May 17, 2008 was a Saturday. It was the day I turned 37. My life was great, until about 6 p.m. when I noticed a bulge in my four-year-old son Pablo’s abdomen. That’s where my family’s cancer story began. A few hours later, my wife Jo Ann and I were in the emergency room at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles with Pablo and heard those words nobody wants to hear: Your son has cancer.

I can’t say or type those words without weeping.

But I have to tell you. Why? Because those words changed my life. When I heard them, I felt like the entire world fell away and it was just the three of us, all alone, with no direction or connection to anything. That’s the feeling many cancer parents have when they hear those words. Cold, harsh loneliness. Suddenly: I am apart from everyone else on earth.

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After three weeks spent pedaling down the west coast, through sunshine, rain and wind, Jeff Castelaz unclipped from his bike for the last time last Thursday at the Sunset Boulevard headquarters of two organizations he’s co-founded — Dangerbird Records and The Pablove Foundation.

Surrounded by friends, family, colleagues, riders and news crews, Castelaz had finished the second annual Pablove Across America ride. Once again, he’d accomplished his goal — to raise awareness and funds for childhood cancer — with support from the music, cycling and cancer communities.

Two hours later in the lobby of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, Castelaz met up with Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx. They spent three hours with cancer patients at the hospital, talking about bikes, chemo, and taking photos with Sixx’s Polaroid camera. While the kids were focused on the rocker’s tattoos, Castelaz would step aside with the parents and speak about Pablove’s mission.

This was a typical day in the life of Pablove Across America.

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Jeff Castelaz was ready to celebrate. Convinced his 5-year-old son Pablo had beaten a rare form of childhood cancer called bilateral Wilms’ tumor, the co-founder of Los Angeles independent label Dangerbird Records planned a cross-country bike trek to raise money and awareness for other victims of the pediatric disease. “We wanted to do it as a show of strength – that we went through this and we made it,” says Castelaz, 38. “That’s not how our story ended.”

Just a few days after his sixth birthday, Pablo lost his yearlong battle with cancer. Given the option of sitting in a room and pulling the shades, Castelaz decided he would complete the ride. “I needed to do something to wring my soul out,” he says. “Cycling has the grace and aggression I needed.”

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Former Milwaukeean Jeff Castelaz, who owns Dangerbird – a label and management company in L.A. – is back on his bike starting this weekend in support of the Pablove Foundation.

Castelaz started the foundation after the death of his son Pablo, who was 6 years old, from cancer last year. The ride from Seattle to L.A. runs from Oct. 2 to 21.

To help kick off that event – albeit from afar – is a Pablove benefit on Saturday at The Tonic Tavern in Bay View.

Castelaz’s brother Dean and their friend Fred “Toomuchmetal” Gillich – who will take part in the ride himself — are organizing the event, which like last year’s Pablove benefit concert at Turner Hall, has found great support here in Milwaukee.

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Jeff Castelaz is the co-founder of Dangerbird Records home to more than thirty artists including Silversun Pickups, Hot Hot Heat, Minus the Bear, Darker My Love and Fitz & The Tantrums. Jeff Castelaz is also a parent who has lost a child to cancer.

Castelaz battled the disease with his son Pablo and shared their journey through Pablog! Families all over the world in similar situations  found comfort in Pablo’s updates.  On June 27, 2009 six year old Pablo lost his battle with bilateral Wilms’ Tumor.  The Pablove Foundation was formed to raise funds, awareness and connect those touched by childhood cancer.  This January a children’s album will be released featuring Shirley Manson and a long list of excellent artists to be announced shortly with proceeds benefiting Pablove.

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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**

Minus the Bear will be playing the Pablove Across America – a 1,425 miles cycle ride to raise money and awareness for childhood cancer – kick off in Seattle on Thursday, September 30 at the The Crocodile; tickets are available now. More benefits with surprise guests will follow the ride from Seattle to LA, October 1st through October 21st. See full details of the charity project below:

Press release:

Beginning October 1st in Seattle, WA and covering some 1,425 miles, The Pablove Foundation and Dangerbird Records cofounder, Jeff Castelaz, will cycle city-by-city (http://www.pabloveacrossamerica.com/schedule) for close to a month. Along the journey Castelaz will be joined by fellow riders, and in key cities, will be met with benefit concerts and fundraising events, all dedicated to raising money and awareness to fight childhood cancer.

The Pablove Foundation (pablove.org) is named after Pablo Thrailkill Castelaz, the son of Jo Ann Thrailkill and Jeff Castelaz and the little brother of Grady Gallagher. Pablo was six years old when he lost his valiant yearlong battle with bilateral Wilms’ Tumor, a rare form of childhood cancer. Imbued with his spirit and inspired by his strength, Pablove is dedicated to the daily, global fight against childhood cancer and the suffering that comes in its wake.

Following his tragic loss in 2009, Castelaz, set out to ride coast to coast and along the way the arts and cycling community rallied, everyone—from Dangerbird artists Silversun Pickups and filmmaker Christopher Nolan (Inception, Batman Begins) to punkers Against Me and Tour de France legend Lance Armstrong—stepped up, raising thousands of dollars while Jeff sped across the country for over 43 days; riding in honor of his son’s memory. All the while meeting with families touched by cancer, visiting hospitals and dedicating his time each day to a different child’s fight with the disease.

Castelaz’s 2010 trip will come to a close October 21st in his hometown of Los Angeles.

For more information on how you can contribute visit: http://www.pabloveacrossamerica.com/

July 30, 2010

By Mitchell Peters

In the second week of their 6-year-old son Pablo’s treatment for cancer last year at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, Dangerbird Records president Jeff Castelaz and his wife, Jo Ann Thrailkill, became very aware that the hospital staff and families around them could use some help.

“It just seemed like we were in an environment that was really, really stressed out,” Castelaz tells Billboard. “And we thought we could help.”

Although Pablo lost his yearlong battle with bilateral Wilms’ tumor on June 27, 2009, his parents vowed to ease the suffering of other families dealing with the pain of childhood cancer by starting the Pablove Foundation. To date, the nonprofit has raised more than $500,000 through benefit concerts and last fall’s inaugural cross-country bike ride, Pablove Across America.

In addition to giving money to children’s hospitals in Arizona, California, Texas and Wisconsin, the Pablove Foundation has assembled a scientific advisory board that will assist the organization in finding cutting-edge pediatric cancer research to donate to. Later this year, the Pablove Foundation will also host its first Wilms’ Tumor Symposium in Los Angeles and launch the Pablove Shutterbugs program, which aims to teach photography to children with cancer.

“Anything we can do to help get people together and get them out of that lonely, isolated place that cancer puts you in, we’re doing that,” Castelaz says.

Castelaz is currently gearing up for the second Pablove Across America ride, which begins Oct. 1 in Seattle and ends Oct. 21 in Los Angeles. To participate in the 1,425-mile trek, cyclists must raise $10,000 per week for the foundation. “All you have to do is show up with your bike after you’ve raised a ton of money for the charity’s mission,” he says.