Independent label Dangerbird Records hit it big thanks to L.A. rockers Silversun Pickups and their fuzzed-out, Modern Rock radio hit singles “Lazy Eye,” “Well Thought-Out Twinkles” and “Panic Switch.” Label co-founder Jeff Castelaz has a passion for the music world, but is also incredibly passionate about fighting pediatric cancer. His son Pablo passed away from cancer in 2009 and Castelaz started the Pablove Foundation in his memory.
Jeff Castelaz
Jeff Castelaz started on the management side of the music biz in the mid-‘90s, and launched his own independent label, Dangerbird Records. L.A. fuzzed-out rockers Silversun Pickups put the label on the map thanks to their hit singles “Lazy Eye,” “Well Thought-Out Twinkles” and “Panic Switch.” Castelaz has a passion for the music world, but is also incredibly passionate about fighting pediatric cancer. His son Pablo passed away from cancer in 2009 and Castelaz started the Pablove Foundation in his memory, using his love of bicycling and musical connections to raise funds and awareness for the Foundation.
eQB presents excerpts from the September FMQB magazine
Modern Rock Up Close with Dangerbird Records Co-Founder
Jeff Castelaz
“I never worked at a label and never wanted to start a label. I did it because I was sick of being a manager and trying to put the product manager in a headlock to actually get something done. I started to realize they were just listening to me, and waiting for the next manager to walk in and nothing was actually happening. So I thought, ‘Why don’t I just take all the responsibility onto my plate? If I think I’m so smart, well I’ll just try it on my own.’ “
“Every artist on this label makes me feel something. I know that’s the most subjective thing in the world to say. With a small label like ours, somebody has to sign the bands and the label has to be riveted together using someone’s worldview and taste palate. Around here, it’s mine.”
“We’re definitely on a journey of trying to figure out the world and life by signing bands that make us feel something. We’re seven years in now. You stand back and look at this whole constellation of bands on the label and go, ‘Wow! This is quite an interesting collection of bands.’ ”
“At the end of the day, who knows what’s going on in this world? You may as well be working with people that you really get along with. If you can develop a relationship above and beyond that, with individuals or with the entire band, for a guy in my position that’s a wonderful thing.”
““Lazy Eye” made it up the Modern Rock chart and Q-Prime started managing Silversun Pickups. That was at the beginning of 2007, and now the band has a great management company, with a great radio department and great resources. You have a really, really powerful situation because everybody is equally invested in the band. The management only wants the best for the band, and the label wants what’s best for the band, and there’s no politics and no nonsense. We all just get on with it.”
“We need to consider directing more money so we can get more brain power into the research for a cancer cure. We really want people to consider the way that we vote and the way that we participate in the world to encourage our politicians, even from a local level and up to a national level, to put more money into cancer research than they do into how to make a more perfect hand grenade, to go and fight people on the other side of the world. Maybe we might want to consider that. And that is what Jo Ann and I spend a good deal of time thinking about and working on.”
“My business is a very important thing. It’s a very real thing. I take it very seriously. I also take helping other human beings very seriously. Many of them I’ll never meet. Jo Ann and I started the foundation for one simple reason, and that is because we couldn’t just sit there and do nothing.”
**QB content by Joey Odorisio**
