Why iLoveMakonnen Will Miss Crystal Castles

Atlanta’s golden million dollar baby says the duo’s music “changed everything” for him.

October 08, 2014

This morning, Alice Glass formally announced that she was leaving Crystal Castles. The news bummed a lot of people out, including longtime supporter and recent FADER feature subject iLoveMakonnen. Here, Atlanta's golden million dollar baby attempts to pinpoint what made Crystal Castles so special.    

I feel their music. It connects with me in a different way than other people's music does, and I'm pretty sad they broke up. My cousin Dream Panther put me on to them; he played me the song "Crimewave." That was, I wanna say, 2008. I was visiting him in LA and he played me that shit—it was a video performance—and I was like, "Wow, what the fuck is this?" It was a life-changing experience for me. I've always stayed a fan and have always looked out for their new shit on my own. 

One of the only shows I went to here in Atlanta was a Crystal Castles show. I went with one friend, because a lot of my other friends aren't into Crystal Castles—or they weren't at the time. The show was great: the energy was great, the fans were real fans, I was going real crazy. Everybody enjoyed it. It was an experience. I want to have that energy. I want to have that feeling, like, I want people to get the feeling from my music that I got from Crystal Castles' music. I remember hearing their album II for the first time. I put it on in my house and that whole night I was in a trance, from the first song. I felt that energy come over my room. It changed everything for me, really. I started listening to their music hard for the whole year. I still have never stopped listening to it. 

Why iLoveMakonnen Will Miss Crystal Castles