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Although plenty of musicians have drawn from high fantasy, rarely any have fully embraced the fantasy lifestyle. Certainly, they could adorn their record jackets with monsters, beasts, manacled maidens and brawny barbarians, but has any musician ever have to recover a lost unicorn horn from a wintry landscape in the depths of winter? Has a performer taken the time squinting in the interior of a traveling vehicle, fixing their own chainmail?

Immersed in the Legend

Formed in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have encountered these exact challenges and additional ones as they embody their grand tales. From knightly, memorable anthems to breathtaking performances, costume design, visuals and record designs, they’re more than a rock act as a total artistic immersion.

“Castle Rat wasn’t meant to be a outfit with characters,” says vocalist, guitar player, sword-carrier and artistic leader Riley Pinkerton as the group’s vehicle speeds from a sold-out gig in Cologne to a second one in Aschaffenburg – they’re also doing five gigs in the UK currently. “After a couple of performances and got booked on a Halloween gig, where I chose at the final moment to dress up. It was all highly handmade, but we had so much fun and the energy was electric. It occurred to me, ‘Imagine if we could have this much fun always?’”

Growth of the Group

Since then, the ensemble – which includes Pinkerton as the “Rodent Monarch” alongside a pestilence physician (low-end instrumentalist), aristocratic undead (six-string player) and enigmatic nature priest (drummer) – continued forward. The new record, the band’s second album, conjures visions of famous rock groups uniting to battle their way through a mythical painted realm – a grand composition that sets them on the edge of far grander things.

The release was a new experience for Pinkerton in that she opened the floor to her collaborators. “This helped a much better project,” she says of the collaborative process. “I struggled at first – I often experienced a specific level of satisfaction being a woman in music going it alone. There have been so many times where I’ve got off stage and a person will say, ‘The band create awesome guitar parts!’ and I think, ‘Listen – I created all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

As the band’s stature has increased, so has the scope of their stage presentation. “The saying I live by is always that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton chuckles. She was originally on path for a university studies in art before balking at the prospect of financial burden. “What’s enjoyable about Castle Rat is there’s various avenues to apply creativity,” she says. “Whether it’s crafting disguises, costume design, mastering post-production clips … everything is I have no experience with, but it’s exciting to discover in the moment.”

As if building the band’s intricate lore (“The team is pushing me to write it down because everything is stored,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and making clothing didn’t suffice, the vocalist taught herself how to make chainmail – no mean feat, though she confessedly left her brand-new scale armor design to a expert from NYC. “It feels like actual armour,” she beams.

Audience Reaction and Challenges

What about the crowd? They loved the stage blood, toy blades and crafted rodent bones with as much gusto as the group. “We played a concert in Detroit and it resembled a historical festival,” remembers Riley fondly. “Everyone was in capes, sheepskin, chainmail.”

However, this doesn’t mean, however, that traveling lifestyle as sword’n’sorcery vagabonds has been smooth. “Each item is always failing and gets repaired with tape,” Riley says. “Plus I’ll have numerous thoughts as to how I desire the presentation, but we are on the move in a van with only so much space. It’s an interesting challenge to create the impression like a larger-than-life story, then compress it into a small space.”

We’ve encountered other logistical problems that didn’t affect legendary fantasy heroes. “We did have an ‘oh shit’ moment when we performed at SonicBlast festival in Portugal and my luggage – which had my weapon in it – was misplaced,” says Riley. “That was a terrible situation, because there’s not an alternative version of the concert where I am without a blade.”

Future Ambitions

In the spirit of a hero, Riley is gung-ho about the days to come. “My goal is to the top – I dream of huge arenas,” she says. “The only thing that’s really important to me is keeping the DIY aesthetic, guaranteeing all elements is custom-made. That’s an element I want to stay authentic to, whatever we grow into. Additionally, I desire to ride out on a mythical beast every night. Remember how legends ride bikes on stage? That, but with a unicorn.”