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Although numerous rockers have borrowed from high fantasy, rarely any have truly lived the enchanted way of life. Admittedly, they could embellish their album sleeves with creatures, goblins, chained damsels and brawny barbarians, but has any musician ever been forced to retrieve a missing unicorn horn from a wintry landscape in the heart of winter? Did a guitarist devoted hours squinting in the back of a road transport, fixing their own metal mesh?

Living the Fantasy

Formed in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have had to face these exact challenges and more as they embody their epic fantasies. Starting with knightly, earworm-heavy anthems to eye-popping performances, outfit creation, music videos and record designs, they’re not just a rock act as a total artistic immersion.

“Castle Rat wasn’t meant to be a outfit with characters,” explains singer, guitar player, sword-wielder and visionary Riley Pinkerton as the band’s tour van drives from a full-capacity concert in a German city to another in another town – they’re also doing several shows in the UK currently. “We played two shows and got booked on a spooky event, where I chose at the final moment to dress up. The entire setup was highly handmade, but we had an amazing time and the feeling in the room was unforgettable. It occurred to me, ‘What if we could have this much fun every time?’”

The Band’s Evolution

Since then, the group – which includes Pinkerton as the “Rat Queen” joined by a pestilence physician (low-end instrumentalist), haughty vampire (guitarist) and enigmatic nature priest (drummer) – haven’t looked back. The Bestiary, the follow-up record, evokes images of classic metal icons joining forces to struggle onward through a mythical painted realm – a epic masterpiece that positions them on the edge of bigger achievements.

The Bestiary was a first for Pinkerton in that she welcomed contributions to her fellow members. “This helped a much better record,” she says of the team effort. “I struggled at first – I often experienced a specific level of satisfaction as a female in music doing everything solo. There’ve been numerous occasions where I’ve got off stage and a person will say, ‘The band compose cool melodies!’ and I respond, ‘Listen – I wrote all that.’”

Creative Output and Ideas

With their growing popularity has expanded, so has the scope of their stage presentation. “My philosophy is always that if an effort matters, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton laughs. She was originally on path for a university studies in art before pulling back at the possibility of heavy loans. “The exciting part about Castle Rat is there’s various avenues to express artistry,” she says. “From crafting disguises, outfit planning, figuring out video editing clips … everything is I don’t know how to do, but it’s fun to learn in the moment.”

As if creating the group’s detailed mythology (“Everyone’s urging me to record it because it’s all in here,” Riley says, tapping her head) and stitching garments didn’t suffice, the vocalist self-educated how to craft metal mesh – a challenging endeavor, though she confessedly delegated her completely original scale armor design to a professional in the city. “It feels like actual armour,” she grins.

Crowd Engagement and Difficulties

What about the crowd? They loved the stage blood, foam swords and papier-mache rat skulls with as much gusto as the band. “We performed a gig in Detroit and it looked like a medieval event,” remembers Riley fondly. “The whole crowd was in robes, animal hides, metal wear.”

However, this doesn’t mean, nevertheless, that touring existence as sword’n’sorcery vagabonds has been easy. “Everything is always failing and ends up repaired with tape,” Riley says. “Moreover I get endless ideas as to how I envision the aesthetics, but we are on the move in a bus with restricted capacity. It’s a unique problem to give the sense like a larger-than-life story, then pack it down into nothing.”

We’ve encountered further organizational challenges that didn’t affect fictional warriors. “We did have an ‘oh shit’ moment when we performed at a Portuguese festival in Portugal and my baggage – which had my sword in it – was misplaced,” says Riley. “It was a worst-case scenario, because there is no an alternative version of the performance where I am without a weapon.”

Goals Ahead

Like a true warrior queen, Riley is enthusiastic about the what’s next. “I want to go as far as possible – let’s do stadiums,” she says. “The only thing that’s truly essential to me is keeping the self-crafted look, ensuring everything is custom-made. It’s a component I want to keep true to, no matter what we scale to. Additionally, I want to ride out on a unicorn each show. You know how legends use vehicles in concerts? The same idea, but with a unicorn.”