Heart of Glass
Gothic bleep-core duo Ethan Kath and Alice Glass, aka CRYSTAL CASTLES, could never be accused of being conventional.
Ed Power, 02 Sep 2010
The first time Ethan Kath laid eyes on his future Crystal Castles partner Alice Glass was in a squat on the south side of Toronto. Barely five feet tall and with the physique of an under-nourished pixie, she was spewing beer and profanities in the face of the grizzled old punks who wanted to beat the crap out of her. He was smitten there and then.
“They were telling her to ‘fuck off’ and she was right in their faces calling them pussies,” he remembers. “She was 15-years-old. I couldn’t believe how incredibly brave she was. She had no concern, whatsoever, for the consequences. I knew then she had to be on my music.”
Kath, who will spend most of the interview complaining of a ‘blinding fucking headache’, is in the back of a tour bus making its way from Texas to Georgia. It’s been a fraught few weeks for Crystal Castles. Performing at the Latitude fest in Britain in July, the gothic bleep-core duo almost precipitated a riot when Glass planted a haymaker on a punter she believed had “touched her tits” in the mosh-pit.
How does Kath remember the incident, which the UK media seized upon as a matter of earth-shaking significance?
“Was there a lot of hysteria?” he shrugs. “I didn’t realise that. I don’t know... That’s too long ago. Too much has happened since then. To be honest, I don’t recall what really happened.”
Does he ever fear for Glass when she disappears into a writhing mosh-pit?
“She’s tough as nails,” he says, as if the question hadn’t previously occurred to him. “I’ve never met a tougher person actually. She comes from a noise punk background. When I saw her in that squat in Toronto, she was like a powerful force. And if you listened to the lyrics, she was so poetic.”
When they met, he was in a rock band about to sign to a major. His bandmates were psyched, but Kath found imminent fame and wealth a dispiriting prospect. Without fully explaining where he was going, he quit to form Crystal Castles with Glass.
“There were major labels flying in A&R guys to our shows. We were offered a record deal. It was at that point I realised I couldn’t commit myself to this sound. Essentially we were a Stooges tribute band. Initially we’d play covers. Then we’d write originals that sounded like the covers. To me, it was like we were paying tribute to the past. It was cool to do that in exchange for free beer. To sign a contract, which would mean we were paying tribute to the ‘70s for ten years, was too much. I said, ‘No thanks.’ I’d rather create something new, even if it wasn’t going to be popular.”
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