🔗 Share this article

Although plenty of musicians have borrowed from high fantasy, few have fully embraced the mythical way of life. Admittedly, they could decorate their album covers with creatures, goblins, chained damsels and brawny barbarians, but did a member ever have to find a misplaced mythical horn from a wintry landscape in the depths of winter? Has a performer taken the time peering in the rear of a traveling vehicle, fixing their own metal mesh?

Living the Fantasy

Established in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have encountered these exact challenges and more as they embody their heroic dreams. Starting with medieval-inspired, catchy anthems to stunning concerts, attire styling, visuals and record designs, they’re more than a rock act as a total artistic immersion.

“Castle Rat wasn’t meant to be a costumed concept band,” states singer, guitar player, sword-carrier and visionary Riley Pinkerton as the group’s vehicle travels from a full-capacity concert in a German city to another in another town – they’re also doing multiple performances in the UK this week. “After a couple of performances and received an offer on a spooky event, where I chose at the final moment to dress up. The entire setup was completely self-made, but we had so much fun and the energy was unforgettable. It occurred to me, ‘What if we could have such enjoyment at every show?’”

Development of Castle Rat

Since then, the band – which includes Pinkerton as the “Rodent Monarch” joined by a plague doctor (bassist), aristocratic undead (guitarist) and enigmatic nature priest (rhythm keeper) – haven’t looked back. The Bestiary, the band’s second album, brings to mind of famous rock groups uniting to fight their path through a Frank Frazetta fantasy world – a epic masterpiece that sets them on the verge of greater success.

This album was a new experience for Pinkerton in that she invited input to her collaborators. “It made it a much better project,” she says of the group work. “It was challenging at first – I’d always felt a certain amount of pride being a woman in music working independently. There’ve been multiple instances where I’ve got off stage and some guy will say, ‘Those guys compose cool melodies!’ and I’m like, ‘Listen – I wrote all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

With their growing popularity has expanded, so has the breadth of their visual elements. “The saying I live by is always that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton smiles. At first, she had been on course for a art school education before hesitating at the possibility of heavy loans. “The exciting part about Castle Rat is there’s so many different ways to express artistic expression,” she says. “Be it making masks, costume design, learning how to edit song visuals … everything is I don’t know how to do, but it’s enjoyable to figure it out as we go.”

As if developing the band’s intricate lore (“The team is pushing me to document it because everything is stored,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and making clothing wasn’t enough, the singer self-educated how to create armor – a challenging endeavor, though she admittedly entrusted her completely original scalemail look to a New York-based specialist. “It’s as if actual armour,” she smiles proudly.

Crowd Engagement and Difficulties

Regarding the fans? They embraced the theatrical gore, foam swords and crafted rodent bones with as much gusto as the musicians. “We performed a gig in the Motor City and it resembled a historical festival,” remembers Riley with affection. “All attendees was in robes, wool garments, metal wear.”

However, this doesn’t mean, however, that traveling lifestyle as mythical wanderers has been easy. “Everything is constantly breaking and becomes duct-taped together,” Riley says. “Plus I’ll have numerous thoughts as to how I envision the aesthetics, but we’re traveling in a vehicle with restricted capacity. It’s an interesting challenge to give the sense like a mythic tale, then pack it down into nothing.”

We’ve encountered other logistical problems that didn’t affect legendary fantasy heroes. “We experienced an ‘uh-oh’ moment when we performed at a Portuguese festival in Portugal and my luggage – which had my blade in it – got lost,” says Riley. “It was a terrible situation, because there’s not an different option of the show where I don’t have a sword.”

Future Ambitions

As a genuine leader, Riley is eager about the what’s next. “My goal is as far as possible – we should play large venues,” she says. “The only thing that’s really important to me is maintaining the handmade style, making sure everything is handmade. It’s a component I want to keep true to, no matter what we scale to. Plus, I wish to appear on a mythical beast each show. Think about how some artists do the motorcycle thing? That, but using a unicorn.”