🔗 Share this article

Although plenty of rockers have taken inspiration from high fantasy, few have genuinely embodied the fantasy lifestyle. Certainly, they might embellish their album sleeves with monsters, beasts, chained damsels and strong fighters, but has any musician ever have to find a missing unicorn horn from a snowy field in the depths of winter? Did a guitarist spent time peering in the rear of a road transport, fixing their own metal mesh?

Embracing the Mythos

Formed in 2019, New York’s Castle Rat have encountered such situations and additional ones as they live out their grand tales. Starting with heraldic, memorable songs to breathtaking concerts, attire styling, visuals and record designs, they’re not just a rock act as a full immersive experience.

“Castle Rat wasn’t meant to be a outfit with characters,” says vocalist, guitarist, sword-wielder and visionary Riley Pinkerton as the group’s vehicle drives from a packed show in Cologne to one more in another town – they’re also doing multiple performances in the UK this week. “After a couple of performances and received an offer on a Halloween gig, where I made a last-minute decision to put on an outfit. Everything was highly handmade, but we had so much fun and the energy was electric. I thought, ‘What if we could have this much fun every time?’”

The Band’s Evolution

Since then, the band – which includes Pinkerton as the “Rat Queen” joined by a medic from history (bassist), proud bloodsucker (lead guitarist) and mysterious druid (rhythm keeper) – continued forward. The new record, the group’s sophomore release, brings to mind of classic metal icons uniting to battle their way through a heroic art landscape – a heroic opus that sets them on the verge of greater success.

This album was a initial step for Pinkerton in that she opened the floor to her collaborators. “It made it a lot stronger album,” she says of the collaborative process. “I struggled at first – There was a sense of a specific level of pride as a woman in music working independently. There have been so many times where I’ve got off stage and an audience member will say, ‘The other members create awesome guitar parts!’ and I respond, ‘Listen – I composed all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

With their growing popularity has expanded, so has the scale of their stage presentation. “The saying I live by is always that if something is valuable, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton laughs. At first, she had been on track for a art school education before pulling back at the idea of heavy loans. “The fun thing about Castle Rat is there’s so many different ways to apply creativity,” she says. “Whether it’s making masks, attire creation, figuring out video editing music videos … it’s all stuff I am unfamiliar with, but it’s fun to discover as we go.”

As if creating the band’s intricate lore (“People are encouraging me to write it down because everything is stored,” Riley says, tapping her head) and making clothing were insufficient, the vocalist self-educated how to make chainmail – a challenging endeavor, though she confessedly delegated her brand-new reptilian-inspired outfit to a expert from NYC. “It feels like actual armour,” she beams.

Audience Reaction and Challenges

What about the crowd? They took to the theatrical gore, foam swords and handmade props with equal enthusiasm as the musicians. “We performed a gig in the Motor City and it looked like a Renaissance fair,” reminisces Riley happily. “The whole crowd was in capes, sheepskin, armor.”

However, this doesn’t mean, nevertheless, that touring existence as fantasy adventurers has been smooth. “All our gear is constantly breaking and becomes duct-taped together,” Riley says. “Plus I get endless ideas as to how I envision the aesthetics, but we tour in a bus with only so much space. It’s a unique problem to make it feel like a grand epic, then store it into nothing.”

There have been further organizational challenges that would never have plagued mythic characters. “We experienced an ‘oh shit’ moment when we played a Portuguese festival in the European country and my baggage – which had my sword in it – was misplaced,” says Riley. “That was a nightmare, because we don’t have an different option of the performance where I lack a weapon.”

Upcoming Plans

Like a true warrior queen, Riley is eager about the what’s next. “I want to go to the top – I dream of huge arenas,” she says. “The only thing that’s truly essential to me is maintaining the DIY aesthetic, making sure each detail is handmade. It’s a component I want to keep true to, regardless of we grow into. Oh, and I want to ride out on a unicorn every night. Think about how legends ride bikes on stage? That, but with a unicorn.”