Crystal Castles draws that line, millions of people take this music and make it their religion, and others reject it as the music for seizures. However, there is a lot more to this ferocious duo then most of the media would like to grant them. Lets take an in depth, and I’m not kidding, look at these electronic masterminds and their accidental success.
According to an interview with SPIN magazine, the two Torontonians first met while completing community service by reading to the blind, Alice was being punished for living in a Toronto squat and Ethan was serving for an undisclosed crime. I have read in other articles that Alice was a crush of one of Ethan's friends but since they have never said it I don't believe it. After discussing modern music, and that no one was doing anything new, they decided they would try to create a new sound and genre as best as they could.
Alice, at the time, was in the four piece noise-punk girl-band 'Fetus Fatale,' she played with them up until Crystal Castles started touring. It's stated in an NME interview, that “at the age of 14, she changed her name, changed her age, and ran away from home to live in a community of punks and drug addicts.” She claimed this move was "due to an early existential crisis. I wanted to live primitively with no money and no shelter." Both continue an on going mystery of their real surnames.
Ethan, who I've seen go by Ethan Kath, Ethan Fawn, Ethan Catheter and Claudio, was in many bands before Crystal Castles. In high school he was a drummer in a band which was run by his best friend Phil Placentile, they played Toronto's punk scene for before changing their style drastically to a more folk sound. Just as they were about to record their first album Phil Placentile passed away, died in his sleep of an aneurysm brought on by medication he was taking for Rheumatoid Arthritis. A year after, he started a garage-metal band called Jakarta saying he was trying to mix Stooges vocals with Iron Maiden guitars. He enjoyed the band and quoted the guys to be "great people to play with" but, by the time they were offered record deals he decided he wanted to do something different. He had isolated himself from everyone for a few months working on his new idea for a band. People believed he gone completely mad or that he had died.
Ethan says in the summer of 2004, he put together a CD of instrumentals he had created and gave it to Alice to write vocal parts. Ethan was quoted saying, in NOW magazine, "As soon as I saw her perform with 'Fetus Fatale', I knew I could trust her and that I wouldn’t have to look over anything she does. Whatever she’d put on my tracks would be fine, and she’ll never write a clichéd lyric." When she was ready, they went to a local studio to record their first 5 songs. When they were done, the studio gave them 6 songs, the 5 which were planned and one they had secretly recorded of the microphone test, and included it on the CD. He had called the extra track “Alice Practice”.
Ethan posted these tracks up on myspace and forgot about for six months, two hundred thousand plays and one year later, labels started calling. Alt Delete Records, a label from Nottingham, discovered the tracks on the page, at the time they were also trying to sign Klaxons (then known as Klaxons Not Centaurs). Ethan was interested in their offer because they had ‘The Organ,’ a band he liked. Klaxons ended up putting out a 7" on Merok Records instead, which was owned by the room mate of the bass player of the band. Klaxons introduced Crystal Castles to Merok Records resulting in Merok's next release to be the recording of the microphone test that they had recorded before. Ethan then edited the 10 minute microphone test down to three minutes and it became their first single, 'Alice Practice,' Alice practicing and testing the mic.
What followed were a strew of E.P's from the dynamic duo, which included 'Crimewave', 'Air War,' 'Courtship Dating' and their first one 'Alice Practice,' which was limited to 500 copies and sold out in only three days! 'Alice Practice' is currently going for over $300 on eBay and is considered a rarity among their cult following. Crystal Castles are arguably even defter at remixes, which include such done for artists like Klaxons and Bloc Party. Ethan was quoted stating "We started doing remixes because bands were contacting me when we were in desperate need of money. It was just good timing. Bloc Party wanted to pay us to remix their song, so I just chopped their vocals up over a Crystal Castles song we weren’t using."
Crystal Castles have toured all over the globe sine 2006, Europe and the USA numerous times, North America with Metric and the UK, headlining ‘Unitaur,’ the Vice Magazine’s UK tour and also the UK's NME New Noise tour. Other festivals they’ve played in include Iceland Airwaves festival, Reading and Leeds Festival and the Glastonbury Festival, in which an unimpressed safety crew pulled the plug on the Canadian band's music due to Alice’s’ rebellious stage antics.
After a couple years of touring in cities all over the globe, supporting acts like Nine Inch Nails and The Presets, recording several successful remixes and dealing with a few minor legal set backs, Crystal Castles released their self titled debut album on March 18, 2008 with the Montreal-based label, Last Gang Records. The album has been both heavily-promoted and well-received, and did not disappoint, with their dark, spectacular electronic beats and lyrics which are infectiously danceable. They bring a fresh and innovative sound and dare to take risks, the risks give this album a hard-edged indie feel that flirts with pop without selling out. Understandably some people won't be able to stand the weird assembly of glitchy Atari sounds, even though it is done in such a seamless way.
Despite many sources claiming that they chose their name from the 1983 Atari game or that it is partly the reason, they are completely false. These brain mangling go getters maintain the name actually came from the domicile of '80s cartoon She-Ra: Princess of Power, saying that "We were watching videos on youtube and came across a commercial for a toy version of She-Ra's castle. The ad included the lines "The fate of the world is safe in Crystal Castles" and "Crystal Castles, the source of all power." After hearing those lines I [Ethan] said, "We have our band name."
Crystal Castles have been the center of two controversies, one related to artwork permissions and the other about samples in their earliest unreleased songs. They used an image depicting a black-eyed Madonna without permission from a UK-born, Tokyo-dwelling artist, Trevor Brown’s artwork collection, they say they allegedly found the image on a flyer a couple years ago. The image was used on the bands merchandise and the cover of their 7" single, ‘Alice Practice,’ which some places refused to distribute because of the controversial image. Last Gang Records also released a limited edition "banned cover" version of the album with the image on it. According to CCs’ manager, Mikey Apples, "it was their hope that the artist might reveal themselves, contact the band and reach an agreement." After years of wrangling between the two parties, CC brought the dispute to a close by paying him for the use of the logo and buying the rights to the image from him. Brown will apparently retain reproduction rights, but the image otherwise belongs to the band. Brown notes, “the black eyed Madonna is now officially and legally theirs, to do with as they please…at least until maddy herself files a lawsuit, ha ha!” No word on how Madonna feels about all this either.
Also, there has been accusation that the duo have engaged in musical plagiarism, as well as an abuse of the Creative Commons license, by taking, using chopped up samples and rearranging Lo-Bat’s song called, "My Little Droid Needs a Hand" (released under a Creative Commons license), without their permission and then passing it off as their own. According to Pitchfork Media, this was in one of Kath's earliest demos, ‘Insecticon,’ the track was released on the myspace page of their label at the time, Lies Records, without credit to the original sampled songs. Another includes the song "Love and Caring", which samples the kick and snare from Covox's "Sunday". Pitchfork also published an article defending the band, saying that CC never released the songs or performed them and thus were not responsible for breaking the Creative Commons licensing on the songs.
Crystal Castles' sound and style is experimental compared to most indie-pop, but very poppy compared to most noise groups. They are making their mark on the electronic scene with their growing use of samples and heavily distorted female vocals, they mix chiptune sounds and a shouty dance punk sound with a keen sense of what will surely rock the dance floor. When they started they said their goal was to create "noise soundscapes over New Order beats." Ethan likes making noise with circuit bending, which he used instead of distorted guitars, in the beginning they used a lot of 8-bit samples but eventually learned how to create the sounds themselves. Despite often being referenced as an 8-bit band, they say they don't consider themselves so. They admit some songs do have 8-bit, but that some songs are based on circuit bending experiments, and some songs have no electronics what-so-ever. They also tell us that the track 'Magic Spells' has no 8-bit or circuit bent sounds, it does however have the Grand Master Flash sample 30 or 40 seconds in. Although the last track 'Tell me what to swallow' is an atmospheric ballad "based on an acoustic guitar and 40 layers of Glass’s voice" and sounds more like the work of a shoegazer band rather than anything you’d hear in a hipster dance club. They draw influences from bands like The Stooges, Joy Division, New Order, AIDS Wolf, Sonic Youth, DJ Shadow, Daft Punk, The Organ, Alec Empire, U.N.K.L.E and The Velvet Underground.
The extreme on-stage behavior of singer Alice Glass has gained much attention and has quickly become a signature element to their performances. Glass climbs any thing from speaker stacks to metal pillars to drum kits, dives into the photo pit, surfs the sweaty crowds, rolls the stage on all fours all of which cause security to grow concerned for her welfare and the safety of the crowd. This girl really understands that sometimes you just don't mind getting down and dirty in the interest of an ass-kicking rock show, and besides these guys know how to do with Alice’s breathless, blushing shrieks and Ethan’s bursting TurboGrafx keyboard swells. Ethan has once described Glass' onstage behavior to be "the live experience is all about Alice. She is a mental case on stage, and is just uncontrollable. She loses herself in the music. After the show, she is covered in bruises and she can't remember how they got there,” definitely guarantees that you’re in for a hair rising night of satisfying electro.
TRIVIA
Crystal Castles are featured in Season 2 of the English television show ‘Skins,’ in which they perform live at a concert two of the characters, Sid & Tony attend.
Their current live drummer is Michael Bell of Lymbyc System.
When asked about why he had chosen the name "Ethan Catheter” he responded, “I asked Alice to name me after the most uncomfortable thing imaginable. She looked at me as if it was obvious and said, "Ethan Catheter".
Ethan left his metal band on the eve of a major record deal.
The 7 inch sold out in only three days. I tried to buy it on eBay but it was going for more than $300!
On May 4, 2008, their debut album charted at number 47 in the UK Album Chart.
Crystal Castle’s debut album took a bit of time to release because a few of the songs have samples and they couldn't find some of the copyright owners. On one track Ethan sampled an obscure 1950s track and the artist has been deceased for a decade, they can't figure out who owns the copyright. And actually, there were a lot of tracks that were left off the album because they couldn’t find the copyright owners of the samples. “She Fell Off” was left off because of this & also ‘Insecticon.’
The track ‘Untrust Us’ contains samples from the Death From Above 1979 song "Dead Womb".
The track ‘Crimewave’ is in collaboration with the band ‘Health’ and ‘Vanished’ samples the vocals from the track "Sex City" by the band Van She.
The words spoken on the track "Air War" come from the reading of a passage of James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’.
Prior to release, the original cover, which featured Trevor Brown's black-eyed Madonna artwork, was "banned" due to distributors in the U.S.A. refusing to distribute a CD with Madonna's face on the cover.
Despite their name originating from it, Crystal Castles have never seen an episode of She-ra. “Yeah, we're named after She-ra and we haven't seen an episode of She-ra.” - Ethan
According to an interview with blog BiBBiDi, Crystal Castles “formed by accident, chose a name at random, hate performing, and never practice.”
During the summer of 2008, they toured in support of Nine Inch Nails’ Lights in the Sky Over North America tour.
Alice Glass topped the 2008 NME Cool List, when asked about it she replied, "I'm flattered, but back in school the people who held themselves in the same regard were the biggest waste of skin I've ever met". And after NME asked whether being labeled cool is relevant, she answered, "Nothing matters. We're all dust."
Ethan and Alice remain a pretty private pair, politely refusing to reveal real last names or, maybe more interestingly, ages. “I’m not old, but I’m not young,” teases Ethan. “I am a decade older than Alice.” He insists they aren’t involved with each other, just partners in an exercise in serendipity. “We weren’t even a band! This is just some shit we put together.”
‘Crimewave’ samples a vocal from LA noise-merchants, Health, and twists it beyond recognition. Amongst a luxurious electro bass line, measured beat and achingly pretty electronic melodies, the robotic voice is scratched and split so the pleading words take on a monotonous, almost unknowable tone.
REMIXES
Ethan Kath, under the name Crystal Castles, has remixed a number of songs including:
• ‘Crimewave’ by HEALTH
• ‘Atlantis to Interzone’ by Klaxons
• ‘Lovers Who Uncover’ by The Little Ones
• ‘Leni’ by GoodBooks
• ‘Pop the Glock’ by Uffie, called ‘Make It Hott’
• ‘Trash The Rental’ by Sohodolls
• ‘It Fit When I Was A Kid’ by Liars
• ‘Divebomb’ by The Whip
• ‘Hunting for Witches’ by Bloc Party
• ‘Death’ by White Lies
• ‘Sex City’ by Van She, called ‘Vanished’
• ‘TV Babies’ by Comic Book Fever, called ‘Cry Babies’
• ‘Dead Womb’ by Death from Above 1979, called ‘Untrust Us’
• ‘Lay Down the Law’ by Switches, called ‘Lay Down the Queen’
VIDEOS
Crimewave (Official video, different version)
Courtship Dating (Official video)
Through The Hosiery (Fan Video)
Loving & Caring (Fan Video)
1991 (Fan Video) This is one of my favourite tunes!
UNRELEASED SONGS ALL FAN VIDEOS
DOLLS
NO SKIN
ROT
Insecticon
She Fell Out
Crystal Castles at Glastonbury 2008 FULL SET
REMIXES
Bloc Party - Hunting For Witches (Crystal Castles Remix)
Crystal Castles vs. The Klaxons - Atlantis to Interzone
SINGLES
www.myspace.com/crystalcastles
www.myspace.com/curemebaby
synthead.blogspot.com
