London O’Connor wanders the Earth, questioning the meaning of life and the reason for why he’s on this planet. Although his birth certificate says he’s from San Marcos, Calif., the young backpack producer will tell you he still hasn’t figured out where he came from.
O’Connor recently released his debut album, O∆, pronounced “Circle Triangle.” It's a symbol that the NYU-educated artist created entirely on his own to signify exploration. That theme carries throughout his album, much of which was recorded in work closets and random bedrooms.
O’Connor recently stopped by Complex, and as soon as the door opened to the interview room, he climbed to the top of our couches and pulled out his cell phone to record a voice memo. He started detailing his surroundings into his “captains log” as if he’d just landed on an unknown celestial body and we were all aliens with dope sneakers. He wore a long kitchen dress with two tulips sewn onto the apron, his dreadlocks hung over his eyes, and his beat up skateboard was propped against the coffee table.
Never leaving his perch on the top of our couch, space captain O’Connor gave us an hour to ask him all about his new music, the symbol for exploration and the time he cried in front of DMX.
David Weiner is an intern for Complex Music. Follow him @davidjweiner.
London O’Connor: Since this is our first time meeting and we haven’t really done an interview before, you have to tell me something embarrassing about yourself to start. It has to be honest, and you have to put it in the interview and then I’ll share something.
I’m straight, but I’ve kissed a dude before.
That’s real. That’s fucking awesome.
When I was 10 I was at the airport with my mom, and my mom was like, “London, look that’s DMX,” and I looked in the McDonald's, and it was just like a black dude, and I was like, “Ma, that’s not DMX,” and then I looked to the right of that dude and it was DMX, and it was like, “Oh shit.” So she went and talked to him and was like, “Hey, my son does music and he’s going to tour the world and do music someday. Can you talk to him and and give him some words of inspiration?” And DMX walked up to me so tall. DMX walked up to me and gave me words of inspiration, and his energy was just so intense I just looked at him and just started bawling. I just cried in front of DMX, literally just out of the intensity of his presence. I don’t remember shit that he said. I was just like, “Oh fuck.” That was kind of an embarrassing moment.
Has he reached out to you? Or have you reached out to him?
Not since. Not since our paths crossed at 10.
I know you don’t identify with the hypermasculinity of the rap community. How do you view our generation and the rap scene?
I think it’s getting better than when I grew up. Like when I was very young. The reason why I don’t identify with rap scene is because I feel like people are not honest, and there’s something about this masculinity growing up where nobody is able to be vulnerable, nobody is able to be real with what they’re experiencing. I think it’s so dope how Young Thug dresses how he wants to. I’m happy that more people are starting to get that. I want even more of that though. It’s dope and it’s getting better, but it could go so much further.
Do you think you’re taking it further? Young Thug is wearing dresses as shirts and you’re wearing them as a whole outfit.
I don’t know because I’ve never met him. He seems pretty honest. I’m just being honest about myself. I feel like there’s so much shit that I want to do here and I can’t think of any kind of genre or any specific box or culture and try to be in that because I feel like it limits you. The rap community is getting better. I still don’t identify with it, but it’s getting better. I think a lot of artists in my generation are pretty dope because they’re being themselves. That’s the point.
I think a lot of artists in my generation are pretty dope because they’re being themselves. That’s the point.
Tell me about the dress you have on now. Is this one you picked up recently or have had for a while?
Actually, I wore this shit because the first time I came into the Complex office I wore this so I wanted to wear it again. This has become my favorite one because this was the weirdest one at first. This was the one that if anyone gave me shit, they gave me shit for this. I don’t know, I think people didn’t get the tulips. That’s why I wore this one on the cover of my album. I didn’t want to hide from people. The point of putting one on is not because they’re fly, it’s because they’re honest. I’ve been wearing this shit a lot more recently because it’s on the cover.
Do you think the dress is something you’re going to stick with for a long time? Is that some way that you’re identified?
There’s a point a couple years ago where I started wearing this shit and people didn’t understand it yet, and I felt like the same way a hero wears a cape. I was just going into places dressed like this and it was like my cape. This would be a symbol. It still feels natural. They’re so comfortable. Skating in a dress is the shit.
Do other skaters give you shit for wearing a dress?
Nah man, the skating community is one of the most open communities on Earth. Skaters have been dapping me up for wearing dresses for years now, not even knowing my music, just seeing me on the street. The skate world had no problems with being open-minded or free-thinking.
Your album is called O∆, and you said to Stereogum that it was the kind of album that would make you want to leave where you live. Was there a defining moment for you where you needed to leave where you were?
Nah, I always knew I needed to leave. That’s why I started doing captain’s logs. Off the top I was just like, “I don’t feel like I’m from here, so I’m going to report on these surroundings like they’re a foreign planet.”
Where did those symbols come from?
It just came to me when I started making coordinates. I started making sounds that felt like places to explore. I did that, and then almost immediately when I started doing that I didn’t really think about it much. I drew a flag and was like, this would be the flag for exploring, and it just had those symbols on it. I didn’t really over-think it, it just kind of happened that way. There’s shit on the album that’s like that too. A lot of the verses are just freestyled and just kind of fell into place that way, and I was just like, “Well, I’m not going to change that, it’s just the way it is.”
I heard you liked to freestyle.
You have to give me chords. If you gave me some piano shit I could freestyle over that. When I freestyle it’s different. A lot of people when they freestyle they’re trying to make punchlines to be impressive, and it’s really easy to do that over drums, but I don’t do that. I try to score emotions, so I need emotions to ride over.
How did you learn to produce?
I retreated to a mountain top and I trained with no direct access to sunlight for 10 years. I lived off wheat. I just paid attention to the universe. No, I just trained in my bedroom at first, but then I went to school for it later, and they told me stuff to think about, and then I went back to my bedroom and thought about that shit and trained. I think it’s just focus and hours and willing to focus on what you love. I started learning how to produce like I was translating visual things. It’s just hours, dude. Honestly, it’s just hours.
How many hours would you say you put into your music?
Oh shit, like way over 10,000. I’ve been doing music since way before DMX made me cry.
Did you have to cut songs to make the album work?
Art is all about what you’re willing to let go of. I let go of a lot. It was always going to be 10. It was just about letting go of things that didn’t serve everything else. There’s a song that I worked on for six months straight, and I don’t know if I’m ever going to put it out. I worked on it and was like “Oh, it doesn’t serve everything else. It has to go.” I sort of pushed it off the cliff and was done. I’m always making stuff. I don’t know if I even need those songs.
You seem to do a lot of couch-surfing. Do you think you’ll get your own place soon or keep bouncing around among friends’ apartments?
I want to get an island. I think I’m going to get an island soon. I’m looking for an island.
Where would you get the island?
Earth.
I know you’re into space. Do you have a favorite space movie?
Fuck, that’s hard. You have all the Star Trek movies, you have all of the Star Wars movies. Interstellar is so good. I cried every time I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it many times. I skate around listening to the soundtrack. It’s so fucking good.
