A 2008 Article Foreshadowed Alice Glass' Abuse Allegations

Earlier this week, Alice Glass wrote a lengthy blog post in which she made detailed accusations of abuse against her former Crystal Castles bandmate Ethan Kath. She alleges that Kath had non-consensual sex with her, and controlled a number of aspects of her life from the time she was 15 years old. Kath has denied her claims, calling them "pure fiction" and stating that "there are many witnesses who can and will confirm that I was never abusive to Alice."

Since Glass made her statement, a 2008 article from now-defunct UK music publication The Stool Pigeon has emerged, tweeted on Wednesday by the paper's former editor Phil Hebblethwaite. The article appears to corroborate some of the detail of many of Glass's claims, unrelated to physical or sexual abuse. Indeed, the interview's sub-headline, which reads "Alice may dominate the duo's live shows, but, offstage, control freak Ethan Kath is the paranoid king of Canada's Crystal Castles," tells a similar story to the one outlined by Glass in her blog post about the alleged abuse.

Various observations made by writer Niall O'Keeffe make for difficult reading regardless, but in the knowledge of Glass' recent allegations take on a more haunting significance. In the piece, Glass is described as not being involved in the interview, and Kath's behaviour is portrayed as controlling. When a photographer "politely requests that Alice lift up the corner of her mask," O'Keeffe writes that Kath "snaps" at her not to; Kath also reportedly makes comments about her eating patterns, and more than once O'Keeffe seems concerned about Glass' level of agency, commenting that she "has vocal chords of her own" when Kath speaks for her.

The story also confirms Glass' claim that Kath told the press that her "Alice Practice" vocals were a "mic-test" ("The pair went in to record five songs and came out with six, the studio engineer having surreptitiously recorded Alice while she tested her mic over a repetitive loop," writes O'Keeffe, having only spoken to Kath for the piece). In Glass' words, this played the part of "intentionally diminishing" her role in the songwriting process. In full, the article puts forth one journalist's perception of a power imbalance at work within Crystal Castles. Kath has not so far commented on the article.

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