Eighteen months ago, former University student Cohen Hartman decided to trade exams and projects for songwriting and producing.After spending a semester at the University as a general studies major in 2007, Hartman decided to forego another semester and dedicate more time touring and writing with his band, Cohen & the Ghost.”We were already getting about 150 people at our shows,” Hartman said. “I knew it was going to be hard to balance school and touring and everything, so I just dropped out to work on writing.”The band spent months playing shows around the state in support of their debut release, “Paper Moon,” prompting Cohen to focus on music and producing full time.”I’d see these local bands who would be really good and had potential,” he said. “When they got to be 24 or 25, they’d break up because they would all go in different directions.”Learning to play numerous instruments and working in a studio since he was a teenager, Hartman took interest in forming an independent record label in Baton Rouge. After months of exchanging ideas with Cohen & the Ghost bass player and avid screen printer Derek Arbour, the pair formed Phantom Party Records in March 2009, Hartman said. “I’ve been a screen printer for three or four years now, before I had the slightest imagining of getting into a label,” said Arbour, a general studies senior at the University. “I met Cohen through making shirts for him and eventually joined the band, and ever since it’s been a natural progression to do merch[andise] for our friends.”Phantom Party had its beginnings in Walker, La., at Arbour’s screen printing shop Silky Screens. After a few months at the studio, the label moved its headquarters to Shadow Broadcast Services on Waco Avenue, Hartman said. Jason Ourso, a label executive at Phantom Party, works at Shadow and secured the space for the label, he said. Ourso graduated from Southeastern Louisiana University in 2004 and is currently lead singer and guitarist for The Mysterious Stranger, a local indie rock band. “Cohen’s been working with our band The Mysterious Stranger, and I brought him into Shadow’s spaces,” Ourso said. “Now, we actually have a studio and not just a room to play in.”Phantom Party initially started with local bands Cohen & the Ghost, England in 1819 and Prom Date, the winner of Students on Target’s 2009 Battle of the Bands competition. The label has since added The Mysterious Stranger, Pollypry and Norcio in recent months.”We were the last band to get put on the label, and it’s been working out great so far,” said Sam Claitor, bass player for Norcio and a graphic design freshman at the University. “Cohen’s helping us a lot with getting [our music] out there — he puts it on  Amazon.com and iTunes for us.”Hartman, who mostly deals with recording and publishing the label’s music, said he and his fellow Phantom Party executives — Ben Allen, the label photographer, and Chase Parrish, who looks for talent — all bring their own expertise to the label.Ourso, who graduated from Southeastern with a degree in mass communication, said he plans to incorporate video content into the label.”I want to get someone on maybe local access television,” he said. “We’ll have a YouTube channel where all our content will be archived, and the show will be an easy way to get everybody in. We want to give everyone some television exposure.”Arbour, who is in charge of merchandising and prints for the label, said he is excited with how the label is progressing thanks to everyone’s input.”I’m really amazed how it’s coming together — it’s no longer Cohen and I working at a record label,” he said. “Every band we bring has a level of expertise on some aspect of the label. We all work together and bring something different to the table.”With six bands on the label and many of them with new releases in the works, Claitor said he thinks they have potential for serious success.”There are 6 bands on the label who are decently well-known for original music in Baton Rouge, and we play together and promote one another,” he said. “We’re mixing fans — I feel like we can get a music scene going.”____Contact Ben Bourgeois at [email protected]