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While numerous musicians have borrowed from fantasy lore, rarely any have fully embraced the enchanted lifestyle. Sure, they could decorate their record jackets with ghouls, goblins, manacled maidens and strong fighters, but has an artist ever needed to find a lost horn from a unicorn from a snowy field in the heart of winter? Has a performer spent time peering in the interior of a traveling vehicle, fixing their own metal mesh?

Embracing the Mythos

Created in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have dealt with such situations and additional ones as they live out their grand tales. From knightly, memorable tunes to stunning live shows, outfit creation, visuals and album art, they’re not so much a rock act as a full immersive experience.

“Castle Rat wasn’t meant to be a outfit with characters,” states singer, guitarist, sword-wielder and visionary Riley Pinkerton as the musicians’ transport speeds from a sold-out gig in a German city to a second one in Aschaffenburg – they are playing multiple performances in the UK currently. “After a couple of performances and got booked on a spooky event, where I chose at the final moment to wear a costume. The entire setup was highly handmade, but we had a blast and the energy was incredible. I thought, ‘Imagine if we could have so much excitement always?’”

Development of Castle Rat

From that point on, the ensemble – which features Pinkerton as the “Queen Rat” joined by a medic from history (bassist), aristocratic undead (guitarist) and mysterious druid (percussionist) – haven’t looked back. Their latest album, the follow-up record, evokes images of classic metal icons uniting to struggle onward through a heroic art landscape – a grand composition that positions them on the brink of bigger achievements.

This album was a new experience for Pinkerton in that she opened the floor to her collaborators. “This helped a more powerful record,” she says of the group work. “I had difficulty at first – I’d always felt a specific level of satisfaction being a woman in music going it alone. I’ve had multiple instances where after a show and a person will say, ‘Those guys write great riffs!’ and I respond, ‘Wait – I created all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

As the band’s stature has grown, so has the scope of their visual elements. “The saying I live by is always that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton smiles. She was originally on path for a university studies in art before pulling back at the prospect of so much debt. “What’s enjoyable about Castle Rat is there’s so many different ways to apply creativity,” she says. “Whether it’s creating face coverings, costume design, learning how to edit music videos … it’s all stuff I have no experience with, but it’s exciting to discover in the moment.”

As if building the group’s detailed mythology (“People are encouraging me to document it because it’s all in here,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and making clothing didn’t suffice, the singer self-educated how to craft metal mesh – no mean feat, though she admittedly delegated her brand-new scalemail look to a New York-based specialist. “It’s as if actual armour,” she beams.

Fan Response and Obstacles

Regarding the fans? They embraced the theatrical gore, toy blades and crafted rodent bones with as much gusto as the band. “We performed a show in Detroit and it looked like a historical festival,” remembers Riley happily. “Everyone was in cloaks, sheepskin, chainmail.”

However, this doesn’t mean, though, that touring existence as sword’n’sorcery vagabonds has been plain sailing. “Everything is frequently damaged and ends up repaired with tape,” Riley says. “Plus I get countless concepts as to how I envision the aesthetics, but we are on the move in a bus with only so much space. It’s an interesting challenge to make it feel like a mythic tale, then pack it down into nothing.”

We faced further organizational challenges that would never have plagued mythic characters. “We did have an ‘uh-oh’ moment when we appeared at SonicBlast festival in Portugal and my baggage – which had my weapon in it – got lost,” says Riley. “That was a worst-case scenario, because there is no an alternative version of the concert where I am without a sword.”

Goals Ahead

As a genuine leader, Riley is gung-ho about the days to come. “I want to go all the way – we should play huge arenas,” she says. “The only thing that’s really important to me is preserving the handmade style, making sure all elements is handmade. It’s a component I want to keep true to, whatever we scale to. Additionally, I want to appear on a mythical beast each show. Think about how legends do the motorcycle thing? Exactly that, but using a unicorn.”