With 16 Adelaide bands and musicians playing across four venues on one night, Scouted is a showcase of the best emerging artists Adelaide has to offer.

Speaking to Adelaide’s musicians and music-affiliated folk in 2019, it’s clear the current mood across the South Australian music industry is buoyant.

From a brief era of relative quiet across the city’s band rooms, there has come a new wave of artists intent on not only making a ruckus in their hometown, but also making sure music retains its place as an integral part of life in Adelaide.

Run by Music SA and now in its third year, Scouted is an encapsulation of our musicians collective efforts.

Scouted is a showcase event, happening across four venues on Friday, 26 July, where 16 artists are programmed for the enjoyment of punters, and the national industry folks visiting Adelaide for Indie-Con and the AIR Awards.

It is a one-night-only South by Southwest-style smorgasbord of local South Australian talent.

“The first year, two of my artists showcased and got to see it all evolve. And that was the first year that Indie Con and the AIR Awards came to Adelaide,” says Sian Walden, who is Live Music Coordinator at Music SA and also runs her artist management label, Little Acorn.

“It’d been a number of years since Fuse, which used to be a conference and showcase event, had happened in Adelaide. We’d had UNESCO City of Music, we’d had more government funding and programs and support that had been happening, so we had this element of all of these things coming together.

“But how else do we prep musicians and how do we showcase these people to the national audience?”

Scouted prepares artists for the national stage with the support of the Music SA team, starting with performing to a room full of influential industry heads.

Following their appearance at Scouted in 2017, both Mane, who is one of Little Acorn’s artists, and Electric Fields, who this year came runner up to Kate Miller Heidke to represent Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest, booked spots at the following year’s Groovin the Moo festival.

“The booker was coming and he’s then built up a really great relationship with Music SA and the South Australian music industry in general and now knows to look at the Scouted lineup as maybe an indication of people to keep an eye on,” Sian says.

This year, the all-local lineup includes Dress Code, Elsy Wameyo, ER@SER DESCRIPTION, Glowing, Homeward Bound, Jess Day, Local Revolution, OC3ANEYES, Pinkish Blu, Ricky Albeck & The Belair Line Band, Stacy Says, Stellie, The Montreals, TOWNS, Venice Queens, and Wanderers.

For the artists, Scouted is an opportunity to network and create contacts and connections throughout the national music scene.

For the gig-going public in attendance, it’s a rollicking snapshot of Adelaide’s best emerging artists, and a chance to see a diverse range of local bands on the cusp of the ever-elusive bigger and better things.

“It’s about empowering and encouraging and putting forward local talent, and making sure we’re putting a stamp on that national industry map. The end point is having eyes on us, really,” Sian says.

Scouted is happening from 6pm on Friday, 26 July at the Crown and Anchor band room, the Exeter beer garden, Sugar and The Stag Public House.

For more information and to purchase tickets, see the Scouted website.

How to get on the scouted lineup

The Scouted lineup is chosen from a suite of applications submitted to Music SA, and while there’s no one box every artist must tick, there are a couple of things bands can do if they want to increase their chances.

“We prefer if we can to see people playing live,” Sian says.

“That’s not always possible – it’s a small town and there’s a small window in which we might be able to catch you if we haven’t caught you live before. So it’s not that you’re not considered if you haven’t played live in that window of time.

“We [also] want to be able to champion the Scouted artists digitally and show people their videos online, and send them their music on Spotify and streaming services, and for people to be able to interact with them before they’re here, or with the local community.

“If they’re online, that’s a great start, because otherwise they can lose an element of the platform that we’re providing for them. We want to provide them as much opportunity to be seen and heard and known about.”

It also helps to be in contact with the folks at Music SA, who have a breadth of knowledge and many avenues – not just Scouted – through which they can lend you a hand.

“One thing that we encourage is just constant engagement with what we’re doing,” Sian says.

“There’s a platform in which to book industry development meetings with us, and that’s got our availability. So people can book in a free consultation and we can walk them through whatever their industry-related issues or questions might be, and that’s a really great way of interacting with us.

“Just constantly engaging and being aware that we’re here and the door’s open, and we want to assist as much as we can, and we’ll keep that conversation and that communication, the relationship going.”

Visit Music SA to connect.