Alice Glass

Alice Glass was born in Toronto, Ontario. She was raised Catholic, attending parochial school up until junior high. At age fifteen she ran away from home to live in a squat community of punks under the name Vicki Vale (after the comic book character) and started an all-girl experimental punk band called Fetus Fatale. She dropped out of school before graduating. Later that year in Toronto, Glass met Ethan Kath (former bassist of Kill Cheerleader). Impressed by her performance with Fetus Fatale, he gave her CD-Rs with 60 instrumental demos, five of which she wrote vocals for. In December 2003 the pair began working together on the project that would become Crystal Castles.

Crystal Castles' first official release was their 2006 single "Alice Practice." The song was co-written by Glass and got the band their first record deal with Milo Cordell's (of The Big Pink) Merok Records in London. The same year, Crystal Castles played their first live show at Clinton's Tavern in Toronto. Crystal Castles released their subsequent studio albums under various subsidiary labels of Universal Music Group. Glass co-wrote every Crystal Castles song she contributed vocals to. Her vocal style ranges from singing to whispering, shouting, and screaming.

Glass is known for her dedication to performing. In March 2008, she broke two ribs in a car accident and continued to tour, performing a twenty-minute set within days of the accident despite instruction from doctors to take six weeks off to heal. 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". In 2011, Glass performed five months' worth of shows on crutches after falling and putting a strain on an unhealed ankle injury. 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.

In October 2014, Glass announced her departure from 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". She later had a number of public disagreements with her former bandmate.

Alice Glass released her debut single, "Stillbirth," in July 2015. The release was largely an effort to increase awareness of domestic/sexual abuse. Glass worked with anti-sexual assault organization RAINN to donate all proceeds from the song's revenue to aid abuse victims.

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. 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). Crystal Castles received the John Peel Award For Innovation at the 2011 NME Awards. Crystal Castles' debut album was included in NME's "Top 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade" list at #39.

Singles

• "Stillbirth" (2015, no label)