Alice Glass has spoken about leaving Crystal Castles, and discussed the serious allegations she made against her former bandmate Ethan Kath shortly after departing the band.
In a new interview with The Guardian, Glass explained her reasons for going public with her statement, which accused Kath of “severe psychological and emotional abuse”. Citing the #MeToo movement as a major turning point, she told journalist Laura Snapes that witnessing other women coming forward about the abuse they have suffered felt like watching “someone jumping off a cliff. If someone goes first, it lets you know that you’re safe. It really put things into perspective. If it wasn’t for them, I’m not sure how long it would have taken me to speak out.”
Alice Glass’ original statement accused Ethan Kath of non-consensual sex, emotional abuse, intimidation, stalking, and physical violence. Kath responded by suing his former bandmate for defamation, but his lawsuit, according to Glass, was dismissed. After he appealed, Glass says he lost the case for a second time, and now owes her legal fees.
Speaking to The Guardian about the case, Glass said “I want him to know that he can keep trying to sue me and it’s not affecting me in the way that you think it is, you’re just spending more of your money and wasting more of your life.”
She also says that men at Crystal Castles shows would grope her and target her physically. “Like: ‘She doesn’t care what you do to her, pull her hair, try strangling her with your shirt, grab her around the groin, why don’t you rip her skirt off?'” Glass said. They were all things that happened to me regularly. When a woman doesn’t really have agency – not doing interviews, having music that seemed unintentional, seeming like a vessel who’s there to fulfil someone else’s idea – then you can treat her not as a person and do whatever you want to her.”
Looking towards the future and her own solo music career, Alice Glass said that “justice is just being able to live my life.”
Glass released her latest solo track ‘Mine’ yesterday, along with a video. The visual features a guest appearance from Violet Chachki, winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 7. According to The Guardian, she wrote the song with Justin Tranter, who she collaborated with after being impressed by his work on Justin Bieber’s ‘Sorry’.
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