Alice Glass

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Alice Glass is a Canadian singer best known as the former vocalist of electronic band Crystal Castles.^[1] She embarked on a solo career in early 2015.^[2]

Life and Career

Alice Glass was born in 1988 in Toronto, Ontario.^[3] Her birth name is rumored to be Margaret Osborne.^[4] She was raised Catholic, attending parochial school up until junior high.^[5] At the age of fourteen she ran away from home to live in a squat community of punks under the name Vicki Vale (named after the comic book character) and started an all-girl crust-noise band called Fetus Fatale.^[6] Though she continued going to school, she dropped out before graduating. Ethan Kath, impressed by Glass's performance with the band, gave her CD-Rs with 60 instrumental tracks of which she chose 5 to write vocals for.^[7][8]

In 2008, before the band's interview with Now Magazine, Glass disappeared and neither Ethan nor the band's manager could contact her.^[9] Crystal Castles was infamously shut down at Glastonbury 2008 after Glass climbed a speaker stand just before "Alice Practice" and was swallowed by the crowd during "Yes No".^[10]

Glass has been known to be a dedicated performer. In March 2008 she broke two ribs in a car accident, and although doctors instructed her to take at least six weeks off to allow time to heal, she continued the tour, performing a twenty-minute set within days of the accident.^[3] Glass also performed five months' worth of shows on crutches after falling and putting a strain on an unhealed ankle injury in 2011. ^[11] At the 2013 Glastonbury Festival, Crystal Castles began their set 20 minutes past the scheduled time, with Glass visibly sick and beginning "Plague" sitting with her head in her hands. According to NME, Glass had been suffering from food poisoning, but chose to perform anyway.^[12] Alice's vocal style ranges from singing, whispering, shouting, and screaming.

For many years, Crystal Castles had been in contact with Connor Meek, an 18 year old fan of the band suffering from cancer. The band unsuccessfully attempted to meet him on numerous occasions and called him on the phone for his birthday. The band was going to meet Connor to play a few songs acoustically for him, but he had died before they were able to.^[13] During her performance with Crystal Castles the next night at Brixton Academy, Glass kept a small shrine on stage in tribute to Connor, featuring lilies, candles she had lit, and a picture of him. The show was reported to be very chaotic, so much so that a security guard threatened to shut down the concert unless Glass addressed the situation. She spoke directly to the crowd, a rarity for a Crystal Castles performance.^[14] Glass attempted to get the crowd to chant "We love you, Connor" but to no avail, as her microphone audio was distorted and hard to understand. It was also reported that Glass fell to her knees and began crying into her microphone on stage in front of Connor's shrine after the concert had ended, which was witnessed by concertgoers.^[15]

In October 2014, Glass announced that she was leaving Crystal Castles due to her own "professional and personal" reasons. In this announcement she noted that working within the band compromised her efforts towards "sincerity, honesty, and empathy for others".^[16] She later had a number of public disagreements with her former bandmate.^[17]

Glass released her debut single, "Stillbirth", in July 2015.^[18] The release was largely an effort to increase awareness of domestic/sexual abuse. Glass worked with anti-sexual assault organization RAINN, donating all proceeds of the song to the aid of victims of such abuse.^[19] She spoke out about her own experience in an abusive relationship, saying, "I was systematically cut off from anyone and everyone that I could truly be close to. I was talked down to, yelled at, locked in rooms and criticized daily about my abilities, my weight, my looks, my intelligence, and almost every move I made. When I couldn't take it anymore and I wanted to end the relationship I was threatened, then I was told I was loved, and the cycle would begin again".^[19]

Accolades

Alice Glass topped NME's Cool List in 2008 (beating mainstream artists such as Jay-Z) and responded by criticizing the idea of the cool list itself.^[20] In 2011 Rolling Stone Magazine named Crystal Castles as one of ten icons in 20 Years of Lollapalooza moments (alongside legends such as Sonic Youth, Patti Smith, and Jesus & Mary Chain).^[21] Crystal Castles received the John Peel Award For Innovation at the 2011 NME Awards.^[22] Crystal Castles debut album was included in NME's "Top 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade" list at #39.^[23]

Discography

Singles

• "Stillbirth" (2015, no label)^[18]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alice Glass.

• Interview with the Independent newspaper