🔗 Share this article

While numerous musicians have drawn from fantasy lore, rarely any have genuinely embodied the enchanted existence. Admittedly, they might decorate their album covers with monsters, goblins, manacled maidens and brawny barbarians, but has an artist ever needed to find a misplaced unicorn horn from a frost-covered ground in the heart of winter? Did a guitarist spent time peering in the rear of a road transport, fixing their own armor?

Embracing the Mythos

Established in 2019, the Brooklyn-based Castle Rat have dealt with such situations and others as they embody their heroic dreams. From heraldic, catchy tunes to stunning performances, attire styling, videos and album art, they’re more than a rock act as a full immersive experience.

“It wasn’t planned to be a costumed concept band,” explains singer, guitarist, sword-carrier and creative overlord Riley Pinkerton as the musicians’ transport drives from a full-capacity concert in Cologne to one more in another town – they are playing five gigs in the UK currently. “After a couple of performances and received an offer on a Halloween gig, where I decided spontaneously to wear a costume. Everything was completely self-made, but we had an amazing time and the atmosphere was incredible. I thought, ‘What if we could have such enjoyment always?’”

The Band’s Evolution

From that point on, the ensemble – which features Pinkerton as the “Queen Rat” together with a pestilence physician (bass player), haughty vampire (lead guitarist) and mysterious druid (rhythm keeper) – haven’t looked back. The new record, the band’s second album, brings to mind of famous rock groups uniting to fight their path through a heroic art landscape – a heroic opus that positions them on the brink of greater success.

The Bestiary was a initial step for Pinkerton in that she opened the floor to her bandmates. “This helped a much better project,” she says of the team effort. “It was challenging at first – I’d always felt a certain amount of satisfaction as a female in music going it alone. I’ve had multiple instances where after a show and an audience member will say, ‘Those guys compose cool melodies!’ and I’m like, ‘Hey – I composed all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

As their fame has expanded, so has the scale of their production design. “The saying I live by is always that if an effort matters, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton chuckles. Initially, she was on track for a fine art degree before pulling back at the prospect of so much debt. “The exciting part about Castle Rat is there’s numerous methods to express artistry,” she says. “Be it crafting disguises, costume design, mastering post-production song visuals … everything is I have no experience with, but it’s enjoyable to learn in the moment.”

Even though developing the ensemble’s complex backstory (“Everyone’s urging me to document it because it’s all in here,” Riley says, indicating her head) and making clothing were insufficient, the singer learned on her own how to craft metal mesh – a challenging endeavor, though she admittedly left her completely original scale armor design to a expert from NYC. “It’s as if actual armour,” she smiles proudly.

Fan Response and Obstacles

What about the crowd? They took to the fake blood, toy blades and handmade props with as much gusto as the band. “We performed a concert in the Motor City and it seemed like a Renaissance fair,” reminisces Riley happily. “All attendees was in capes, wool garments, chainmail.”

That’s not to imply, however, that touring existence as mythical wanderers has been easy. “Each item is always failing and gets duct-taped together,” Riley says. “Moreover I’ll have numerous thoughts as to how I envision the aesthetics, but we tour in a vehicle with only so much space. It’s a unique problem to make it feel like a larger-than-life story, then store it into a small space.”

We’ve encountered further organizational challenges that didn’t affect mythic characters. “We did have an ‘oh shit’ moment when we appeared at SonicBlast festival in Portugal and my luggage – which had my weapon in it – got lost,” says Riley. “It was a worst-case scenario, because there’s not an backup plan of the show where I don’t have a sword.”

Future Ambitions

As a genuine leader, Riley is eager about the days to come. “I want to go as far as possible – we should play stadiums,” she says. “The only thing that’s really important to me is maintaining the handmade style, making sure all elements is crafted by us. It’s a component I want to keep true to, regardless of we scale to. Oh, and I want to make an entrance on a unicorn each show. Think about how legends do the motorcycle thing? The same idea, but on a mythical creature.”