🔗 Share this article

While plenty of musicians have borrowed from fantasy lore, only a handful have genuinely embodied the mythical existence. Admittedly, they might adorn their record jackets with ghouls, goblins, captive women and muscular warriors, but has an artist ever needed to find a missing unicorn horn from a snowy field in the depths of winter? Did anyone devoted hours straining their eyes in the rear of a traveling vehicle, mending their own metal mesh?

Living the Fantasy

Established in 2019, the Brooklyn-based Castle Rat have encountered these exact challenges and more as they embody their epic fantasies. From knightly, memorable songs to stunning concerts, attire styling, music videos and cover artwork, they’re not just a metal band as a full immersive experience.

“The band wasn’t intended to be a costumed concept band,” explains singer, guitar player, sword-carrier 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 are playing several shows in the UK now. “We played two shows and were scheduled on a spooky event, where I made a last-minute decision to wear a costume. Everything was completely self-made, but we had a blast and the atmosphere was electric. I thought, ‘Imagine if we could have this much fun at every show?’”

Growth of the Group

Since then, the band – which includes Pinkerton as the “Queen Rat” alongside a plague doctor (bassist), haughty vampire (guitarist) and mysterious druid (rhythm keeper) – haven’t looked back. Their latest album, the band’s second album, conjures visions of classic metal icons uniting to fight their path through a heroic art landscape – a grand composition that sets them on the edge of bigger achievements.

This album was a new experience for Pinkerton in that she welcomed contributions to her collaborators. “That contributed to a lot stronger album,” she says of the team effort. “I had difficulty at first – I’d always felt a certain amount of satisfaction as a female in music doing everything solo. There have been so many times where I finished performing and an audience member will say, ‘Those guys compose cool melodies!’ and I’m like, ‘Wait – I wrote all that.’”

Creative Output and Ideas

With their growing popularity has increased, so has the scale of their visual elements. “My motto is always that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton chuckles. Initially, she was on course for a fine art degree before pulling back at the possibility of financial burden. “The fun thing about Castle Rat is there’s various avenues to express creativity,” she says. “Be it creating face coverings, costume design, figuring out video editing music videos … it’s all stuff I am unfamiliar with, but it’s enjoyable to discover as we go.”

Even though building the group’s detailed mythology (“The team is pushing me to record it because all the ideas are,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and sewing costumes wasn’t enough, the singer self-educated how to create armor – a difficult task, though she admittedly left her all-new scalemail look to a expert from NYC. “It feels like actual armour,” she beams.

Crowd Engagement and Difficulties

As for audiences? They loved the theatrical gore, soft weapons and papier-mache rat skulls with as much gusto as the band. “We had a concert in the Motor City and it resembled a historical festival,” recalls Riley happily. “All attendees was in robes, wool garments, chainmail.”

That’s not to imply, though, that traveling lifestyle as mythical wanderers has been plain sailing. “Everything is frequently damaged and ends up repaired with tape,” Riley says. “Additionally I’ll have numerous thoughts as to how I desire the presentation, but we’re traveling in a vehicle with restricted capacity. It’s an interesting challenge to create the impression like a mythic tale, then store it into a small space.”

We faced other logistical problems that would never have plagued fictional warriors. “We did have an ‘disastrous’ moment when we played a Portuguese festival in the European country and my luggage – which had my blade in it – was misplaced,” says Riley. “That was a terrible situation, because there’s not an alternative version of the show where I don’t have a blade.”

Goals Ahead

As a genuine leader, Riley is eager about the what’s next. “I want to go to the top – let’s do stadiums,” she says. “The main aspect that’s truly essential to me is keeping the handmade style, ensuring each detail is handmade. This is a feature I want to remain faithful to, no matter what we scale to. Oh, and I wish to appear on a magical horse each show. Think about how legends do the motorcycle thing? That, but with a unicorn.”