麻豆社

First things first, it鈥檚 not what you think. The name is actually pronounced boo-ker-chi and is Mandarin Chinese for you鈥檙e welcome.

The duo, made up of Sammi Houston and Steve Skidmore (known to his friends as Skidders) are releasing their debut album, Welcome to Suburbia, on 6 July. And it's an album which has been a long time in the making.

We caught up with the band and asked them about their release1, how they met and when exactly the next Bukechi gig will be...

Similar humour

Sammi told us: 鈥淲e met at work in 1998. We were sharing a desk designed for one, not two, and it was in the corridor by the toilets, so we had lots of fun about people鈥檚 habits! We hit it off instantly - similar humour and both really into music.鈥�

Bukechi - Photo: Chris Johnson

Skidders added: 鈥淚 can't better that other than to say what a great time that period was and how much fun we had! Sammi opened up my musical reference, e.g. introducing me to more female singers.鈥�

We also asked them about their musical backgrounds and how they got into music.

Sammi: 鈥淚've been in a number of musical outfits from bands to acoustic groups over the years and have mostly focused on covers until Bukechi.听We were encouraged to start writing our own material by other bands like Beneva.听We started by playing some songs I'd written way back that had never been played before.听We had some really positive feedback and it went from there.鈥�

Skidders: 鈥淧iano lessons in early teens laid down a solid music foundation for the understanding of music theory, which underpinned my understanding of what I was actually playing. Played drums in Boys Brigade and moved over to lead guitar at 15-years old in Smethwick based country and western trio. For the next 13 years, I played lead guitar mainly at social clubs around the Birmingham area in different bands - many of them with my late and great best man, Pete Rowland, who played bass.

鈥淚 retired from music scene at 28 and then started again with Sammi on my 50th birthday when Bukechi (then named Hush) was formed - this was after a few cameo appearances with Sammi and others that got my taste buds going again. The big difference this time round from my teenage years was the 100% dedication to playing music I liked, rather than for making money. Other musical opportunities since Bukechi was formed has broadened my CV and musical experience; such as playing at the Forum and The Cavern with Beneva.鈥�

Sammi - Bukechi

Family life

But despite the release of their album, it seems that the next Bukechi gig won鈥檛 be until 2010. This is because singer Sammi is currently enjoying being a mum for the second time.

Sammi: 鈥淚'm concentrating on family life at the moment with the birth of my second daughter in April this year, but I'm sure that the odd gig might crop up. I'm hoping to get married next year, so that will probably be our first official gig back on the circuit.鈥�

Meanwhile, Skidders has lots of projects on the go, including musical projects with his daughter Anatasha.

Skidders: 鈥淚n the meantime, I have solo projects; Anatasha's new single and album to give the occasional helping hand with for her and Paul Hogg.

鈥淚 will be doing more Claptout & Acoustic 鈥� a tribute to the Clapton's Unplugged MTV session with Malc Evans. And some session work including guitar on Nathan Bennett's new album.

鈥淚 have two parallel solo debut albums I'm working on - Family & Friends (acoustic) and Skidderslectric (electric rock/blues).鈥�

So it seems that we may have to wait a little while to hear Bukechi on stage together, but their new album features some of their live favourites. The album includes both new songs and songs that were written almost 20 years ago.

Skidders added: 鈥淭he album has taken the best part of three-and-a-half years to complete. As most recording musicians will tell you, after 95%, the finishing 5% of the album is the hardest part to complete!鈥�

To find out more about Bukechi, visit their MySpace page by clicking on the link below:

How to get featured?

麻豆社 Coventry & Warwickshire's Band of the Month feature aims to showcase the best local musical talent.

If you think you and/or your band are worthy enough of a feature then get in contact with us.

Email the details to us here at 麻豆社 Coventry & Warwickshire - coventry@bbc.co.uk

Or use the postal address:

Martin Winch, 麻豆社 Coventry & Warwickshire, Priory Place, CV1 5SQ.

All we require is a short biography, a couple of decent quality colour images (in jpeg format) and a copy of your music.