When Crystal Castles co-founder Alice Glass left the band in October of 2014 she said it was for “reasons both professional and personal,†and now in a new post on her website she is elaborating for the first time on what that meant. Glass is alleging that former bandmate Ethan Kath (real name Claudio Palmieri) raped, manipulated, and abused her both physically and psychologically for a period of almost ten years, beginning when she was 15 years old. Glass claims he was controlling from the start of their relationship and the band, and that he dictated both her media exposure and whom she could talk to. She also details specific examples of abuse.
“He controlled everything I did. I wasn’t allowed to have my own phone or my own credit card, he decided who my friends were, read through my private emails, restricted my access to social media, regulated everything I ate. He berated me and yelled at me, telling me that I was a joke, that all the people that came to our shows were only interested in his instrumentals and that I was ruining the band. He broke glass shower doors to frighten me, he locked me into rooms. He told me that my feminism made me a target for rapists and only he could protect me. He forced me to have sex with him or, he said, I wouldn’t be allowed to be in the band anymore.â€
Glass says that as a result of the alleged abusive relationship she was “suicidal for years,†and that she had been too frightened to come out with her accusations until the recent tide of sexual-abuse stories from women in the entertainment industry made her feel emboldened to speak out. At the time of her departure from Crystal Castles, Kath first made a statement reducing Glass’s role in some of the band’s most popular songs before wishing her “the best of luck†in her future endeavors. Glass countered him by saying, “Manipulative statements about my contributions to the band only reinforce the decision I made to move on to other things.â€
Update: Kath has provided a statement to Pitchfork denying the accusations made by Glass. “I am outraged and hurt by the recent statements made by Alice about me and our prior relationship,†he said via his attorney. “Her story is pure fiction and I am consulting my lawyers as to my legal options. Fortunately, there are many witnesses who can and will confirm that I was never abusive to Alice.â€