Rex Orange County On Growing Up, Keeping Things Personal, And Coming Back To Manila
The “Best Friend” hitmaker opens up about dealing with overthinking, reflecting on how he’s evolved since the early days of his career, and gearing up for his new record.
Courtesy of Rex Orange County
Courtesy of Rex Orange County
Rex Orange County (Alexander James O’Connor) has long resonated with listeners who love music that transforms deeply personal feelings into songs that feel universal.
Having entered the music scene at the age of 16 with his debut record, Bcos U Will Never B Free, Rex has undoubtedly evolved and grown as an artist. On his fifth record, The Alexander Technique, released in 2024, he has embraced a more introspective approach to the way he writes and makes music.
Throughout his nearly decade-long career, Rex Orange County, best known for songs like “Loving Is Easy,” “Best Friend,” and “Sunflower,” has captivated listeners around the world with his candid approach to love, longing, growing up, and everything in between — including a solid and passionate fanbase here in the Philippines.
Returning to Manila
In 2023, he performed in the Philippines for the first time, which he later described as the best show he’s ever played.
Now, as he enters a new chapter with his most collaborative record yet, Rex speaks to Billboard Philippines about the place he’s in now as an artist, the spirit of collaborations, and the experiences that continue to shape his music.
Courtesy of Rex Orange County
“[The 2023 show] was so loud, and people were singing so [loudly]. There was just a volume that you don’t normally get everywhere, you know?” he says. Performing “Happiness” in front of the Manila crowd that night was one of his favorite live renditions of that song. “It just felt very, very special in that moment. And there’s some kind of passion and gratitude that I just hadn’t experienced before, you know?” he adds.
Nearly three years later, Rex Orange County returned to the Philippines for an exclusive Asia show at the SM Mall of Asia Arena, where he treated Filipino fans to beloved tracks from his catalog, as well as the unreleased song “Boyfriend.”
Speaking about his connection with Filipino fans, he says, “Initially, I didn’t know why it happened to have so much love over here. I think now, maybe over time, I realized there’s a real appreciation for this kind of more emotional, heartfelt, and sentimental type of music.”
I got to talk with him about how Filipinos tend to gravitate toward songs that speak so much about yearning and longing, a sentiment reflected in the songs that have topped and charted on the Billboard Philippines charts.
A space for overthinking
For years, Rex has spent much of his career turning very specific feelings into songs that still feel universal. He says many of these emotions exist at the extremes, whether they’re at their most heartbroken or deeply in love. “Recently, I’ve felt a bit more at ease and calm and more acceptance and relaxed. I don’t know if I’ve really put that into a song. I don’t know if it’s as enticing or something,” he explains.
There’s no doubt that it’s easier to write about emotions at their extremes. For those who find comfort in expressing vulnerability and honesty through their writing, the words tend to flow more naturally when emotions are at their heaviest. “So this kind of calm and accepting energy, everything’s kind of fine. Which maybe I’ve tapped into a little bit on the last album, maybe,” he adds.
Courtesy of Rex Orange County
Now with multiple albums under his belt, time has done its thing, arming Rex with growth, realizations, and perspectives, while the younger version of himself remains very much present in who he is today.
“I’d say still in this kind of mental, emotional turmoil of overthinking. That’s still a real part of me. I really try to do my best to be stable,” he says. “But it’s still very much within me to be manically, frantically thinking about what it all means and why I would say a certain thing.
On dealing with overthinking, Rex shared how he has learned to sit with his thoughts and emotions rather than let them overwhelm and consume him. “I think you, at a point, realize that you can choose whether you go start overthinking or you just kind of like cut it off before it starts. And it seems impossible because you’re like, well, I’m not choosing to overthink,” he says.
“What is the thing that triggers you into getting into that thing? And then instead of just, like, letting, allowing your thing to take over, just like sitting for a second and not buying into it, even if it’s satisfying, even if it feels like I need to let this out,” he adds.
He also briefly demonstrated a technique for letting your guard down by allowing your body to move freely in the moment, saying, “Someone also said you gotta lay down, put your hands out like this on the floor like that, because that’s instinctively like you’re vulnerable. It’s like in the forest or something that you could be attacked.
“And then when your body realizes you’re completely safe, that’s when you calm down,” he adds.
Meeting Alexander
On The Alexander Technique, we got to meet and hear more about Alexander, more than anything, as the record felt like a diary of sorts. Making an album so personal taught Rex so much about where he is now as an artist.
“It just taught me that the idea of what your vision is, it’s like, it’s important to always just fulfill the thing for yourself and just make sure you’re doing it for yourself and not for anyone else,” he says. For the first time, he didn’t expect people to see the record as being as concise as his previous ones. In a way, it was his way of getting it out of his system while also doing something different.
“I really wanted to make a longer album. And it taught me that I don’t know if longer albums are better. I don’t love long albums as much as I thought I did or this idea of wanting to make it,” he explains. “It’s like, it just teaches you all sorts of shit, man.”
Photographed by Claire Shilland
Making that album felt like the first time he created something without thinking too much about how other people would feel about the songs. “Especially like a few albums after the first [one], where in the beginning no one’s listening, and you’re just like, ‘I have nothing to lose here,’ because I don’t have anything […] But it was nice to just do it for myself, you know?” he adds.
While making music that feels deeply personal, there’s also something to be said about the spirit of collaboration. For Rex, working with others has helped him become more open to embracing different creative ideas and bringing them into his music. With a new record on the way, he shared that it’s his most collaborative work yet, allowing him to embrace ideas he might not have come up with or been able to create on his own.
“It’s the sum of the parts, you know? And yeah, like three or four of my really good friends have helped me on this [record],” he shares. “It’s trusting your friends, trusting the people around you.” Despite this new undertaking, at the end of the day, it’s still very much a Rex album.
From the bedroom to the stage
From making music in his bedroom to performing in front of thousands of people around the world, he continues to keep his creative process intimate and personal.
“Well, I guess the music, the making of the music, is still quite small and personal. I’m not a very, very social person in the sense that I’m not on the internet in a big way, especially in between albums. I don’t even want to be on there,” he says. “I’m not interested in sharing my whole life outside of the music.”
He even jokingly shared that he’s tapped out of social media, describing himself as being “like a grandpa.”
Courtesy of Rex Orange County
“But more than that, there’s a real, genuine part of me that loves performing, loves touring. I like making music,” he adds. “I like putting it out. But, like, the kind of ins and outs of, like, you know, how I’m really feeling and what’s really going on for me day to day, I still keep to myself. You know, and people think that music is super confessional, and it is.”
On the new record, Rex revealed that it’s a highly collaborative project, featuring a number of his favorite artists who contributed to the album. “It’s got a bunch of my good friends, like, people I’ve really made friends with over the last year, two years,” he says.
“It’s very concise. It’s 12 songs, and it’s about this protagonist who’s trying to win somebody over. And all the characterizations of that person, falling in love with that person, the standard stuff I’ve spoken about before, but, like, written about in a way that I’ve never said it in a way I’ve never said it,” he adds.
Lyrically, it’s more exciting than ever because the songs are more collaborative. “It’s more exciting to me because things are being said that I just wouldn’t have thought to say by myself,” he said.
Frequently Asked Questions
Rex Orange County is the stage name of British singer-songwriter Alexander James O’Connor, who debuted at 16 with Bcos U Will Never B Free. Known for songs like “Loving Is Easy,” “Best Friend,” and “Sunflower,” he’s released five albums, most recently The Alexander Technique in 2024.
Rex Orange County first performed in the Philippines in 2023, a show he later called the best he’s ever played. He returned nearly three years later for an exclusive Asia show at SM Mall of Asia Arena, performing catalog favorites plus the unreleased track “Boyfriend.”
Rex Orange County’s next record is his most collaborative to date, made with several close friends and fellow artists. It’s a concise, 12-song project centered on a protagonist trying to win someone over, revisiting familiar themes of falling in love from angles he says he’s never written before.
Rex Orange County says his songwriting process stays small and personal, and that he’s largely stepped back from social media between albums. While he acknowledges his music is often confessional, he keeps his day-to-day feelings and experiences to himself rather than sharing them publicly.
Rex Orange County says he still experiences overthinking but has learned to recognize the trigger and choose not to engage with it before it escalates, rather than letting the thought spiral take over. He’s also described a grounding technique involving lying down with hands open to signal safety to the body.
