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While numerous rockers have taken inspiration from epic fantasy, few have fully embraced the enchanted existence. Certainly, they could embellish their album sleeves with ghouls, beasts, manacled maidens and brawny barbarians, but has any musician ever have to find a missing unicorn horn from a wintry landscape in the heart of winter? Has anyone devoted hours peering in the back of a tour bus, repairing their own metal mesh?

Living the Fantasy

Created in 2019, the Brooklyn-based Castle Rat have encountered such situations and others as they act out their heroic dreams. Starting with heraldic, memorable tunes to stunning concerts, costume design, visuals and album art, they’re not just a rock act as a complete sensory journey.

“It wasn’t planned to be a costumed concept band,” states singer, guitarist, sword-carrier and artistic leader Riley Pinkerton as the musicians’ transport speeds from a full-capacity concert in Cologne to another in another town – they’re also doing five gigs in the UK currently. “After a couple of performances and received an offer on a October show, where I chose at the final moment to dress up. The entire setup was super-DIY, but we had a blast and the feeling in the room was unforgettable. I thought, ‘What if we could have this much fun every time?’”

Growth of the Group

Since then, the band – which includes Pinkerton as the “Rodent Monarch” alongside a plague doctor (bass player), aristocratic undead (lead guitarist) and enigmatic nature priest (drummer) – haven’t looked back. Their latest album, the band’s second album, conjures visions of legendary heavy bands collaborating to struggle onward through a heroic art landscape – a heroic opus that places them on the edge of greater success.

The release was a first for Pinkerton in that she opened the floor to her collaborators. “This helped a much better album,” she says of the group work. “It was challenging at first – I often experienced a particular degree of satisfaction as a woman in music doing everything solo. I’ve had multiple instances where I’ve got off stage and a person will say, ‘The band create awesome guitar parts!’ and I respond, ‘Hey – I composed all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

As the band’s stature has grown, so has the scale of their production design. “The saying I live by is always that if something is valuable, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton smiles. At first, she had been on course for a fine art degree before balking at the prospect of heavy loans. “What’s enjoyable about Castle Rat is there’s numerous methods to demonstrate artistry,” she says. “Be it making masks, costume design, figuring out video editing clips … everything is I don’t know how to do, but it’s enjoyable to figure it out in the moment.”

As if creating the group’s detailed mythology (“The team is pushing me to document it because all the ideas are,” Riley says, tapping her head) and making clothing were insufficient, the vocalist self-educated how to create armor – a difficult task, though she admittedly entrusted her all-new scale armor design to a expert from NYC. “It’s as if actual armour,” she grins.

Fan Response and Obstacles

Regarding the fans? They embraced the fake blood, foam swords and papier-mache rat skulls with as much gusto as the group. “We performed a concert in the Motor City and it resembled a Renaissance fair,” remembers Riley happily. “The whole crowd was in capes, sheepskin, metal wear.”

This isn’t to say, nevertheless, that touring existence as fantasy adventurers has been smooth. “Each item is constantly breaking and gets duct-taped together,” Riley says. “Additionally I’ll have countless concepts as to how I envision the aesthetics, but we are on the move in a bus with restricted capacity. It’s a unique problem to give the sense like a grand epic, then store it into nothing.”

We’ve encountered further organizational challenges that didn’t affect legendary fantasy heroes. “There was an ‘oh shit’ moment when we played a Portuguese festival in Portugal and my suitcase – which had my weapon in it – got lost,” says Riley. “This became a terrible situation, because there’s not an different option of the concert where I am without a sword.”

Upcoming Plans

As a genuine leader, Riley is gung-ho about the future. “I aim to reach to the top – let’s do large venues,” she says. “The main aspect that’s deeply meaningful to me is preserving the DIY aesthetic, guaranteeing each detail is handmade. That’s an element I want to keep true to, no matter what we grow into. Plus, I desire to appear on a unicorn every night. Remember how legends ride bikes on stage? That, but using a unicorn.”