm not actually as emotional as everybody thinks," he revealed to Nylon in 2017. "The songs are super personal, but that's just one side of me, and I guess people just assume I'm some troubled guy who's constantly sad."
  
  In the very same interview, he shared a much less serious fear: he is terrified of peacocks.
• When it comes to writing, he prefers to build the instrumental foundation first. "I like to just make music, in terms of playing chords, playing piano and guitar, finding things that sound nice, before worrying too much about vocals," Rex told Coup De Main. "Lyrics and vocals tend to come later on."

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