Photo by Igoris Taran
On the heels of her new single “Fantasy,” the UK rising star chats about her relationship with Jim Legxacy, tax headaches, and how Big Sean inspired her new music.
September 21, 2026
BY Wongo Okon
[Jim Legxacy] downloading FL Studio on my laptop honestly changed my life.
dexter in the newsagent’s life has changed drastically over the past year. The South London singer has toured the UK both as an opening act for Jim Legxacy as well as on her own, with both instances opening her eyes to how far her name and music has reached. “I thought it was gonna be the bit of his show where people lowkey went quiet,” she recalls of her time as an opener for Jim, “but they were screaming and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh…’” She’s on the precipice of genuinely breaking through, and the 23-year-old is approaching this era with the same restless curiosity that she brings to her boundary-pushing alt-pop songwriting.
dexter’s debut mixtape Time Flies arrived in November of 2025, displaying a delicate exploration of love and grief. Her soft voice provides warmth and comfort amid myriad twinkling piano keys, drums that vary between buoyant and firm, and production that sometimes dances despite supporting lyrics that cover heartbreak, the death of her father, and the harsh realities that come with entering one’s 20s. Despite how well that project resonated, dexter wants to move on from those feelings. “The main thing I've been trying to create that I really have struggled to do for years,” she tells me over a Zoom call from her home in London, “is making songs that at their core feel fun and energetic.”
Achieving that goal begins with her new single “Fantasy,” which gleams of joy around beaming synths and booming bass. Here, dexter is wide-eyed and entranced by the riches of fame, though it’s not so much about the money for her. It’s the relief behind the paid bills and the evaporated need to care about “what people say” that add a sparkle to her eye.
“Fantasy” is the first of three songs that dexter will release over the next few months. They’re all born from a manifestation that the young singer is determined to make her new reality. “I'm manifesting that all the freeness I'm trying to put into the songs becomes how I feel in my day to day life,” she tells me, adding that the songs, “make me feel how songs I loved when I was ten made me feel.”
She cites Big Sean’s Finally Famous as an example, in what proves to be the most surprising moment of our conversation. “Honestly, it did a lot for inspiring ‘Fantasy,’” she says about Sean’s album, citing “High,” the rapper’s collaboration with Wiz Khalifa and Chiddy Bang. “He's talking about how much his life has changed, and he just sounds like a teenager in that. I love that song.”
The triumph that Big Sean carried though his debut album and into the hip-hop world is exactly what she wants her music to feel like. Success is merely what you make of it, and dexter is making sure it gives her all the fun and freedom she could ask for.
On Time Flies, we can feel the nostalgia, the relief in surviving tough times, the warmth of the days you want more of. With this next project that you’re working on, what is the feeling you want it to emit?
I feel like when I make music, the thing I care about the most is there being this feeling of warmth. Songs that feel rich, full of life, and like you've heard them before, but not in a nostalgic way. Like this is something I could have always known, but I've never heard before, but I also feel like I've heard before.
I thought [about] this a bit when I spent some time in LA. I'd see some diners—we don't have diners here. I went to one and felt at home. Never been there in my life, but it felt so familiar. I didn't feel out of place even though I'd never seen anything like that and never been there before.
Your new single “Fantasy” is the first song of your next era. What’s the statement you want to make with this song and what made this record most ideal to re-emerge with?
Earlier on in the year I lost a bunch of my money because I forgot to file my taxes. Our tax system is called HMRC, and they took all my money. I had this phase when I was making music where I would put on LA-drive-through videos on YouTube—through Beverly Hills and Venice Beach—and I'd be like, ‘This is crazy.’ I had zero pounds and you see people drive past you in these massive cars and flashy jewelry, and you wonder what it’s like to be that rich.
I just wanted to make a song about it from how I viewed money as a child, because when I lost my money I felt like I reverted back to being a kid. Just waiting around being like, ‘When's the money gonna come? When am I gonna get a big fat car?’ That's where it came from and then it brought something really great. With the production, I really wanted it to sound flashy, expensive, and mirror that so that when you listen to it, you feel like a million bucks. Then it ends and you're like, ‘Actually…I have ten pounds.’
Your music is very transparent and honest, like “dexters phone call,” which you recorded for Jim Legxacy’s Black British Music. What did writing that record do for you internally, especially while creating Time Flies?
It definitely helped me with feeling more open to some of the things I wanted to say on my own project. Even when I opened for Jim, that was also before Time Flies came out. I'd never heard that many people sing lyrics that I wrote. I thought it was gonna be the bit of his show where people lowkey went quiet, but they were screaming and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh…’
You can really just talk about anything [and] people will really relate. It was just crazy. Even making it with Jim, it was stuff that at those times in our lives we could both really resonate with. It was easier to make it with someone who knew where you were coming from.
What’s the best advice that Jim has given you?
The thing that he's probably done to change my life the most wasn't a piece of advice, it was actually an action. I was on my laptop, just being silly, and he took my laptop and he just downloaded FL Studio and I was like, ‘What are you doing? This is my laptop, this is my laptop!’
Him downloading FL Studio on my laptop honestly changed my life. If I hadn't started really trying to learn how to produce, I wouldn't have ended up with any of these next three songs that are coming, and most of the songs on Time Flies. That really did change my life. Down the line I would have tried to get into it properly, but things happen at a certain time for a specific reason.
You’ve hinted at the possibility of a project between you and Jim Legxacy in the future. Have you two actually had a conversation about it? What’s the vision for a project like that?
I’d love to do that one day…never spoke about it with him in my life. Was it in the Rolling Stone thing? Yeah, they asked me if I’d ever be open to that and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’d love to do that,’ and it was like, ‘She hinted at the idea!!’
But, just the peak of both of us in confidence and freeness together, like the Power Rangers coming together or the Powerpuff Girls—if one of them was a guy from Lewisham. Just two undeniable forces coming together to create that feeling of Kendrick and SZA’s “Luther.” When I hear both of them riffing off each other on that song? Undeniable forces coming together! That's the only thing I can think of when I think of the possibility of us doing that together.
Who are some artists that are really influencing you nowadays or taking up a lot of your music rotation?
I loved Steve Lacy's new album. I loved Charli XCX's new album. It's gonna sound mad, but I was really influenced by Big Sean’s Finally Famous. That album did a lot for me this year. It did a lot for inspiring “Fantasy.” He has a song called “High” and I was just like, ‘My God, he's really made it. He made it out the hood.’ He's talking about how much his life has changed, and he just sounds like a teenager on that. I love that song. I was singing to that a lot this year, plus “Memories” with John Legend. I was really rinsing that album from March to May. Random, but necessary in my development.
I had never listened to that album, but it really reminds me of a teenager in 2011 that loves Kanye. That's how I view it. “Fantasy” was very inspired by Late Registration. The reason I love that Big Sean album is because the music feels really triumphant and it’s “we really made it” music. That’s what Late Registration feels like to me. That’s what Graduation feels like to me. It just feels really hopeful.
What would the dexter of before Time Flies say to the dexter of today?
I think she’d say zip it, put your head down and get to work. I was overthinking so much. Lowkey, the stakes weren't even high, and to be fair, they're not that crazy. I'm still a very small artist. Sometimes when you talk loads, you think that it means you're walking, but months go by and you realize you've spent months talking. I think she'd be like, ‘Wow, we really stopped talking! We actually sat down and made this. Yes!’
Photo by Igoris Taran
Photo by Igoris Taran
Photo by Igoris Taran
Photo by Igoris Taran