Folk music hasn’t had the coolest rep of late; in fact, it hasn’t really been the in fashion since the heady days of free love and flower power when artists like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan were packing theatres around the world… well the times… they are a-changin’.

With their roots in high school jams and bedroom songsmithing, Northern Beaches duo Georgia Fair are bringing folky back with their dual guitar dreamscapes, enticing vocal delivery and a catchy soundtrack to a high profile Big M milk campaign.

If you’ve seen and the heard the Big M ad campaign on television at the moment then you’ve probably heard Georgia Fair; like Jose Gonzalez and his Sony ad contributions, Georgia Fair have collected a large group of listeners from their foray into big league advertising.

After writing seriously for a few short years, Georgia Fair were snapped up by the Sony music machine and they now sit poised to make a huge mark on the Australian music market. They have the looks, they have the sounds and they have the grounding to make it. Theirs is a schoolyard partnership built on a familiarity and appreciation for the sounds of the American heartland.

My old man and Ben’s (Ben Riley, Georgia Fair guitarist) old man were right into that kind of music and obviously happy to push it onto us” explains lead vocalist Jordan Wilson.

“I guess that’s really how Ben and I met, by just liking alternate music to the kids around us… I guess when it comes to indirect influences stuff like Sting and the Police was some of the first music I heard and I obviously love them but there’s also Bob Dylan, he was always playing, Neil Yong, Crosby Stills and Nash and then there’s stuff like Paul Kelly and the Go-betweens, you know, all the good shit.”

With a musical pedigree like that, it’s little wonder that these lads found themselves drawn toward music and its creation. Every high school has its musical circles comprised of the next generation of rock stars, salivating over ampage, crowds and groupies, but the Georgia Fair lads weren’t quite as brash as the pack.

“To be honest, we were closet musicians back in school” says Wilson. “Everyone knew we loved our music but we never really showed anyone, I guess we didn’t really start writing songs until year twelve, but yeah we never really came out and said ‘hey everyone this is what we’re doing’. It wasn’t a secret, just more something we did for ourselves. I guess when we did actually put something down on record, our first demo, when people heard it there was a massive shock, they didn’t even realise we were doing it.”

Now, as is generally the case with musical success stories, Georgia Fair have moved from consumers to producers with the release of their self titled debut E.P. Recorded at Sony studios under the watchful eye of in-house producer Brad Williams. Big time recording can come as a shock to many musicians new to the experience, especially the idea of constructive criticism, something the boys are starting to understand.

“Yeah, we’re learning I guess” Wilson says through stifled laughter. “We’re pretty chilled and we haven’t had too many bad comments so we’ll basically take em, then we’ll consult each other and if we reckon the other person’s a dickhead then it’s up to us, otherwise we’ll take it on board”.

It’s a part of the business the boys are going to have to come to terms with because after signing with international music powerhouse Sony, they won’t be cutting production corners any time soon. For this lucky pair the road to major label interest couldn’t have been any easier.

“Well we did our first demos about three years back, then we started playing some really chilled out gigs, not many people but then we got the opportunity to do some better quality recordings, we got ourselves a little home studio and we were about to put out an E.P ourselves actually but we had sent our early demos off to agents and stuff straight away, we weren’t that focused on the record label thing straight away, we got some good gigs, like we played with Alex Lloyd a couple times and a we got a bit of interest from a couple labels and when Sony saw that we had enough songs, we went in there for a showcase and played for a few of the execs, and I guess we did alright”.