Ethan Kath is the producer and main songwriter of Crystal Castles

Crystal Castles (band)

Crystal Castles are an experimental electronic band from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, consisting of producer Ethan Kath and lyricist and vocalist Alice Glass. Crystal Castles are known for their chaotic live shows and their lo-fi home productions. The duo released many limited EPs between 2006 and...

.

Rolling Stone Magazine named Crystal Castles

Crystal Castles

Crystal Castles is an arcade game released by Atari, Inc in 1983. The player controls a cartoon bear by the name of Bentley Bear, who has to collect gems located throughout trimetric-projected rendered castles while avoiding enemies out to get him as well as the gems.Crystal Castles is notable for...

 the #1 Icons of 20 Years of Lollapalooza. Ethan Kath and his band Crystal Castles

Crystal Castles

Crystal Castles is an arcade game released by Atari, Inc in 1983. The player controls a cartoon bear by the name of Bentley Bear, who has to collect gems located throughout trimetric-projected rendered castles while avoiding enemies out to get him as well as the gems.Crystal Castles is notable for...

 received the John Peel Award For Innovation at the 2011 NME Awards. His debut album with the band Crystal Castles

Crystal Castles

Crystal Castles is an arcade game released by Atari, Inc in 1983. The player controls a cartoon bear by the name of Bentley Bear, who has to collect gems located throughout trimetric-projected rendered castles while avoiding enemies out to get him as well as the gems.Crystal Castles is notable for...

 was included in NME

NME

The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

's "Top 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade" list at #39.

History

Previous to his work in Crystal Castles, Kath played different instruments in many bands. As a teenager he played drums in an anarchist-punk band called Jakarta. Later he played bass in a garage-metal

Garage rock

Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...

 band, and guitar in a GG Allin

GG Allin

Kevin Michael "GG" Allin was an American punk rock singer-songwriter, who performed and recorded with many groups during his career. GG Allin is perhaps best remembered for his notorious live performances, which often featured transgressive acts, including coprophagia, self-mutilation, and...

 cover-band. He was also in a 2-piece folk band, inspired by Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...

 and Neil Young

Neil Young

Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...

. The folk band ended with the death of his friend and band mate, Pino Placentile.
(Crystal Castles "I" and "II" are both dedicated to Pino Placentile).

Crystal Castles are known for the elusiveness of their off-stage lives and identities. Kath is routinely photographed wearing hoodies which obscure some or all of his face and has gone under a number of different aliases producing confusion over his real name. His name is adapted from a nickname Alice Glass

Alice Glass

Alice Glass is the lead vocalist and lyricist of Crystal Castles.-Biography:Alice Glass was born in 1988, in Toronto, Ontario. At the age of 14 she ran away to live in a squat community of punks and drug addicts. A week after she turned 15, she was approached by Ethan Kath who had just seen her...

 gave him, "Ethan Catheter

Catheter

In medicine, a catheter is a tube that can be inserted into a body cavity, duct, or vessel. Catheters thereby allow drainage, administration of fluids or gases, or access by surgical instruments. The process of inserting a catheter is catheterization...

". Glass named him after "the most uncomfortable thing ever."

Equipment

Ethan Kath has been seen playing wide range of gear, ranging from vintage synthesizers to circuit bent keyboards.

External links

• http://www.nowtoronto.com/music/story.cfm?content=161851