🔗 Share this article

While numerous rockers have taken inspiration from high fantasy, rarely any have fully embraced the fantasy lifestyle. Sure, they may embellish their album covers with monsters, beasts, captive women and brawny barbarians, but has an artist ever been forced to find a misplaced horn from a unicorn from a frost-covered ground in the depths of winter? Did anyone spent time squinting in the rear of a road transport, fixing their own armor?

Embracing the Mythos

Established in 2019, New York’s Castle Rat have encountered both these scenarios and additional ones as they embody their grand tales. Starting with knightly, catchy anthems to eye-popping live shows, attire styling, music videos and album art, they’re more than a rock act as a total artistic immersion.

“It wasn’t planned to be a costumed concept band,” states vocalist, guitar player, blade-handler and artistic leader Riley Pinkerton as the musicians’ transport speeds from a sold-out gig in a German city to one more in another town – they’re also doing five gigs in the UK currently. “After a couple of performances and were scheduled on a spooky event, where I chose at the final moment to put on an outfit. It was all completely self-made, but we had so much fun and the energy was unforgettable. I thought, ‘How about if we could have such enjoyment every time?’”

The Band’s Evolution

Since then, the group – which showcases Pinkerton as the “Rodent Monarch” together with a plague doctor (bass player), haughty vampire (guitarist) and mysterious druid (drummer) – never turned back. The new record, the follow-up record, brings to mind of legendary heavy bands collaborating to fight their path through a Frank Frazetta fantasy world – a heroic opus that positions them on the verge of far grander things.

This album was a first for Pinkerton in that she welcomed contributions to her fellow members. “That contributed to a more powerful album,” she says of the team effort. “I struggled at first – I often experienced a particular degree of pride as a female in music going it alone. There’ve been multiple instances where I finished performing and an audience member will say, ‘Those guys write great riffs!’ and I think, ‘Wait – I composed all that.’”

Artistry and Imagination

As their fame has increased, so has the scale of their production design. “The saying I live by is always that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton chuckles. She was originally on track for a university studies in art before balking at the possibility of financial burden. “The fun thing about Castle Rat is there’s various avenues to express artistry,” she says. “Whether it’s crafting disguises, costume design, mastering post-production clips … everything is I have no experience with, but it’s fun to learn as we go.”

Even though creating the band’s intricate lore (“People are encouraging me to record it because everything is stored,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and making clothing were insufficient, the singer learned on her own how to make chainmail – a challenging endeavor, though she confessedly entrusted her brand-new reptilian-inspired outfit to a expert from NYC. “It’s as if actual armour,” she beams.

Crowd Engagement and Difficulties

Regarding the fans? They loved the stage blood, soft weapons and crafted rodent bones with as much gusto as the band. “We performed a concert in the Motor City and it seemed like a historical festival,” remembers Riley happily. “Everyone was in robes, sheepskin, armor.”

This isn’t to say, though, that traveling lifestyle as sword’n’sorcery vagabonds has been easy. “Each item is always failing and gets duct-taped together,” Riley says. “Moreover I’ll have countless concepts as to how I want things to look, but we are on the move in a bus with restricted capacity. It’s a unique problem to create the impression like a mythic tale, then pack it down into a small space.”

There have been additional practical issues that would never have plagued mythic characters. “There was an ‘oh shit’ moment when we performed at a Portuguese festival in Portugal and my luggage – which had my weapon in it – was misplaced,” says Riley. “This became a nightmare, because there is no an backup plan of the concert where I am without a weapon.”

Goals Ahead

As a genuine leader, Riley is gung-ho about the what’s next. “I aim to reach to the top – I dream of huge arenas,” she says. “The only thing that’s really important to me is preserving the handmade style, ensuring all elements is handmade. This is a feature I want to keep true to, no matter what we scale to. Oh, and I desire to make an entrance on a unicorn every night. You know how some artists do the motorcycle thing? That, but with a unicorn.”