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Photo: Hannah De Vries

For Frex, good things just can’t stop coming. The fiery red-haired alt-R&B singer-songwriter has returned with her newest single “Used To,” with Jordan Ward. It’s a collaboration born of Ward’s own burgeoning fandom for the up-and-comer. The accompanying video, released this week shows the pair baring their souls around an apartment filled with books and other charming trinkets.

Frex describes her sound, in her own words, as “sad,” but make it “confident.” Which is totally rare, and absolutely true. For years now, Frex has been carefully crafting her lyrical stories, being patient with her thoughts and rooting them in her own truth. Her words, rooted in truth, describe what it’s like to be in relationships where you’re ready to give up everything for someone (Kill For You) and then you realize you’re losing yourself (“Postcards”). Drenched in honesty, her music is so relatable because it’s authentically her. Cautious optimism with a new lover is precisely what’s happening in “Used To” where her and Ward’s voices swirl around each other over stripped down guitar forward harmonies, take a listen here.

After the viral hit “Oxford Circus,” Frex has found her way onto our playlist and is destined to stay there. Meet our newest one-to-watch, Frex. 

Ones To Watch: We did some studying. We found out you’re originally from rural PA. So I have to know, what is your origin story?

Frex: My origin story. My villain origin story?

Oh that’s the one I want!

It's so funny. So I went to a Catholic school in a rural area. It’s gotten more developed, since I’ve moved out of there. Like chick fil A, like opening up right by my house. I'm like,‘what the hell is this? [laughs] I just felt like growing up in school, all the teachers were so out to get me. And I was so pissed, too, like, we had an art class for eight years, first through eighth grade. I never got picked as artist of the month. My senior year, I tried out for the high school play, the Wizard of Oz, and I got casted as a crow with a non-singing part. And then too, for I went to Temple University and I tried out for like 2 or 3 different acapella groups.. none of them accepted me.

My second question was going to be - how has the villain origin story pushed you creatively... And it sounds like it kind of has!

100%. Yeah, I think that too, like being in a Catholic school. I had no other choice but to conform. I could only express myself so much. And then I went to business school for three years. And the first year I was really just happy to be out of the small conservative town I was in. But I just felt like it was almost an extension of me not being able to express myself or do what I want. Every time I got ready for work, I just felt like I was putting on a costume. Like, I can't even pretend to care about this. I feel like that probably was the reason I wanted to do this music bad. And I also always just loved music.

Now for those who haven’t heard your music before, how would you describe your sound?

Someone said my voice sounded like a warm cup of coffee, that my voice sounded syrupy. And I think lyrically feeling wise, I would say like, sad and confident. Like, I could acknowledge that you've hurt me. But I'm still moving forward with my life. But sonically, I don't know. I can't really come up with a concrete sound.

That's a good thing because it means that your music encapsulates a lot of different sounds, and also it's just a driver for people to go listen to it, which they should. I feel like over time your sound has gotten more sophisticated since your album Blu. What other adventures do you want to take with your music? What's upcoming, what's it leading to?

 I'm happy that you said that too, because I always felt like even though Blu is so different from what I'm doing now, I just feel like it's been like an evolution. On this project my voice is really like the forefront of these songs. And that's like the difference between this one and Blu. Before I was hiding behind a lot of reverb, a lot of production, production, and this - I just wanted it to feel like you’re hearing everything I say, and I'm really, like telling a story with these songs. It’s a lot more vulnerable. I’m kind of venturing into a more alternative space. 

Tell me all about your songwriting process!

Anyone who's been in a session with me knows that I'm so shy with my writing. I write in a notebook and I'll just put myself in the back corner of the room, whatever's the farthest spot away from everybody. I think it's because, like, my songwriting is so personal that I feel like I need to get it right on the page. I'm expressing my feelings. It's not a persona. It didn’t come from a movie. It's usually what I'm dealing with, so I’m very sensitive with that. I'll come to the studio that day with whatever I've been going through.

 I’d love to know about your collaboration with Jordan Ward. How'd you guys get together?

 So that was super cool because when I put out Oxford Circus and Oxford Circus, as you probably know I had a very, very, very small following before. I never had other artists who are bigger than me saying that they like my song. I saw it happen in like a day or two where Jordan commented on my TikTok and I was like, what the hell? And then he, like, posted my song on his story and tagged me and I was like, what the hell? And then and then it was really cool because in 2022, he had come to my show and he was singing like the words to like not only Oxford Circus, but like a couple other songs. I was like, this is crazy. And then we were like, we should work! And we were just so busy, but I felt like we both knew that it would just fall into place eventually. And then I guess Spotify and ASCAP were having these small curated sessions and I got invited to this one. And basically we got paired up in a session together. I heard Spotify and ASCAP selected Jordan and he chose to work with me. I remember that day, I was kind of talking to someone. We had been seeing each other for like a month and then I wasn't sure where it was going. And so I had all these questions about where we were at. Jordan and I were talking about that and how we could make it into a song. And then we did.

Obviously you mentioned that you have always loved music. So I wanted to know what you grew up listening to and who are you listening to now? Who are your ones to watch?

It’s kind of like a hodgepodge of so much stuff. My mom listened to a ton of Madonna, Earth Wind and Fire. And then my dad was like James Taylor, Hall and Oates. My mom - she was like, I'm a cool mom. So she would always play MTV and VH1, so she was always on it. So I listened to a ton of Kanye and Usher and Gwen Stefani growing up. I would literally be in the back seat with my mom. That's how young I was. Still in the back and we'd be listening to “Drop It Like it's Hot” together. She was not like a censored type of mom. Honestly, the more inappropriate, the more she was like, this is cool, I'm turning this up. And then in high school I had a screamo phase for a bit, and then alt indie Death Cab for Cutie and Phoenix with Drake, The Weeknd, Frank Ocean, and Sza. Right now though, I'm listening to a lot of Hotel Ugly and Vacations.