Alice Glass was born Margaret Osborn on 23 August 1988 in Toronto, Ontario. She was raised Catholic, attending parochial school up until junior high. At age 15, she ran away from home to live in a squat community of punks under the name Vicki Vale and started an all-girl experimental punk band called Fetus Fatale. She met Ethan Kath, former bassist of Kïll Cheerleadër, in Toronto. 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. She picked the stage name Alice Glass based off a pin with the name Alice that she shoplifted and Hopey Glass, a character in Love and Rockets. Crystal Castles' first official release was their 2006 single "Alice Practice". The song got the band their first record deal with Merok Records in London. The same year, Crystal Castles played their first live show at Clinton's Tavern in Toronto. "Alice Practice" was eventually featured on their eponymous debut album released in 2008. Glass topped NMEs Cool List that year and responded to it by criticizing the idea of the cool list itself. The duo followed their debut album with two more critically acclaimed albums: II and III, completing a trilogy. Glass co-wrote every Crystal Castles song she contributed vocals to. In October 2014, Glass announced her departure from Crystal Castles due to her own professional and personal reasons. In the 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.
2015–present: ''Alice Glass'' and lawsuit
In July 2015, Glass released her debut single as a solo artist, "Stillbirth". The release was largely an effort to increase awareness of domestic and sexual abuse. Glass worked with anti-sexual assault organization RAINN to donate all proceeds from the song's revenue to aid abuse victims. In August 2017, Glass released "Without Love", which served as the lead single to her eponymous debut EP which was released the following week. She headed on tour with Marilyn Manson following the release of the EP. In October 2017, Glass posted a statement on her official website explaining her departure from Crystal Castles, accusing co-founder Ethan Kath of sexual, physical, and mental abuse. The accusations detail the abuse starting when Glass was 15 and began recording with Kath and escalated until her eventual departure from Crystal Castles. Kath responded the same day in a statement issued to Pitchfork through his attorney, where he called the accusations "pure fiction" and said he was consulting with his lawyers as to his legal options. The following month, Kath sued Glass for defamation, but was dismissed in February 2018. In May, Glass was awarded nearly 21,000 USD in attorney fees after Kath's lawyers sought to vacate the dismissal of his defamation lawsuit against Glass. In January 2018, Glass released "Forgiveness" as the second single from her EP. She also released that month a brand new single called "Cease and Desist", which she said "is a call to arms for all survivors." Both singles were accompanied by music videos. In April 2018, Glass embarked on her SnowBlood Tour alongside American singer Zola Jesus, with electronic musician Pictureplane being an opening act on select dates. The tour is named after Lady Snowblood, spurned star of the eponymous 1973 Japanese film. Later that month, Glass released a remix EP, consisting of remixes of songs from her eponymous EP released in 2017. The EP includes remixes from both Zola Jesus and Pictureplane. In June 2018, Glass released a new single, "Mine", accompanied by a music video directed by Lucas David and starring American drag queenViolet Chachki. In December, Glass was featured on Adult Swim's singles series with a new song titled "I Trusted You". 2019
Live performances
Glass is known for her dedication to performing. In March 2008, she broke two ribs from an altercation with her tour manager, when she hit a monitor at a 90-degree angle, and continued to tour, performing a 20-minute set within days of the accident despite instruction from doctors to take six weeks off to heal. In January 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. 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".
