Nightmares rarely keep office hours. They arrive uninvited, drag old memories back into the room and refuse to explain themselves. Francois van Coke turns that unrest into fuel on new single ‘Nagmerries (Bye Bye Baby)’, a song built from recurring dreams and the urge to finally leave them behind.
The South African artist says the track was inspired by a nightmare that repeatedly returned him to an uncomfortable chapter of his life. Writing the song, however, appears to have shifted something. Since finishing it, he says the nightmare has not returned.
That personal starting point gives ‘Nagmerries (Bye Bye Baby)’ a sharp emotional centre, but the song also stretches beyond autobiography. Van Coke uses the track to question growing human dependence on technology, arriving at a moment when Afrikaans AI-generated artists are beginning to emerge. It is a pointed theme, handled through the strange logic of dreams rather than blunt commentary.
Musically, the chorus pulls from two unlikely but revealing reference points: Violent Femmes and Ghost. That combination hints at a track balancing wiry tension with theatrical release, two instincts Van Coke has long known how to weaponise.
The single was written with longtime collaborator Fred den Hartog. Together they aimed to capture the warped sensation of being trapped inside a dream, where effort becomes useless and logic folds in on itself. Van Coke describes punches that do not land, hands that refuse to work and time moving backwards.
Its accompanying video was directed by Jacques van Rensburg, offering another visual layer to the song’s unease.
For more than two decades, Van Coke has remained one of the defining figures in Afrikaans alternative music, first through Fokofpolisiekar and Van Coke Kartel, then through a solo career that broadened his reach without sanding off the edges. Tracks like Toe Vind Ek Jou proved he could command the mainstream while keeping his own accent intact.
‘Nagmerries (Bye Bye Baby)’ feels cut from a similar cloth. It is personal without becoming sentimental, political without lecturing, and catchy enough to sneak difficult ideas into the bloodstream.
