Speaker 1: Pushkin. Alexander O'Connor wasn't expecting the music sharing platforms SoundCloud
Speaker 1: to change his life. The eighteen year old British musician
Speaker 1: was just uploading songs for fun, but then people started
Speaker 1: taking notice of him and his musical persona Rex Orange County.
Speaker 1: These early recordings started racking up hundreds of thousands of
Speaker 1: plays pretty quickly, and one of those people listening was Tyler,
Speaker 1: the creator, who we just featured on the podcast a
Speaker 1: couple of episodes ago. Tyler liked what he heard from
Speaker 1: Rex OC so much that he wound up flying him
Speaker 1: out to La to work on one of his albums,
Speaker 1: flower Boy. And that's not Rex's only famous collaborator. Randy Newman,
Speaker 1: the legendary singer songwriter, duetted with Rex on his toy
Speaker 1: story classic You've Got a Friend in Me. After all
Speaker 1: of that, Alex aka Rex is still only twenty one
Speaker 1: years old and he's hid another major milestone. He's just
Speaker 1: released his major label debut, Pony. Rex out over the
Speaker 1: summer with Rick Rubin to preview some of the album
Speaker 1: for him and to talk through the tracks. He discusses
Speaker 1: why he's collaborating less and less with other artists these days,
Speaker 1: and how that's helped him find his voice for his
Speaker 1: new project, which he wrote, recorded and played almost entirely
Speaker 1: by himself. This is Broken Record Season three liner notes
Speaker 1: for the Digital Age. I'm justin Richmond. Just a quick
Speaker 1: note here. You can listen to all of the music
Speaker 1: mentioned in this episode on our playlist, which you can
Speaker 1: find a link to in the show notes. For licensing reasons,
Speaker 1: each time a song is referenced in this episode, you'll
Speaker 1: hear this sound effect. Let's listen to now. On Rick's
Speaker 1: conversation with Rex, Orange County three Testings, let's talk. Okay,
Speaker 1: so since I saw you last, where have you been?
Speaker 1: What have you been up to since I saw you last?
Speaker 1: I've been I've been mainly at home in London, and
Speaker 1: I haven't I haven't gone away too much. I haven't
Speaker 1: actually been in America too much or anywhere else. I've
Speaker 1: kind of just spent a lot of time in my
Speaker 1: own space and with with the people who I've made
Speaker 1: the first music ever with and kind of just like
Speaker 1: gotten back to how it was, how it always worked
Speaker 1: best after trying a few things. But it was probably
Speaker 1: like a period of time after we first met where
Speaker 1: I was trying working with other people, and certain things
Speaker 1: worked and a lot of things didn't. It's very difficult
Speaker 1: to let people in. I find on the whole when
Speaker 1: you when you have a lot of control already, but
Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time at home yet writing
Speaker 1: and finishing figuring out this next album. Yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's great that you gave yourself the time and experience
Speaker 1: of training those different things to see what works and
Speaker 1: what doesn't. Because some people, once things get rolling, kind
Speaker 1: of get on a track of starting a project and
Speaker 1: then sometimes going maybe not the best direction and don't
Speaker 1: really stop and think, you know, don't pull back. So
Speaker 1: it's great that you got to do all that and
Speaker 1: see this works, this doesn't work, And absolutely no, I'm
Speaker 1: so grateful I did, because it's I'd hate. The last
Speaker 1: thing I want is to feel as if I feel
Speaker 1: as if I've settled for something that isn't maybe right,
Speaker 1: And you do have to try those things more importantly
Speaker 1: to know that they're not right maybe than that they were.
Speaker 1: We've got a song for the album that's pretty good
Speaker 1: and it's with a cool person or whatever, but it's
Speaker 1: if it's more valuable maybe to go try that thing
Speaker 1: and realize that it didn't working. Absolutely come back home
Speaker 1: and not work with those people anymore. For sure. I
Speaker 1: like to think that there are no there are no
Speaker 1: failed experiments, you know. It's like every experiment we learn
Speaker 1: from and we see what works and what doesn't, and
Speaker 1: it's really helpful in finding our direction. And it's impossible
Speaker 1: to know an advance, you know, until you do it,
Speaker 1: it's impossible. Of course, I agree, totally. I'm really anxious
Speaker 1: to hear. Of course, maybe we should hear. Looking forward
Speaker 1: to listening. Okay, great, all right, it's and it's mainly
Speaker 1: mainly me and there's no other sort of like listed features. Actually,
Speaker 1: the only other voice on there is my girlfriend and
Speaker 1: one of the only other instrumentalists other than the producers,
Speaker 1: Pano playing bass, which is amazing. But I don't I
Speaker 1: don't want to give too much context. But that's generally like,
Speaker 1: that's okay, hopefully that makes some sense. Let me just
Speaker 1: make sure it's actually stopping talk about it a little bit.
Speaker 1: It's completely not what I was expecting at all, much
Speaker 1: more upbeat, much more I'll use the word poppy in
Speaker 1: a melodic way. Whereas I feel like your your the
Speaker 1: other music of yours that I've heard before was more
Speaker 1: more about the style and less about the melody. And
Speaker 1: now it's really has a different energy, but it still
Speaker 1: has the vibes of the original, or i'll call it
Speaker 1: it's not moodiness but emotion of the original short style, sure,
Speaker 1: but in a completely different context. And it's really surprising
Speaker 1: and refreshing. I'm so glad you reacted that way. I'm
Speaker 1: definitely I definitely feel as if it was melody. Like
Speaker 1: the song was not lyrically developed at all right at
Speaker 1: the beginning, and it existed for a week or so
Speaker 1: as just the melody and the structure and the chords
Speaker 1: existing as as a thing before the lyrics actually, and
Speaker 1: so it kind of just like that was already very
Speaker 1: much so solid. And I've been listening to that voice
Speaker 1: memo of me just like mumbling it over and over
Speaker 1: and stuff, and it's kind of like it was way
Speaker 1: more based within the just the song and the melody actually,
Speaker 1: I think primarily and it wasn't necessarily about what I
Speaker 1: had to say first off, So I think that I'm
Speaker 1: glad that came through. I also really love there's there's
Speaker 1: a part towards the beginning of the song, when the
Speaker 1: beat drops out and the sound of the vocal really changes.
Speaker 1: It's subtle, but when it changes, it gets much more
Speaker 1: intimate and it's a it's a beautiful moment. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: really like tasteful productions. Yes, sir, thank you. That's me
Speaker 1: and my good friend Ben Batsy, as well as just
Speaker 1: me and him in a room. He makes my last album,
Speaker 1: he makes this one too, but he he became pretty
Speaker 1: much my rock of just like my my code, producing
Speaker 1: my partner along the whole way. And he did a
Speaker 1: lot sonically that and it taught me a lot actually
Speaker 1: sonically just explained why things he felt like things sounded
Speaker 1: better like this or didn't sound as good like this,
Speaker 1: and actually informed me a lot on that kind of
Speaker 1: stuff as well. And I'm and now it allows me
Speaker 1: to go and be like, oh, I think the second
Speaker 1: verse should be really up close, so that the vocal
Speaker 1: comes up and it becomes more intimate and you can
Speaker 1: talk about it and just a feeling level. But he
Speaker 1: can just achieve that it feels really fresh. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I'll play this next one. Let me just ask, can
Speaker 1: you can you guys send in a pad and a
Speaker 1: pen thanks. Okay, this next one is the one you know,
Speaker 1: but I felt like he deserves to be honest. When
Speaker 1: we come back, Rexel breakdown face to face the new track,
Speaker 1: which is heard We're back with Rex and Rick talking
Speaker 1: about the style face to face. So how did that
Speaker 1: one come about? That one was actually the first thing
Speaker 1: I made on my laptop after my last album, and
Speaker 1: it was the part this the keys part that is
Speaker 1: just like the sign waves doing the really simple two
Speaker 1: chord part, And it actually existed on my laptop for
Speaker 1: a long time before I figured out what I wanted
Speaker 1: to say on it or figure out where I wanted
Speaker 1: to take it musically. It was always just this thing
Speaker 1: between two chords and had a few synth lines on
Speaker 1: top of each other and just a few bits of
Speaker 1: it really, and what happened was over time. It's kind
Speaker 1: of about it. The song itself is about feeling like
Speaker 1: you want to be back home with the person you
Speaker 1: actually want to be with, and missing the person you
Speaker 1: love and feeling like you're stuck in some kind of
Speaker 1: situation elsewhere geographically and literally, that thing where you're all
Speaker 1: where else where you don't really want to be with
Speaker 1: people who you don't really want to be with and
Speaker 1: your and it's literally I had to get I had
Speaker 1: to have that situation, which was bigger than just that
Speaker 1: one day of like feeling that thing and having phone
Speaker 1: calls where we both wake up, we're both on the
Speaker 1: phone with each other, but she's in bed. We're both
Speaker 1: in bed, but she is the morning for her and
Speaker 1: I'm about to go to sleep. Whatever. It's really surreal
Speaker 1: when you're just like really angry but really really missing
Speaker 1: someone at the same time and feeling emotional. And I
Speaker 1: had to have that before I actually wrote the whole
Speaker 1: song in one go lyrically one of the only times
Speaker 1: that really happened, and ended up fitting it to the
Speaker 1: original project that was not meant to be. It was
Speaker 1: the original instrumental was just for whatever I was going
Speaker 1: to write over it, but obviously it kept its place.
Speaker 1: But when you wrote the words, did you write the
Speaker 1: words with the chords in mind or did you write
Speaker 1: write it more like a poem and then realize that
Speaker 1: they worked over the chords the latter I wrote them
Speaker 1: as a wrote the verse three year I then found
Speaker 1: that it worked over this music. Yeah, I imagined it
Speaker 1: to be some kind of disco ish sort of one
Speaker 1: twenty one t tempo of just fall to the floor
Speaker 1: and I can imagine it, but I didn't. I didn't
Speaker 1: hear those chords necessarily, and I just fit them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: pretty much what you just said. That had the lyrics
Speaker 1: and then fit those two everything else interesting And when
Speaker 1: did the beat come? The beat was actually in the
Speaker 1: original logic far, which was just some logic drums that
Speaker 1: which is putting on the keyboard. It sounded like like
Speaker 1: I could imagine the beat being there from the beginning,
Speaker 1: but I it can sound like that, but it doesn't
Speaker 1: feel that happened. It sounded like that, so I was curious. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: that was that was always there from the beginning, but
Speaker 1: never was never meant to come in until it was
Speaker 1: always meant to come in where it came in. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's still I feel like that beats implied through
Speaker 1: the whole thing, you know, like I feel that energy
Speaker 1: when the beat comes in. It doesn't feel like, yes,
Speaker 1: it feels like dramatic because it's a beat, but I
Speaker 1: feel like we're already in that rhythm. Yeah, clearly you're
Speaker 1: prepared for absolutely. That's great. So the musically it didn't
Speaker 1: change much from the original idea. Not a lot there
Speaker 1: was well, there was a lot of chipping away, adding
Speaker 1: things that we felt like within the studio having like
Speaker 1: different you know, the melotron in the bridge and the
Speaker 1: idea of having the strings they're all not and like
Speaker 1: there were things that conversations that me and Ben had
Speaker 1: for a long time, but actually on the whole, yeah,
Speaker 1: pretty much came in in a certain way and and
Speaker 1: was done over two or three days. The first time
Speaker 1: got it to a certain point where it pretty much
Speaker 1: sounded like an rough version of this pretty much, but
Speaker 1: then there was a lot of details that we wanted
Speaker 1: to go into overtime and changing certain bits, and it's
Speaker 1: kind of hard to remember in ways, it's almost like
Speaker 1: it's a blur of like it was always I could
Speaker 1: from the day that I've figured out that poem would
Speaker 1: work over this thing. It's kind of just since then,
Speaker 1: it's like, well, I mean I just put it there
Speaker 1: and did my best, and he did his best. And
Speaker 1: that was hard to really explain completely understood understand that
Speaker 1: in the in that moment of the burst of creativity
Speaker 1: of like discovery, a lot of things happen very quickly,
Speaker 1: and sometimes I know in my experiences. Sometimes I'll hear
Speaker 1: something after we've recorded it, and I don't even remember
Speaker 1: that it happened, because it's you're kind of in this
Speaker 1: zone where things are just happening, and then afterwards you
Speaker 1: look back it's like, wow, that's incredible, Like I know
Speaker 1: I was involved, but I don't really remember how that
Speaker 1: happened exactly. Very exciting. It's a thrilling feeling. It's like
Speaker 1: almost being in an altered state. Yeah, yeah, you're like it, Yeah,
Speaker 1: do you do you feel that way? Often? No, Often
Speaker 1: it happens. It's it's I feel like a lot of
Speaker 1: the time in the studio, we're waiting for that to happen.
Speaker 1: I don't think about it as waiting, but there's a
Speaker 1: lot of times when sort of we know that there's
Speaker 1: something that needs to happen. You're just kind of waiting
Speaker 1: until the stars align, and then all of a sudden
Speaker 1: it starts happening, and then it's sort of feels almost
Speaker 1: out of control that it just this momentum starts. I
Speaker 1: always when when I realize it's happening, I always try
Speaker 1: to relax and just think, okay, I just hope that
Speaker 1: it goes as long as it can go, yeah, just
Speaker 1: like stay out of the way of this momentum that's arrived. Yeah,
Speaker 1: within the air, definitely, I have that. I've had that
Speaker 1: a few times. But it's it's you always. I think
Speaker 1: you always had an intention, but you never it's hard
Speaker 1: to explain the process. But in the middle I can
Speaker 1: just look back at what I originally was trying to
Speaker 1: do and go, well, I did achieve that, or I didn't,
Speaker 1: but it's still great and it's better for it, and
Speaker 1: we found something else that I wasn't expecting. But it's
Speaker 1: hard to sometimes pin down the moment. In the middle bit,
Speaker 1: I think absolutely absolutely. And when did Pino play on it.
Speaker 1: He played on it probably three quarters of the way
Speaker 1: through making it, so it was already practically like it
Speaker 1: just had a like a synth base. I think before
Speaker 1: that was just kind of driving on like halftime of
Speaker 1: the drums. And I think what happened was I was
Speaker 1: speaking to someone who said, you should try and not
Speaker 1: do everything yourself, and you should try and invest in
Speaker 1: people who are really really great at their craft, because
Speaker 1: if they've spent their whole life doing that one thing,
Speaker 1: then you probably on paper they can do it. They
Speaker 1: can do it the best or whatever. It's like going
Speaker 1: compared to you. You're competent. I'm competent on bass, and
Speaker 1: there's a lot of album, A lot of this album
Speaker 1: I played the bass on, but it was not because
Speaker 1: those songs didn't necessarily in my head feel as if
Speaker 1: they deserved like the you know, it wasn't all about
Speaker 1: the bass. I don't think those other songs, but that
Speaker 1: one for me and bending him and I had a
Speaker 1: conversation where it was like do we just you know,
Speaker 1: after soon after that other conversation about you should invest
Speaker 1: in you know, other people who do they think, not
Speaker 1: do everything yourself, I just said, why don't we get
Speaker 1: Peno to play on this song? And I think we
Speaker 1: joked about it before and was like, imagine if he
Speaker 1: would ever do such a thing. But you realize these
Speaker 1: people are around and they do actually play, you know,
Speaker 1: their instruments for people when you ask. So you just
Speaker 1: had to ask, and it was a very very special
Speaker 1: moment for me because I was just a big fan
Speaker 1: of him and all his work and having him to
Speaker 1: do it so quickly and I'm sure I know you've
Speaker 1: watched him. Yeah, that's fantastic. Did you play him the
Speaker 1: original bass part or did you just play him the
Speaker 1: track with nothing I played? Do you know what happened?
Speaker 1: I played him the We sent him the song and
Speaker 1: it had the sign basin, and he actually called me
Speaker 1: to find out how I wanted to do it in
Speaker 1: terms of keeping the sign basin or not, because he
Speaker 1: was like, I quite like how it is in there,
Speaker 1: and I wonder if we can have the digital based
Speaker 1: and the meet the live human based working together. And
Speaker 1: I was like, I'd like to know that. We'll see
Speaker 1: if we can or can't. And he came in open minded,
Speaker 1: and we quickly realized that it was better with just
Speaker 1: him than the since. But he was he called me
Speaker 1: to say, what should we do with that? Because I'm
Speaker 1: interested to know that. I said in the email, it's
Speaker 1: like it's already a bass part there, but obviously it's
Speaker 1: a case of either switching it out or seeing how
Speaker 1: it goes. But he actually picked up on that and
Speaker 1: we had the conversation and it worked out for the best.
Speaker 1: What would you say, what would you consider your influences
Speaker 1: throughout everything or in general? I don't think we ever
Speaker 1: talked about this before. Maybe not. I feel like as
Speaker 1: a child, I was very open to kind of a
Speaker 1: lot of different types of music, and I was inspired
Speaker 1: a lot by bands and I played the drums, so
Speaker 1: I was listening to Wheezer and Blink one eight two
Speaker 1: and Green Day and to put to put like a
Speaker 1: corner of those type that type of music at a
Speaker 1: young age I really loved. And then there was this thing,
Speaker 1: now that's why I call music CDs where they would
Speaker 1: have just like a compilation of pop music. And it's
Speaker 1: like but they would they would have like Homecoming by
Speaker 1: Kanye on there, or they'd have like like Atomic Kitten
Speaker 1: or like there was like there was like real like
Speaker 1: pop or just like Girls Aloud. It was there was
Speaker 1: just every sort of side of pop music that was
Speaker 1: still working on the radio could go on this compilation CD.
Speaker 1: And I think I was just exposed to a lot
Speaker 1: of different stuff. And you I soon realized. I didn't
Speaker 1: real realize until maybe a couple of years ago. But
Speaker 1: you certain like certain things you're drawn to and always
Speaker 1: like certain things. Certain places resonate with you or don't.
Speaker 1: And it's very easy it's hard to like fake enthusiasm. Actually,
Speaker 1: if you if you're somewhere or you hear something that
Speaker 1: you're not actually into. So there's certain things for me.
Speaker 1: I think I just always was always drawn to things,
Speaker 1: not necessarily who they would buy. I would never be
Speaker 1: like I love that artist, everything by them is great.
Speaker 1: It's like I find that hard even today to say
Speaker 1: I love everything from one person. It's really a small
Speaker 1: handful of people who've ever done that for me. But
Speaker 1: I found people like Kanye and people like Stevie Wonder
Speaker 1: at a young age, and his discography was one of
Speaker 1: the first things I've really found, like there were so
Speaker 1: many different styles but just using a lot of the
Speaker 1: same chords, but so many different chords in different keys,
Speaker 1: and just realized I thought I'd kind of just realized
Speaker 1: what genius was. But then at the same time, it's schooled.
Speaker 1: People would show me Eminem and jay Z and have like,
Speaker 1: show me an MP three player in the flesh and
Speaker 1: someone had I had an MP three player with one
Speaker 1: Eminem song and one jay Z song, and I think
Speaker 1: it was I think it was fac by Eminem Unfortunately
Speaker 1: We're not. Unfortunately was amazing, really but like that was
Speaker 1: like one of the first rap songs ever heard, And
Speaker 1: then I believe it was What more can I say
Speaker 1: or something from the Black album by Jay I think,
Speaker 1: which was at that time. I was just kind of
Speaker 1: like I didn't know what that even was, and that
Speaker 1: was just my first introduction. So I kind of I
Speaker 1: feel as if I was just gravitated towards what was
Speaker 1: put in front of me. But then there was so
Speaker 1: much put in front of me. I didn't have to
Speaker 1: get into all these other bands from pop bands from
Speaker 1: the UK and stuff. Certain things. I was into certain songs,
Speaker 1: but there was a lot of cause, and I think
Speaker 1: a lot of theory and certain vocal melodies and stuff
Speaker 1: actually that I wasn't like always driven to melody. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they would just be the cause and they would be
Speaker 1: a vocalist doing something that actually didn't really resonate with me,
Speaker 1: but I could just point out certain bits that I
Speaker 1: loved about it, mainly music. Actually, honestly, I haven't really
Speaker 1: had a lot of I'd be lying if I said
Speaker 1: I'm really influenced by films and stuff, because I'm not.
Speaker 1: But I do, you know, I enjoy watching films like
Speaker 1: a lot of people. But I think most of what
Speaker 1: truly truly resonates with me is either just like people
Speaker 1: saying words that make me want to go and do
Speaker 1: something or real like sound at sonics and chords and
Speaker 1: music from any type of person, any type of band.
Speaker 1: Just just a lot of influences really that could go
Speaker 1: on a long list, but I think when I really
Speaker 1: put it down to just what resonates with me, I
Speaker 1: think that's that's all. And I've just I love music
Speaker 1: as well, so it probably it helps you know when
Speaker 1: did you start experimenting with chords? It moved from drums
Speaker 1: to two keys. I mean I actually probably experimented with
Speaker 1: the keys before the good idea. I've probably experimented with
Speaker 1: keys before drums, and was playing like Cold Play songs
Speaker 1: on the piano at a young age, like whilst learning drums.
Speaker 1: But there was there was a point when I was
Speaker 1: at school. I went to a place called the brit School,
Speaker 1: and when I arrived there on my first day, I
Speaker 1: met a guy called Jim who played the drums, and
Speaker 1: I came as a drummer as well. And in the
Speaker 1: year there was sort of like four or five people
Speaker 1: that played drums and they had everyone performer a set
Speaker 1: like not a set, sorry, like a solo performance on
Speaker 1: the first dick, so we could all kind of like
Speaker 1: show the year what we did, and I remember watching
Speaker 1: Jim play drums and I was I just thought, I
Speaker 1: don't think I'm a drummer. I think he is a drummer.
Speaker 1: I think I'm someone that is competent on drums, and
Speaker 1: i'm I love drums, but I also I've spent I've
Speaker 1: spent time doing a bit of keys, I've spent time
Speaker 1: doing a bit of this, and like singing and stuff,
Speaker 1: and Jim or I'm assuming, having not knowing him at
Speaker 1: the time, I was like, I guess this guy's just
Speaker 1: spent his whole life doing drums because he look he
Speaker 1: sounds like someone who's put so much into the drums,
Speaker 1: which I've I can't catch up on that. And there's
Speaker 1: so many people out there, you know, it's very instant, like, well,
Speaker 1: that's probably not my calling. I think that's his calling
Speaker 1: all someone else of that sort. And what happened was
Speaker 1: I probably that sparked me to think that I could
Speaker 1: just do something else. And people were putting me onto
Speaker 1: other solo artists that I was unaware of, and like
Speaker 1: singers who played the guitar, and I never really was
Speaker 1: interested in the guitar as much. It was more the piano,
Speaker 1: and so I kind of was like, well, if I
Speaker 1: can translate the chords from the piano over to the guitar,
Speaker 1: I don't have to be much of a guitarist. I
Speaker 1: can just be someone playing music through a using a guitar.
Speaker 1: So I can't play really a guitar solo competently, but
Speaker 1: I could still to this day, I'm still just more
Speaker 1: of just a chord guy if you want. I just
Speaker 1: kind of translated it over to that. But it was
Speaker 1: at school, middle of school, and I realized it couldn't
Speaker 1: be a drummer, didn't want to be a drummer, would
Speaker 1: rather be something else, and also had a lot on
Speaker 1: my mind I wanted to talk about. And they came
Speaker 1: at the right times together, and I was like, what
Speaker 1: else can I do? Let's just, you know, found a way,
Speaker 1: spent the summer in someone's house just recording and very
Speaker 1: amateur in a good way and very diy and just yeah,
Speaker 1: it just all came in. It was the right place,
Speaker 1: right time. It was lucky. It was quite early on
Speaker 1: in my life, to be honest, and it was, yeah,
Speaker 1: how old do you when the first thing you put
Speaker 1: who you released your first piece of music? I think
Speaker 1: I had just turned seventeen. Wow, I think i'd maybe
Speaker 1: all just a few months after being seventeen. On SoundCloud. Yes,
Speaker 1: SoundCloud has been good to you. It really has. It
Speaker 1: really has. And I did the first album there as well.
Speaker 1: And then you watch you like, go on SoundCloud every
Speaker 1: day and watch it go up and you're like wow,
Speaker 1: and just start. It's not on actual streaming services yet
Speaker 1: they really it was me. You know, the artist does
Speaker 1: it whatever. The music speaks for itself, but the platform
Speaker 1: is was really genuinely useful for that. I wonder if
Speaker 1: timing had anything to do with it as well, because
Speaker 1: I feel like when I heard about you, I was
Speaker 1: listening to a lot of music on SoundCloud, and I
Speaker 1: feel like lately I haven't been listening to as much
Speaker 1: on SoundCloud you as well. I haven't, I definitely have.
Speaker 1: It's interesting. It's like, I wonder how that works. It's
Speaker 1: just fascinating. What are you listening to music on at
Speaker 1: the moment. I've been listening mostly to like classical music
Speaker 1: and jazz from all different places, but not so much usually.
Speaker 1: The only the only new music that I listen to
Speaker 1: is when a friend tells me to listen to something sure,
Speaker 1: And for some reason I went from a phase of
Speaker 1: not listening to much hip hop to listening to much
Speaker 1: more hip hop, much more new hip hop, which I'm
Speaker 1: really enjoying. Yeah, yeah, great, it feels like a it's
Speaker 1: an interesting moment in hip hop because I'm hearing I'm hearing.
Speaker 1: Usually the thing that most excites me about music is
Speaker 1: when it sounds like something I haven't heard before and
Speaker 1: it's really surprising. Yet I'm hearing some hip hop now
Speaker 1: that is not so surprising. In some ways, it's ordinary,
Speaker 1: yet it's a very very very good version of ordinary,
Speaker 1: and I like it. Yeah. So that's that's a little
Speaker 1: bit of a new experience right now for me. Great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I do love some new representually love some new rep
Speaker 1: And there's definitely that element of it's not necessarily surprising.
Speaker 1: What new and hip hop have you been listening to
Speaker 1: that you like? I like the Baby I feel. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you've heard the Baby should listened to him.
Speaker 1: He's a d a baby and he's from North Carolina.
Speaker 1: He's from Charlotte, and he's just got a very he's
Speaker 1: got a specific flow that actually talking about it's like
Speaker 1: you don't I haven't actually really heard much exactly like him.
Speaker 1: I just mean I enjoyed. He's very clever lyrically in
Speaker 1: his beats are very simple and effective. And I think
Speaker 1: a lot of this new rap actually some of it's
Speaker 1: very simple and not effective. A lot of it's some
Speaker 1: of it when you get it right, and all subjective. Again,
Speaker 1: like some things resonating me, some things don't. But some
Speaker 1: of these rap songs feel very effective in their simplicity,
Speaker 1: and you don't, I like not hearing ad libs before
Speaker 1: when you first hear it, and then later on listening,
Speaker 1: I mean like that's where the energies come from, of
Speaker 1: them shouting behind their other vocal But I didn't even
Speaker 1: realize the first few times. Now that's a simple thing.
Speaker 1: But that's just an observation. It's hard to listen names.
Speaker 1: There's there is also so any names in the conversation,
Speaker 1: I think absolutely, and now more than it's endless, it's endless,
Speaker 1: and it feels like the turnover or the excitement about music.
Speaker 1: It moves much faster, Like when I hear something, even
Speaker 1: something that I really love, I listen to it and
Speaker 1: then there's something new that replaces that slot sooner than later,
Speaker 1: which used to be the case. Used to I used
Speaker 1: to really live with things that I liked for a
Speaker 1: long time. Of course, so it's happening, feels like it's
Speaker 1: happening less not sure why. No. I wonder if it's
Speaker 1: just because of the amount of things that are out
Speaker 1: and I wonder if that means that that gives people
Speaker 1: a reason to be less impressed, and maybe just it's
Speaker 1: landfill amounts from music to the point where it's like, well, okay, once,
Speaker 1: once you're done with something. Once it's not if it
Speaker 1: doesn't really if you don't love it, if you don't again,
Speaker 1: like if it doesn't really really resonate with you, then
Speaker 1: you're it's quite easy to feel like you can just
Speaker 1: move on to the next thing and hope that there's
Speaker 1: something else, because there probably will be, because there's so
Speaker 1: much music out I'm speaking from the perspective of maybe
Speaker 1: a listener that I've can't necessarily relate with. I don't
Speaker 1: know what I'm guessing this is an assumption, but I
Speaker 1: think it's just quite a lot of music out there.
Speaker 1: It's true. Let's see the next one, let's hear it.
Speaker 1: When we come back, we'll have more of Rix conversation
Speaker 1: with Rax Slange County and we'll hear his new song
Speaker 1: Stressed Out. We're back with Rax slannge County song stressed Out,
Speaker 1: I have that one calling about. That one was actually
Speaker 1: one of the two songs on there that I wrote
Speaker 1: in a small house by myself in a place called Devon,
Speaker 1: which is in the countryside of things, about four four
Speaker 1: and a half hours probably from here, I would imagine,
Speaker 1: And I decided to go and be by myself for
Speaker 1: a week and try and write things because I'd spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time with like I've mentioned earlier, with
Speaker 1: instrumentals and ideas that were either waiting for vocals or
Speaker 1: just had some vocals and waiting for the rest of them,
Speaker 1: and I was feeling like sticking with saying in the
Speaker 1: room listening to them over and over again, or in
Speaker 1: the presence of someone else. I just felt as if
Speaker 1: it was just maybe going to be a good thing
Speaker 1: for me to remove myself from all of it, be
Speaker 1: in the same country, but just take some time out
Speaker 1: and take some space. But it was very difficult, actually,
Speaker 1: and I actually wrote that on the last day, on
Speaker 1: the Sunday. I did seven days, and I wrote on
Speaker 1: the final day and recorded a demo that some of
Speaker 1: the vocals and the keys in facts recorded off my phone.
Speaker 1: Still on the same things on there, and it's kind
Speaker 1: of like it was a moment of confusion and frustration
Speaker 1: and feeling as if people, you know, there are people
Speaker 1: in the world that do take advantage of you, And
Speaker 1: there's a lot of themes of that across here all
Speaker 1: of the songs. But it was it's kind of like
Speaker 1: the epitome of me being frustrated and stressed out. It's
Speaker 1: called stressed out. But it happened. It came from a
Speaker 1: really annoying period of time where I didn't write anything
Speaker 1: in that week and that's all I wanted to do,
Speaker 1: and then write on the last day of course, sort
Speaker 1: of finished the one thing that I really didn't loved
Speaker 1: and allowed to. I wonder if it's as short as
Speaker 1: it is because you wanted to get out of Devon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's probably the case. It probably is. It feels it
Speaker 1: it's almost like a personification of my trip. It was
Speaker 1: a but it's beautiful because again it captures a feeling
Speaker 1: in a moment and it feels different than the rest.
Speaker 1: So it was a successful even though you had to
Speaker 1: have this lonely week. Yeah, you got something beautiful from it, exactly.
Speaker 1: That's that's like exactly how I feel. It's definitely got
Speaker 1: something out. It's definitely worth doing. Yeah. Yeah, where would
Speaker 1: you say you recorded the majority of the album? There's
Speaker 1: a strong Room. There was a studio in London called
Speaker 1: Strong Room sorry, and it's in East London and it
Speaker 1: was in a small room that belongs to the producer
Speaker 1: Ben and we did a lot of it in there
Speaker 1: and then mixed a lot of it in a slightly
Speaker 1: bigger room there and that pretty much all. I went
Speaker 1: there pretty much every day for a lot of days,
Speaker 1: just to track things and try things, and a lot
Speaker 1: of playing and things like a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: just years and stuff that that didn't make it. But
Speaker 1: was that that again, like just the idea of going
Speaker 1: there for as much time as I needed to to
Speaker 1: get all the options, to be aware of what we
Speaker 1: didn't need to do and what I didn't want to use.
Speaker 1: But mainly mainly in that small room. And then that
Speaker 1: that Devin for this song and one other song I'll
Speaker 1: show you as well. How many how many songs would
Speaker 1: you say you started that didn't make it? Like how many,
Speaker 1: just so I get a sense of the scale of
Speaker 1: the project. Sure to end up with ten, it was
Speaker 1: actually not a lot more. There wasn't a lot left over.
Speaker 1: There was probably three or four that were considered heavily considered.
Speaker 1: In fact that there was there was probably five, and
Speaker 1: the first three or something happened at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the album where I thought they were going to make it,
Speaker 1: and they just didn't end making it, but they were
Speaker 1: really worth while having there. It was only probably five
Speaker 1: songs there was. There was a couple of things towards
Speaker 1: the mid There was in the middle where a lot
Speaker 1: wasn't finished, and there were other songs that weren't finished
Speaker 1: and haven't been finished since. And I'm okay with that
Speaker 1: because I sort of just got to a point where
Speaker 1: it was like, what am I really trying to say?
Speaker 1: There was maybe fifteen, maybe fourteen fifteen songs, and I
Speaker 1: was towing between ten and twelve, and I just realized
Speaker 1: my attention span is definitely not long enough these days
Speaker 1: to really give up, like put up with more than
Speaker 1: ten to twelve songs. I think realistically, I'm a fan
Speaker 1: of short. Short these days just feels right. It feels
Speaker 1: right it does, and I think other people I can't
Speaker 1: speak for other people, but I think people are the same.
Speaker 1: People say it was too long, or like I absolutely,
Speaker 1: you know because it was or whoever's album or whatever.
Speaker 1: It's like, I feel like, you know, over twenty songs
Speaker 1: is just I can't imagine loving all twenty of them.
Speaker 1: I'd rather hear two eight song albums, yeah, than one
Speaker 1: sixteen songs, And even if it's the same songs, Absolutely
Speaker 1: that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, actually I agree.
Speaker 1: But if that answers your question, yeah, yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1: But so you said you got to fifteen contenders, But
Speaker 1: were there many other songs started? Like in the experimental phase?
Speaker 1: Were there many starts that just never went anywhere? There
Speaker 1: were a lot of small Yeah, there are a lot
Speaker 1: of very small starts that never went anywhere, so like
Speaker 1: really just voice notes of ideas or there was like
Speaker 1: a lot of voice notes where it's like I just
Speaker 1: knew straight away that I'd be improvising and playing the
Speaker 1: keys or the guitar, and then a lot of those
Speaker 1: just never went anywhere. And that's hope. I was always
Speaker 1: just they weren't particularly like valuable, and I would know
Speaker 1: quickly if they were valuable, so like it would be
Speaker 1: this one is like, oh, this is going to be
Speaker 1: the blueprint for this song, and it ended up being
Speaker 1: whatever melody I was coming up with off the top
Speaker 1: of my head end up being the melody for the
Speaker 1: whole song. And you just stick. I just ended up
Speaker 1: just sticking with things, and I'd say, yeah, there was
Speaker 1: a few that was probably again like maybe ten or
Speaker 1: twenty other like random things that or just logic files
Speaker 1: you open up, make a couple of things. But I
Speaker 1: hate I really don't like that feeling of pursuing something
Speaker 1: that I know maybe isn't worth it or it's not
Speaker 1: the time, as there's something about it where it just
Speaker 1: feels wrong and I feel like i'm forcing so and
Speaker 1: so I do usually cut it off pretty quickly and
Speaker 1: try and only puts you the things that feel this
Speaker 1: is gonna be a great song and I'm gonna love it,
Speaker 1: and that's, you know, great, cool. Let's hear the next one.
Speaker 1: So this last one is the last one. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: really ending on it's not the same anymore. It's better,
Speaker 1: it's really hopeful ending. It's really nice. That was definitely intentional. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's funny it's not same when you hear s not
Speaker 1: same anymore. Immediately we go to missing the past and
Speaker 1: it being a negative and it's worse now always, but
Speaker 1: it's not the same anymore. It's better. It's really feels
Speaker 1: like a new message. I love it that. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was that was actually had to happen. Really, I would
Speaker 1: hate to have ended it on a really negative note
Speaker 1: like that, or just there's a few songs where that
Speaker 1: actually happens. It starts while I'm sounding as if I'm
Speaker 1: pretty upset about things, or just sound as if I'm
Speaker 1: not happy and ending up you know, you get the
Speaker 1: journey's literally just the story is just it was I'm
Speaker 1: like coming out of a bad time. The resolution through
Speaker 1: the song, Yeah, yeah, that's that's the therapy itself. Is
Speaker 1: the is the writing of it, and you get to
Speaker 1: the end of the song and it's like and that
Speaker 1: sort of cured my for the moment for now, I got.
Speaker 1: I got this song out of it from just talking
Speaker 1: about it. Where did this one come in the writing?
Speaker 1: In the overall scale of the project? Where did this
Speaker 1: one show up? This was actually fairly early on and
Speaker 1: was written on guitar with which was as in and
Speaker 1: and and just actually the guitar part was written without
Speaker 1: really any of the lyrics again again was just written
Speaker 1: as a pegiated part, like yes, yeah, yeah, or it
Speaker 1: was definitely just and only acoustic as well. And that
Speaker 1: whole middle section where there's it's a whole bridge of
Speaker 1: way different chords that somehow resolves back to the original
Speaker 1: that took That was kind of the main challenge for me,
Speaker 1: was just writing something lyrically that could work over that
Speaker 1: whole section there. So the bridge was there from beginning.
Speaker 1: It was always really really spectacular. It's one of my
Speaker 1: favorite parts. Thank you. That was definitely, yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was absolutely meant to be there from the beginning,
Speaker 1: but didn't have the context over it yet. I just
Speaker 1: knew I wanted to take it all the way from
Speaker 1: like really solid, safe, basic pop chords to all the
Speaker 1: way over there, you know, seven six nine chords and
Speaker 1: like and just do do something I hadn't quite done.
Speaker 1: And found a couple of other shapes that I'd not
Speaker 1: used on any of the songs and I wanted to use.
Speaker 1: I wanted to use that as an opportunity. It was
Speaker 1: based totally based on the guitar and then at one
Speaker 1: point realized I knew the whole time it could be
Speaker 1: the last song. And there was a moment where that
Speaker 1: the sax players, same guy on all the songs, came
Speaker 1: in and did his parts on this that felt like
Speaker 1: they really tied the song together and made it definitely
Speaker 1: had to be the last song. Yes, and his melody,
Speaker 1: that melody at the end that is him as well
Speaker 1: as came from his head. So it's kind of like
Speaker 1: it feels like the ultimate sort of concluding reflective feelings.
Speaker 1: It's actually really kind of somber but very positive, and
Speaker 1: had to just write. The chorus actually came pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: All the lyric es actually for this one came quite quickly.
Speaker 1: It was very easy for me to talk really honestly
Speaker 1: and be really brutal and b it didn't take so long.
Speaker 1: It was how much of the track was together before
Speaker 1: the words came. M We said more just over the guitar.
Speaker 1: Was it over the track? I think it was more.
Speaker 1: It was more just over the guitar, and then we
Speaker 1: over time added a lot of the drums and brass
Speaker 1: and flutes and the strings obviously as well, which was
Speaker 1: probably the last thing on it. And then we're just
Speaker 1: you know, turned right down to just be there to
Speaker 1: add rather than be like another feature because there's so
Speaker 1: much going on. But yeah, it was Actually it was
Speaker 1: a guitar based for a long time, and then all
Speaker 1: the other elements came over time. Beautiful. What percentage of
Speaker 1: the songs would you say came on guitar versus piano?
Speaker 1: I think there's more on piano. It was. I'd say
Speaker 1: percentage wise is about sixty forty or maybe slightly more piano,
Speaker 1: but only only you know, only a little bit more,
Speaker 1: only a bit more, really, And some things were then
Speaker 1: translated to keys or vice versa. But it usually stays.
Speaker 1: They usually stay from where they began. They usually stay
Speaker 1: in that place because I feel like the chords the
Speaker 1: way you touched either instrument are not the same at all.
Speaker 1: We can get a similar thing out of both, but
Speaker 1: in no way are they the same instruments. So it's
Speaker 1: like they're two separate things. And I think that's the
Speaker 1: best thing about both of them, that they're not like
Speaker 1: each other. Cool man, I'm so happy you shared this
Speaker 1: with us, and I'm so happy you made this. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy that you allowed me to come over
Speaker 1: here and play it for you, because I really am.
Speaker 1: I'm glad that I could. Many thanks to Rex Slunge
Speaker 1: County for spending time for a set Broken Record. His
Speaker 1: new album Pony is out now wherever you get your
Speaker 1: music and had to Rex slannge County dot com for tourdens.
Speaker 1: You can check out more of rexoc's music by visiting
Speaker 1: Broken Record podcast dot com and subscribing to our playlist.
Speaker 1: For this episode, Broken Record is produced with help from
Speaker 1: Jason Gambrella me Lobell. Our theme music is by Kenny Beats.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned for next week's episode with Brandy Carlisle and
Speaker 1: Tanya Tucker. I'm justin Richmond.