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Forget the school holidays, these two have a record label to run. LAW Records is the brainchild of The Illawarra Grammar School music lovers James Cooper and Nicholas Kyrakoudes. Pooling their pocket money and harnessing the power of online shopping, the boys recently bought recording equipment wholesale from Japan and began offering their friends and acquaintances the chance to make recordings of originals and cover songs. The pair will offer their services in recording, producing and navigating licensing restrictions, then distribute tracks using the online service Distrokid. In exchange, they will keep any profits made from selling the music on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and elsewhere. ‘‘The incentive for [the musicians] is they get free, high quality recordings,’’ James said. ‘‘Recording in a studio can cost $300-$500. ‘‘This is a good way to get publicity for our music and for other people’s music.’’ Both boys play guitar and piano and are eager to take their own recordings to a wider audience. LAW (Live Acoustic Wollongong) Records was born when blues and folk aficionado James was researching licensing rules for a documentary he hopes to make on his idol, the late American blues singer and guitarist Eddie James ‘‘Son’’ House. Nicholas’s loungeroom is carpeted, so has been earmarked to serve as a studio, but recordings may be made in someone’s bedroom on occasion. The boys like the idea of making live, unadulterated recordings, like the blues recordings they admire from years gone by. ‘‘We like it fresh and pure,’’ Nicholas said. Their investments were funded with help from part-time jobs. Nicholas umpires soccer; James works at a business – his own – that converts videos to DVDs. ‘‘I’ve been running my own business since I was in year seven,’’ he said.

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