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The Lex factor

Singer- songwriter Lex Bucha told David Hennessy about his personal first single release and finding his own singing voice after years of writing for other artists.

Lex Bucha (real name Alexander Keech, 33) has just released his first solo single.

The singer- songwriter, who grew up in St Albans but is now based in Dublin, is no stranger to creating music but much of his experience to date has been in writing for other people.

After years of writing for and collaborating with other artists, Lex is stepping into the spotlight.

The current single Now You Know is only the second single under his own name and his first without a collaborator.

Before Now You Know, Lex gained recognition in 2024 with his collaboration alongside Orla Monelle, a track that made waves on Irish playlists like New Irish Songs and Made in Ireland, and earned airplay on BBC Introducing.

His sophomore release is a heartfelt electro-pop ballad, capturing the emotional complexity of facing a loved one who has caused past pain.

The song navigates themes of reconciliation, self-healing, and finding peace after unresolved conflict.

After years of collaborating and writing for other people you have decided to go out on your own..

“Yeah I’ve been really passionate about music and writing songs for many years.

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“I’ve travelled all across Europe, even to the US, to do sessions and collaborate with other artists.

“I’ve really enjoyed that process and I love writing for others: Just sitting with someone, hearing about what they’re passionate about, what they want to sing about and helping them craft that, structure that to lyrically but also melodically, get that into a song.

“I’ve worked with a lot of people in Norway, Sweden, Germany, Poland, different artists from these countries, but there became a theme with me writing for these people that I had some stuff to say.

“I had a story that I wanted to share and things that I’ve gone through throughout my life.

“I never really thought about releasing music myself until about two years ago when a producer was like, ‘Wait, hang on, you’re a really good singer. Why are you not the artist in the room here?’

“And it got me thinking about starting to do something, launching an artist project and here we are.”

Why Now You Know? I take it it’s a track that means a lot to be chosen as ‘the first’..

“In the last two years I’ve been writing a lot of songs for myself, experimenting with this sound that I felt really resonated with me.

“I’m hugely influenced by electronic music.

“I really grew up listening to Eurythmics, Bjork, more contemporary ones, recent ones like Hurts and Troye Sivan as well.

“I think that sound really resonated with me and Now You Know was the first song I did where I really felt, ‘Okay, we’ve got this sound. That is what I want it to sound like’.

“This is just the first of several releases to come that are going to showcase what I’m about and showcase my story.”

The song has a very personal meaning for you. It’s about someone who wasn’t there for you..

“Yeah, it’s a true event in my life.

“It was a very important day for me, probably one of the most important days of my whole life.

“Someone who you’d think would be there for you- and hasn’t been really there for me in my life before- actually showed up on this day, and it surprised me.

“It was a shock and I was at first expecting, ‘Oh no, this is going to be really bad. Now this is going to turn out terribly’, but they really showed self control, genuine feeling and they were really there for me that day.

“And it was the first time I’d ever seen that behaviour from that person and I was very happy but also it was bittersweet because it was like, ‘Why have they not done this before? Why have they never shown this side of them before? Over all the years that they could have, they never really stepped up until this point’.

“It was a happy moment but also a bit sad, and I think you can hear that in the song. The message is a hopeful one like, ‘I’m okay now’ but there is this bittersweet, ‘Wow, why couldn’t you have done this sooner?’

“And that moment, I’ll never forget it.

“It’s probably the best day of my life but also strange circumstances around it as well.”

You said it was the best day of your life..

“Yeah, it was my wedding.

“I got married two years ago and this song is about a family member so someone that has kind of not been there in my life, emotionally or not had that instinct that they should have.

“I mention that in the song and I think there are other songs I’ve written that are going to come out as well this year that explore this same relationship even further.

“It’s hard when you’re a kid and you look at your family and then you look at other people’s families and you’re like, ‘Why do they not do the same thing that other families do? Why do they not have that natural instinct that you see other families having?’

“I’ll be honest.

“I come from a really, really broken family.

“I didn’t have an easy childhood.

“It’s still not easy for me even today but this song Now You Know talks about me finding that safety, finding that security that I needed in myself.

“And actually it’s about me finding the love that I needed from my new family which is my husband, his family, our friends and that support network around us.”

The song follows Powerless with Orla Monelle, what did that song do for you?

“It was amazing.

“I met Orla at a songwriting camp in April last year in the Netherlands and on the first day, they put us both in a session and it was like destiny or something.

“We’re both from Dublin and we’d never met before and we met all the way out in the countryside in the Netherlands and we were writing a song for her project and we did it really quickly.

“It was so natural.

“It just flowed really, really well.

“And then suddenly we were like, ‘Oh, we’ve still got four hours left. Shall we write another song?’

“This is where Powerless was written.

“It just sort of came to us both in a very organic way.

“We were struck by lightning or something.

“We just started singing over these very sad piano chords and we both felt like there was something really special about it and because we both connected so well we were like, ‘Let’s just put it out from both of us’.

“I’d never put out a song before so it was a big step for me but I’m so glad I had Orla there.

“She’s released a lot of music in the past.

“When we came back to Dublin, we just continued to work on it together.

“It’s been such a pleasure.

“I’m so happy that we did that.”

Was it nice to hold her hand as you dipped your toe in the water of releasing music? Was she like an armband for you? Is that what it felt like?

“It did.

“She felt like my guide because she introduced me not just to how you release a song.

“It was like, ‘You need to think about the PR, think about the social media, think about the visuals, think about all of these things’.

“I really went to the School of Orla Monelle to learn all of that basically.

“She’s such an amazing singer in her own right.

“Actually she helped me to improve my voice and performance as well.

“She’s a huge inspiration and we still meet up every week.

“We still work together on music all the time and I’m really excited about what she’s about to release as well.”

How did you enjoy writing for the other artists?

“It’s just been a nice way to see a bit more of the world, meet a lot of cool people and do something really creative with them.

“Everyone that I’ve worked with have always said that I have such a nice manner in a session.

“I’m a listener.

“I listen to what they want and I just help them get that message out into lyrics, into the melody and just help them to make that happen really.

“I love that collaboration.”

But it took until now to go for it yourself, was something holding you back?

“I remember when I was 18, I had this dream of, ‘Maybe I should be a singer’.

“And I sat down with a friend of mine who was also really into singing and she was like, ‘Okay, sing something for me’.

“I sang for her and she said, ‘Your voice is not that special. I don’t think anyone would want to hear it’.

“And that just got into my head and I never pursued it any further as a singer until about two years ago and that producer kind of gave me a bit of, ‘You can sing, you’re actually really good. Why aren’t you the artist?’

“That really rekindled it within me, but I didn’t sing for 10 years since that comment from my friend.

“For me it just defeated my confidence a little bit.

“I went to university. I started a corporate job after uni.

“While I was still writing music all the time, I was not focusing on it as a career and now I want to focus on it as a career.”

Where did your passion for music and songwriting come from?

“From maybe 10 or 11, I was always writing.

“My mum would always be like, ‘What are you doing? What are all these notes and papers in your bedroom?’

“I’d always be having these ideas about ‘this kind of pop song’.

“I was always like, ‘I’m gonna write a song for Kylie Minogue’.

“And I would just write and write and write.

“I joined choir at school when I was young and that really got me a bit of training around my voice, around singing.”

Lex relocated to Dublin after some years in Asia.

“I was in Hong Kong and China for about five years and then when I came back to Europe, I really wanted to come to Ireland.

“My mum’s from Belfast and I wanted to be closer to her initially so I was looking like crazy for a job in Dublin or in Belfast and I ended up in Dublin.

“It’s the best place to be at the moment for music.

“Every pub in Dublin is having live music at some point and I don’t know any other city that does that, maybe London a little bit.

“But here in Ireland I feel like it just is the best place for it.

“The talent that’s up and coming here is quality.

“You see what Fontaines DC are doing. You see what CMAT is doing, Qbanaa as well.

“Right now it’s just such a great place to be and I’m so happy that I’m on this kind of scene as well now.

“Right now I am really loving JC Stewart.

“He’s from Belfast, incredible singer songwriter.

“I actually got lucky enough to catch him at the Ruby Sessions last year and he was such an inspiration.

“Had a nice chat with him as well which was grand.

“I really love CMAT as a live performer. I don’t even think you can get someone better than her: Her artistry, her stage presence, it’s just unbelievable.

“I think that she’s really destined for huge, huge things and she’s already achieving that.

“Here in Dublin a friend of mine, Tia Burke, is one to watch.

“She’s incredible.

“She just released a song called Blossom and it’s really, really beautiful.

“She’s only like in her early 20s so I think that she’s really on a pathway to something bigger as well.”

Did you spend a lot of time in Ireland growing up in St Alban’s…

“As a kid, I went back to Ireland most summers.

“My mum wanted me to have that strong Irish upbringing.

“I remember once she tried to get me to go to Irish language lessons as a kid in St Albans.

“I think I went to like three.

“But Ireland’s always felt like home.

“Every time I came as a kid it always was like, ‘The ancestry here, the family roots here’.

“I remember going as kids to a farm and meeting my cousins.

“There was maybe 20 of them, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen them since.

“I remember being scared to talk to them and they kind of viewed me as, ‘Oh, that’s that posh cousin from London, you know?’

“But I was like, ‘I’m not posh at all’.

“We trace our roots back to Ballina in Mayo so been there a couple of times as a kid as well, but I’ve always been wanting to move here throughout my life.

“I was like, ‘Eventually I’m going to live there. Eventually I’m going to move there’.

“After living in Asia, it seemed like the best place to go.

“I love Ireland. I feel so connected here.”

Was it hard growing up gay?

“Growing up a member of the LGBTQ+ community is never easy, especially 20, 25 years ago.

“It was a different story to today.

“And I think that while we’ve made a lot of leaps and bounds forward, there’s still a long way to go.

“I think perceptions have changed a lot now but it was tough in the 90s and early noughties.”

After the euphoria of Ireland’s same sex marriage referendum in 2015, there had been talk of a backslide, and the return of homophobia and bigotry, in recent years.

What’s your feelings on that?

“The recent election brought forward a lot of strong messages, a lot of people that maybe hadn’t said a lot of tough messages before started coming forward and saying them.

“And I felt like there was a lot of things that maybe you shouldn’t say that were said by politicians, by outspoken individuals.

“I found it uncomfortable.

“It wasn’t nice to see posters around Dublin like, ‘No more immigrants, close the borders’.

“For me that was a very negative message.

“And I think with Ireland, we’ve always been a proud country of having open doors and welcoming people, because in history, we had to seek help.

“We were the people looking for a safe place, people looking for a home and now we have to return the favour.

“Now I feel like we should be open hearted and I understand there are concerns around it.

“I get what you mean about maybe a backslide in that thinking but for every person that has a strong negative message around that, there are 10 people with a really positive and open mind.

“I think that’s the beauty of Ireland, is that we are open people.

“We are friendly.

“We will welcome anyone into our house and I’m really proud of that heritage and that culture.”

Now You Know is out now.

For more information, click here.

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