The Afrikaans music scene is a strange beast—schizophrenic at best, stagnant at worst. On the one end, you’ve got your algorithm-optimised, sequins-and-shades Afrikaans pop machine, endlessly pumping out stadium-filling singalongs. On the other, everything remotely non-mainstream gets lumped into the ever-misunderstood, wildly inconsistent “Alternatiewe™ Afrikaanse musiek” category—a sonic Pandora’s box where you’ll find everything from industrial thrash to twee folk revivalists, all scrambling for authenticity like kids at a candy grab.
But somewhere out in the veld, a new kind of noise is rising. Meet Hendriek Bleik (real name Drianco Fourie,) the 24-year-old singer-songwriter from Lichtenburg—by day, a graphic designer, by night, a sonic grave robber exhuming Afrikaans music’s rotting corpse and shocking it back to life with high-voltage rebellion. The son of a funeral director, Bleik’s relationship with death isn’t just metaphorical.
Backseat Mafia recently spoke to Hendriek.
The name ‘Hendriek Bleik’ (Bleik means bleach in Afrikaans) has a distinct, almost spectral quality to it. How did you come up with this alias, and what does it represent for you artistically?
So the name originally came sort of from the band Greta Van Fleet. So they heard the name Greta Van Fleet in a conversation somewhere and the name basically belonged to an elderly lady, they name their band after a granny in essence. I thought that was dope as hell, so I did the same thing, I took my literal grandmother’s name which is Hendrieka, and just made it male I guess. So that is where Hendriek comes from, a unique but still distinctly Afrikaans name. Then the Bleik part of the name was at the time just a cool sounding descriptor, but I recently had an interview with Andre van der Hoven and he pointed out that the name actually has strong ties to my lyrics. In my lyrics I sing about enlightenment, and basically bleaching my soul in the search of divinity. I am a spiritual person and I think the Bleik aspect subconsciously resonated because through my life i am constantly on this journey of finding holiness and divinity in a sense. Purging myself to find enlightenment.
Your upbringing around a funeral home is a unique part of your story. Can you tell use a little bit about that and how (or if) that environment shaped your artistry and the themes in your music?
So we moved to Lichtenburg when I was 5. My dad started his job as an undertakerand since then he has been in the profession. It definitely gave me an interesting childhood but at the time it seemed so normal. Being around those kinds of things was just a normal day for me. I would play in the coffin cardboard boxes (which were huge so I could create amazing hideouts for my imaginary endeavours), I would ride up and down our pavement on the coffin trolleys, I would even check in and have chats with my dad sometimes while he was working in the morgue. Like I had a very normal and fun childhood, morbidity was normal for me. I wouldn’t say it was this constant sadness and depression surrounding me but more a very very raw emotional environment. In that, I grew up with a curiosity for the more morbid things in life, not for the darkness behind it, but for the very raw and emotional impact it has.
What were some of the first musical influences that inspired you to start creating?
I think my first big this is music moment was when I heard Everything In Its Right Place by Radiohead when I was 16. It was so abstract with raw distorted bass lines,disjointed drums and eerie melodies that made you feel like you were sinking. I think this was always the sound I was chasing and trying to find. Since then Radiohead has been a big inspiration. Other sound inspirations are of course obscure post punk tracks (russian post punk is just supreme for some reason), the grunge movement (Pixies, nirvana, smashing pumpkins). Mostly I like to explore a wide variety of music old and new, and when something makes me feel something, I try to make it in my own way.
Afrikaans music has long been divided between mainstream and “alternative.” Where do you see yourself in this landscape?
I definitely do not see myself as a mainstream artist. Unfortunately afrikaans music is a genre, instead of afrikaans music having genres. So I see myself as an alternative afrikaans musician with an international aim, if that makes sense. I want to make afrikaans music that doesn’t sound like afrikaans music.
Does your background in graphic design influence your approach to songwriting and performance?
I would say it definitely influences my performance and appearance (which can be really fun). So I am a daydreamer, and sometimes I have these huge plans and grand visuals I want to create for my music, I don’t yet have the resources to always make it happen, but because of my background in graphic design I have all the tools to make everything I need for my Hendriek Bleik project myself. I aim to create something that looks cool, and is performative (like I want to put on a show and give people something to look at and think is cool along with the music).
Sorry this probably doesn’t make a lot of sense but let me break it down. The music always comes first, the process of graphic design and making music is different so the music always inspires the design. Because I am a designer I am able to plan cool visuals and outfits for live performances and videos etc. So being a graphic designer is such a blessing for me to have a much broader range of self expression and being able to achieve the intended vision I have in my head. So in short, no graphic design does not influence my music, my music influences the design.
You’ve described singing in Afrikaans as an act of resistance rather than a natural choice. What led you to reclaim the language in your own way?
I have never really identified with Afrikaans to be honest. I never thought of myself as an afrikaner even though it is my mother tongue. I have always struggled with my identity growing up and I think by using art I was able to figure things out step by step. The big understanding moment came from a friend who studied graphic design with me. She was always so sure in who she was and what she wanted to say, and she always motivated me and the art I created. So planted the seed to start doing art in afrikaans, because since then I actively avoided everything afrikaans.
So in my honours year of studying I did a project about my identity as an afrikaner man, and my experience. I called the project ‘’n Triptych in my taal’. I explored my relationship with afrikaans. I explored all the hatred and confinement, I explored the persecution and ridicule, the bullying and the outcasting. All these very strong raw emotions afrikaans had against me. In that project I was able to see all the negativity Afrikaans had against me through my whole life (Afrikaans as the people and the culture).
In that project I came to the realisation as well, I do not identify with all these people that had all this negativity against me, but I am an Afrikaner man. I talk afrikaans, my family and friends are afrikaans. I am afrikaans, but that doesn’t have to mean that I have to be that negativity. I then out of an act of taking the power back for myself basically decided to be afrikaans, but in my own way. Afrikaans has told me what to do my whole life, but now I am taking the power back for myself and making afrikaans do whatever I want it to do. I am taking back my identity and doing whatever the fuck I want to do with my own identity and I do not care what people think my identity should be. I chose to be afrikaans and to break all the expectations of what that means to spite afrikaners basically.
‘Oh Maria’ is particularly striking in how you address Afrikaans directly as both a burden and a force of creation. Can you talk us through the emotions behind that song?
So Oh Maria is actually the first song of my project ‘’n Triptych in my taal’ This song is my introduction into my cultural identity and sets the stage for how I perceive my relationship with Afrikaans. Oh maria is me trying to make a combination of the image of Mother Mary and my mother tongue (Because afrikaans is typically very conservative Christian). I created this figure Maria, which is basically a dictator, and through the first verse I sing about blindly following her rule because mother knows best, but I beg that she only allows me my art and music. I will do anything for her, as long as she allows me to have art and music.
In the second verse I have grown older under her rule and started realising that what she says I should and shouldn’t do is honestly only a means of oppression and ruling instead of a prosperity type of relationships that helps you grow. So I start rebelling against her rule and plot my escape. I sing about becoming part of her ubermensch (Relating the Afrikaans oppressive mentality to the nazi regime). I sing about her taking away my voice (Which is my art and music) or she would abort me outside of her border (she would brand me as and outsider). So it’s a very raw and hatred filled relationship. Either I bend to her will and be like everybody else, listen to the same music and wear the same khaki outfit, or I live alone and make my own art and music.
I chose art and music.
The title ‘Zombie Kwekery’ is evocative—what does it represent to you, and what inspired the song?
Zombie kwekery is a nudge back to my childhood. So a kwekery is a plant nursery in
afrikaans, the idea of a nursery is to plant seeds/plants in the ground so they would
grow. And the business my father was in he would then put people who are
deceased into the ground. Even though any funeral business is a very raw and sensitive topic, I try to find a more childlike outlook on the morbid topic. I almost image a world where as I child these people were only planted to grow out again as zombies (very alice in wonderland or roald dahl type of mentality). So instead of the harsh truth of reality I rather try to live in a world of wonder and optimism.
Your music incorporates various genres, what drives you to experiment sonically rather than sticking to a single style?
I think first and foremost I am an artist and I am constantly in search of new emotional experiences. I am constantly evolving as a person and as that my taste and interests artistically also evolve. I don’t want to ever stick to just one thing because I feel like that would stagnate me as an artist and I would become bored so quickly. I have artistic tendencies I fall back into, but I more think that is just my way of putting my own spin on a new type of sound or look I find fascinating.
Do you write lyrics first and build sound around them, or does the music come first and guide your lyrical themes?
The music comes first. Like I mentioned I live for emotional experience, so my songwriting process is a very abstract one. I never ever have a set idea or path I want my music to go into because I feel like that immediately puts a limitation on creativity. Me writing music is almost like a dance, the music tells me where I should go and my physical body follows. Jack White spoke about Michael Jackson once and there was a quote about letting God in the room when writing music. This idea resonated with me alot, because I am in search of this enlightenment and spiritual understanding of firstly myself and then also reality, and I think through art and music I am able to piece the puzzles together bit by bit. So when I’m writing it is almost like I am letting all control go, the music writes itself. Writing music is a very strong and personal thing, it almost feels like a holy moment. That mystical moment of unknown creation is actually what I’m after, whatever comes from that is a byproduct.
If someone completely unfamiliar with Afrikaans music heard your work for the first time, what do you hope they take away from it?
I hope that they would think it is unique and hopefully it motivates them to want to try
some more new things. Experience new things, find new emotional connections and
experiences.
Looking forward, what is your vision for your music? Are there any sounds, themes, or collaborations you’re eager to explore next? Any plans to tour outside of South Africa?
I think looking forward I am just going to keep doing me and keep following where my curiosity takes me. I am hopeful that I will grow in the South African scene and expand what afrikaans music can be. I really want to bring out an album in the coming year or two, currently I just do not have the time or resources to put all my attention into music. I have a couple of really big plans/dreams for my music and collaborations. First and foremost I want to work with Augusta Zietsman, we are currently swimming in the same pools, we are two kids fighting against the mainstream. Then, I have been working with Peach van Pletzen now and again and it would be an absolute honour to do some work with him, sonically I think I would just have to figure out how we would sound but im pretty sure there is a very unique
post punk club hitter floating out in the unknown. Then I want to set my sights on oldschool underground afrikaans legends like battery 9, there are so many mindblowing afrikaans artist that could never get the recognition they deserve and I would absolutely love to have conversations and make music with these people. I have big dreams for the music, and my journey has only just begun which is really exciting. I have never been outside of SA so touring outside of SA is one of my biggest dreams. If my music is able to get me to a place where I could tour outside of SA I would be there in a heartbeat
How do you think the internet and streaming culture have affected the way Afrikaans artists can push boundaries?
I think streaming culture and the internet has allowed more underground artists to fight the mainstream. I think we are moving into a time where people are breaking outside of the mold and they are forming their own opinions on affairs. The internet is giving Afrikaans especially a platform to share and be seen. Afrikaans is evolving and I think the new afrikaans generation is adopting an international mentality due to the internet. I also feel like the internet gives the weird outsider afrikaans kid a community even though his small town ridiculed him for having different ideas.
Are there any artists that currently inspire you?
Currently visually and sonically Jean Dawson is a huge inspiration. I am still figuring out how I want to use social media for my music and I think his mentality is always a good one to reflect on. Idles are a huge inspiration for their unruly nature and very trippy and imaginative lyrics. JPEG MAFIA is a huge inspiration as well, his songs are very creatively composed and he is also a home producer which is cool. BIIG PIIG is also a mood, she has a very unique way of using guitars and baselines with produced drum tracks. And then of course Radiohead with their disjointed drums and distorted leads.
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