Crystal Castles’s Ethan Kath has addressed accusations that he raped and assaulted his former bandmate Alice Glass today.
Glass, who left the band in late 2014, has released a troubling and detailed statement through her official website, where she accuses Kath- whose real name is Claudio Palmieri of rape, assault, and emotional abuse, amongst other distressing claims.
Glass’ statement claim that the abuse began when she was aged just 15, and describes how Kath “was very manipulative towards me. He figured out my insecurities and exploited them: he used the things he learned about me against me. Over a period of many months, he gave me drugs and alcohol and had sex with me in an abandoned room at an apartment he managed. It wasn’t always consensual and he remained sober whenever we were together.
According to Glass, Kath began to “abusively and systematically targeting my insecurities and controlling my behavior: my eating habits, who I could talk to, where I could go, what I could say in public, what I was allowed to wear. He kept me from doing interviews or photoshoots unless he was in control of the situation… He became physically abusive. He held me over a staircase and threatened to throw me down it. He picked me up over his shoulders and threw me onto concrete.”
“He controlled everything I did,” Glass continues. “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.”
The singer also claims that she was sexually harrassed by a sound engineer during the recording of Crystal Castles’ first EP and that Kath had “laughed at me and pressured me to go along with it.”
Glass elaborates on how her treatment at the hands of her former-bandmate forced her into leaving the band when she did: “Leaving Crystal Castles was the single most difficult decision I’ve ever made,” she writes. “That band was everything to me. My music, my performances and my fans were all I had in the world. I gave that up and started over not because I wanted to but because I had to. As difficult as it was, I knew that leaving was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. It has taken me years to recover from enduring almost a decade of abuse, manipulation and psychological control. I am still recovering.”
Glass has since embarked on a solo career, releasing her debut EP in August of this year. Crystal Castles released their first album since her departure, titled Amnesty (I) in 2016. Stereogum alleges that Crystal Castles have now cancelled all their tour dates, as a result of these allegations.
Kath has responded to these allegations in a statement issued to Pitchfork, via his attorney. The statement reads: “I am outraged and hurt by the recent statements made by Alice about me and our prior relationship. 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.”