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While many rockers have taken inspiration from fantasy lore, rarely any have genuinely embodied the mythical lifestyle. Certainly, they may decorate their record jackets with monsters, goblins, chained damsels and strong fighters, but has an artist ever have to recover a missing mythical horn from a snowy field in the heart of winter? Did a guitarist taken the time squinting in the interior of a tour bus, mending their own chainmail?

Living the Fantasy

Created in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have had to face such situations and more as they embody their heroic dreams. Starting with heraldic, catchy songs to eye-popping live shows, attire styling, videos and record designs, they’re not just a metal band as a full immersive experience.

“It wasn’t planned to be a costumed concept band,” explains vocalist, guitar player, sword-wielder and creative overlord Riley Pinkerton as the band’s tour van drives from a sold-out gig in a German city to one more in another town – they’re also doing multiple performances in the UK this week. “We played two shows and got booked on a October show, where I chose at the final moment to wear a costume. The entire setup was highly handmade, but we had so much fun and the feeling in the room was incredible. I thought, ‘How about if we could have such enjoyment at every show?’”

Growth of the Group

After that, the group – which includes Pinkerton as the “Queen Rat” together with a medic from history (bassist), haughty vampire (lead guitarist) and mysterious druid (percussionist) – continued forward. Their latest album, the group’s sophomore release, evokes images of classic metal icons collaborating to fight their path through a heroic art landscape – a heroic opus that places them on the edge of far grander things.

The release was a first for Pinkerton in that she invited input to her fellow members. “This helped a more powerful album,” she says of the group work. “It was challenging at first – There was a sense of a certain amount of pride as a female in music working independently. There’ve been multiple instances where I’ve got off stage and some guy will say, ‘The other members compose cool melodies!’ and I think, ‘Hey – I created all that.’”

Creative Output and Ideas

As their fame has grown, so has the scale of their production design. “My philosophy is always that if something is valuable, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton chuckles. She was originally on course for a fine art degree before pulling back at the idea of so much debt. “The fun thing about Castle Rat is there’s numerous methods to express creativity,” she says. “Be it making masks, attire creation, mastering post-production clips … these are all things I am unfamiliar with, but it’s fun to learn on the fly.”

Even though developing the ensemble’s complex backstory (“Everyone’s urging me to document it because all the ideas are,” Riley says, tapping her head) and stitching garments were insufficient, the singer self-educated how to make chainmail – a difficult task, though she admittedly entrusted her completely original scalemail look to a New York-based specialist. “It feels like actual armour,” she grins.

Audience Reaction and Challenges

As for audiences? They loved the stage blood, foam swords and papier-mache rat skulls with equal enthusiasm as the musicians. “We performed a concert in Detroit and it looked like a medieval event,” recalls Riley fondly. “All attendees was in robes, sheepskin, chainmail.”

That’s not to imply, nevertheless, that life on the road as sword’n’sorcery vagabonds has been easy. “Everything is always failing and becomes repaired with tape,” Riley says. “Additionally I’ll have endless ideas as to how I envision the aesthetics, but we tour in a bus with only so much space. It’s a fascinating test to create the impression like a mythic tale, then pack it down into a small space.”

There have been additional practical issues that didn’t affect fictional warriors. “We did have an ‘uh-oh’ moment when we appeared at a music event in Portugal and my suitcase – which had my sword in it – went missing,” says Riley. “This became a nightmare, because there’s not an different option of the performance where I lack a blade.”

Goals Ahead

Like a true warrior queen, Riley is gung-ho about the what’s next. “I want to go all the way – let’s do huge arenas,” she says. “The main aspect that’s really important to me is keeping the DIY aesthetic, making sure each detail is crafted by us. This is a feature I want to stay authentic to, whatever we scale to. Additionally, I want to make an entrance on a magical horse each show. You know how some artists ride bikes on stage? The same idea, but using a unicorn.”