Ethan Kath’s Misleading Statements
Ethan Kath can’t keep track of his own lies.
In this interview with NME, Ethan stated the following about the night he met Edith Frances in November 2013:
“This was in LA,” continues Kath. “She’d been warned that I was gonna be there – like, ‘Someone else is staying here, don’t be scared if you see someone.’ We started talking about [Detroit hardcore band] Negative Approach, ’cause I’d just seen [them] and it was the best show of my life. She was like, ‘What?! They’re one of my favourite bands’. And then we agreed on the next band I brought up, which was [’90s shoegazing titans] Slowdive: again, another of her favourite bands. So because we were in the same spot and I was making beats and needed some demo vocals, I asked her if she wanted to sing on something. And she started singing and I was like, ‘Her voice is perfect.’ I was just blown away. It was just a complete fluke that this person that was in the room with me had this perfect voice for what I wanted to do.”
Alice Glass didn’t leave Crystal Castles until October 2014, meaning that he was indeed actively looking for someone to replace her like she said in her statement:
“But he often told me how replaceable I was. He’d even tell me that he was actively looking for someone to replace me.”
This contradicts some of the statements Ethan has made since Alice’s departure. In April 2015, he stated to Pitchfork:
“I was told she was taking a year off and that I should have the majority of the songs ready by her return. After her year off, she tweeted that she was leaving. There was no discussion about it.”
During Alice’s year off, Ethan had already recruited Edith into the band. Why is he so outraged that there was no discussion about it if Alice was never meant to return anyway?
Side note: Weirdly enough, Edith Frances was photographed in Alice’s trailer at Beach Goth in October 2014. She had already been recruited into the band for a year by that point. Why was she there?
After Alice named Ethan as her abuser in October 2017, he made the following disgustingly manipulative statement:
“When she suddenly left Crystal Castles to handle her mental health issues and substance abuse issues I fully supported her.”
Ethan can’t even get his story straight regarding Alice’s departure. First, he pretended to be unaware that Alice was leaving and he was blindsided by it. Then, he changed it into one where he was aware but he was supportive about it. Which one is it? Well, as he has made obvious, Ethan Kath has never been supportive of Alice. As soon as she left CC, he made a passive aggressive statement minimizing her contributions to the band:
"I wish my former vocalist the best of luck in her future endeavors. I think it can be empowering for her to be in charge of her own project. It should be rewarding for her considering she didn't appear on Crystal Castles' best known songs.”
Is this Ethan’s idea of support? The fact that he also refers to her as MY vocalist shows just how replaceable he considered her to be.
It’s also worth mentioning that during Alice’s year off, Ethan Kath attempted to sabotage the success of her DJ sets by messaging Crystal Castles fans and asking them not to blog about these sets. In his own words, “as long as there’s interest in her dj sets, they will continue and there will be no CC”. That post can be found on @exposingethankath.
Edith was already in CC when Ethan sent these messages to fans. Alice was never going to return. He just didn’t want her to have a career without him. His manipulation truly never ceases to amaze and horrify at the same time.