The local beat scene is strong in Adelaide, and – it turns out – sympathetic to your working week.

Nevada Paige knight is a woman on a mission. “This is just the start,” she says about Say Wat – the beat music night she’s launching upstairs on the rooftop of Sparkke at The Whitmore.

We had never met Nevada and had no idea Adelaide had a thriving scene of beat musicians, but within minutes of arriving at Sparkke’s new brewpub on Whitmore Square we’d met fellow beat maker ‘Fazz’ Farrell and Say Wat’s designer Nathan Cutts and become devotees to the genre and these ambitious, young creative’s cause.

“While I was living in Sydney, I put on one of these nights and it was really successful,” says Nevada. “With the amount of beat makers here – and the quality of music they’re producing – there’s nothing stopping us from doing it in Adelaide.”

The beat music genre is derived from a soul, funk and hip hop background with musicians reworking old tracks as well as creating original electronic music compositions. Oisima is a beat musician.

Nevada says Say Wat is a little more relaxed, however and will blend music by soul, funk, RnB and hip hop artists with some original tracks made by the DJ who’s performing.

Nevada Paige Knight

“It’s about paying homage to where we take our inspiration from,” says Nevada. It’s also about getting city workers to hang out after they knock off and engage with the cultural fabric of Adelaide.

Nevada is calling the musicians who’ll be playing each week the “Say Wat collective,” and says each week will feature two producers playing together from 6pm to 10pm. The start and finish time strikes us as odd, being that electronic music events don’t typically start in the city until after 10pm.

“This isn’t a club night, there won’t be any hero DJs playing bangers,” says Nevada. “Say Wat is going to be just this kind of smooth, friendly party in a creative space we can call ‘a home away from home’ and make some friends along the way,” she says.

“This place [The Whitmore] has been built by creatives,” adds Fazz.

Fazz runs his own record label, Bleu Avian and says this weekly gig has all the potential to nurture a unique and authentic culture in Adelaide.

“Producers are always in their bedroom, making music they really only get to share online or maybe at a club night, but here we’ll get to have some face-time with one another and meet other beat makers,” says Fazz – who’ll be performing at Say Wat under the name Alnitak Kid.

Say Wat takes its cues from Los Angeles’ epicentre of beat music – Low End Theory, which sadly closed last year. Nevada explains how Low End Theory started out as a place for producers to meet up and lounge around outside of their own homes, but quickly grew into a cult venue that welcomed musicians such as Thom Yorke from Radiohead on more than one occasion.

“Huge artists would play there regularly and for the regular cover price – you couldn’t pre-buy tickets, you just had to get there early,” says Nevada.

Appreciating that it’ll be local residents and city workers as well as the music scene who’ll be interested in attending the first Say Wat event on April 4th, Nevada has teed up a soul food menu to compliment the music selections she and Fazz are planning for their first night.

“Come straight from work, get a beer by Sparkke and grab some food – why not feed your soul, while recharging your creativity?” 

Say Wat Collective