Jeff Castelaz

Jeff Castelaz co-founded Cast Management and, with his wife Jo Ann Thrailkill, co-founded The Pablove Foundation. He also Co-Founded and was CEO of Los Angeles-based Dangerbird Records.

As a student at Marquette University in his hometown of Milwaukee, Castelaz was involved in promoting concerts at the school as well as being a DJ at WMSE-FM. He was also the music editor for the now-defunct weekly paper Downtown Edition, and worked as a freelance writer for Milwaukee Magazine and Los Angeles-based Ray Gun magazine. These experiences led to Castelaz being asked to manage local band Wild Kingdom. Eventually Wild Kingdom broke up, and its members started Citizen King in 1993 to pursue more eclectic musical directions.

Castelaz is also credited with inadvertently inspiring the logo design for Milwaukee band Chainfall, which was formed from the ashes of underground stars Die Kreuzen.

As manager for Citizen King, Castelaz guided the band to sign with Warner Bros. Records for their album Mobile Estates. Their single "Better Days (And the Bottom Drops Out)" became a Top 40 hit and went gold in the summer of 1999, ranking on seven Billboard charts including #3 on the Modern Rock chart. The songs from Mobile Estates were also licensed for film, television, trailers and commercials.

While continuing to manage Citizen King, Castelaz began managing other bands including Cupcakes, who were then signed to Dreamworks; and The Promise Ring, which Castelaz moved from Jade Tree to Epitaph's imprint ANTI-. Castelaz also started managing producer Tony Hoffer, who produced the second unreleased Citizen King record. Castelaz and Hoffer have continued their working relationship on records by artists such as Air, Beck, The Thrills, The Kooks, Belle and Sebastian, Marianne Faithfull, Turin Brakes, and more.

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