I'm quite stubborn, and it's hard for me to let people in - whether that's literally, musically, or with business and work.
— Rex Orange County
I've never been uncomfortable sharing stuff. It's almost the opposite. I'll say the most blunt, brutally honest thing about any situation.
I want nice songs. I don't want to worry about where I have to place songs on a playlist. I'm looking to make genuine, great songs and put them together into albums.
'Apricot Princess' is like an inside album. You can listen to the album and feel all of those emotions within one night.
The first person on the BBC that played me was Huw Stephens. I was sat around my laptop with my girlfriend and my family, and it was super-exciting. It felt weird, and it sounded weirder, but it was great.
I grew up in a small village on the border of Hampshire and Surrey. When people ask, I tend to say that I'm from Haslemere.
I think there's no limit to ambition, and if you want something, you can make anything happen, so go for it.
I write songs, I play instruments, and I produce music that comes out for the world.
The first Nardwuar video I watched was, funnily enough, the first Odd Future one.
I don't think I'd call myself a rapper.
I'd rather go to school and do loads of music than anything else.
I met a lot of label people at the start of doing this music thing, and I just realised soon that it wasn't much about music but more so about their paycheck at the end of the day.
As long as you're being yourself and putting out what you want to put out, it'll be the best thing you could do.
I wear my musical heart on my sleeve and show all my influences off. I'm happy for someone to point out that my song sounds like someone else's.
I like being at the front - it's where I'm meant to be.
When I fifteen or sixteen and was in London, moving from a small town and now going to a big city, I discovered so much new music. Finding all of that music and being inspired that much all at once, that was the benefit of being from a small place.
School did stress me out, like it does for a lot of young people. I didn't like having to do work that I didn't care about.
I've been able to do a lot of cool things. That's always the dream for any artist.
I'm not actually as emotional as everybody thinks. 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.
I'm usually just writing lyrics alone in my room, but I'm happy to be producing and writing chords anywhere.
I find myself without Internet a fair bit in the house I live in in Streatham.
Alex Tumay is a recording engineer who works a lot with Young Thug and a load of other rappers, like Quavo. I'm just a fan of his work.
Anyone can put anything out at any point and make anything by themselves.
People have cried at a couple of shows. To think that someone could do that for me... Jesus Christ. That's a crazy sign.
Really I've just gotta be making really great music that I love and not worrying too much about what other people are gonna think about it.
I love things that are really linear and perfect and simple.
I won't be the kind of artist speaking in riddles all the time - it will be lyrics that make sense the moment I say them.
I feel like collaborating is something I need to try more of.
I want to make myself better and get working with some of my biggest influences and make the best music I can.
I took piano lessons and I wanted to play drums when I was six. Luckily enough, my parents let me have a drum kit in my room - which is kind of crazy.
A lot of music influences me in other ways than this, but I've always taken a lot of influence from Stevie Wonder, Frank Ocean, and Jeff Rosenstock for the Rex music. They were also the first three artists that released albums where I enjoyed every song.
I'm afraid of peacocks.
I'm not very good at a lot of things that aren't music. This is the only thing that I love doing, so, like, why wouldn't I make this my whole life?
I'm sure there's some awful video of me singing when I was, like, 13 or 15 at my old school that my dad didn't take down off YouTube.
I just want to tell people how I am.
I realized that you can achieve so much at the front of a stage, releasing the music yourself and being something more selfish than just the drummer.
I think 'Apricot Princess' actually came out before 'Flower Boy.'
Some people can work on the road, and that's incredibly impressive... maybe I'm not working myself hard enough.
The moment you start thinking about what other people and other artists think, you're going to start writing like other people.
