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Although plenty of rockers have taken inspiration from fantasy lore, only a handful have genuinely embodied the fantasy way of life. Certainly, they might adorn their record jackets with ghouls, imps, captive women and strong fighters, but has an artist ever have to find a missing horn from a unicorn from a wintry landscape in the heart of winter? Did a guitarist spent time squinting in the back of a road transport, repairing their own chainmail?

Embracing the Mythos

Established in 2019, New York’s Castle Rat have had to face such situations and others as they live out their heroic dreams. Starting with heraldic, catchy tunes to eye-popping concerts, attire styling, music videos and record designs, they’re not just a rock act as a total artistic immersion.

“It wasn’t planned to be a costumed concept band,” says singer, guitarist, sword-wielder and artistic leader Riley Pinkerton as the band’s tour van travels from a packed show in a German city to another in another town – they have five gigs in the UK now. “After a couple of performances and received an offer on a spooky event, where I decided spontaneously to wear a costume. It was all completely self-made, but we had so much fun and the feeling in the room was incredible. I realized, ‘What if we could have this much fun every time?’”

Growth of the Group

After that, the band – which features Pinkerton as the “Rat Queen” alongside a plague doctor (bass player), aristocratic undead (guitarist) and secretive shaman (drummer) – continued forward. The Bestiary, the follow-up record, conjures visions of classic metal icons uniting to fight their path through a Frank Frazetta fantasy world – a grand composition that sets them on the edge of bigger achievements.

This album was a initial step for Pinkerton in that she invited input to her collaborators. “That contributed to a more powerful album,” she says of the collaborative process. “I had difficulty at first – I’d always felt a certain amount of pride as a female in music going it alone. There have been numerous occasions where after a show and some guy will say, ‘The band create awesome guitar parts!’ and I’m like, ‘Listen – I composed all that.’”

Creative Output and Ideas

As their fame has expanded, so has the breadth of their visual elements. “My motto is always that if something is valuable, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton chuckles. Initially, she was on track for a fine art degree before balking at the prospect of financial burden. “The exciting part about Castle Rat is there’s numerous methods to apply artistry,” she says. “From creating face coverings, costume design, learning how to edit song visuals … it’s all stuff I am unfamiliar with, but it’s fun to discover in the moment.”

Even though building the group’s detailed mythology (“The team is pushing me to write it down because it’s all in here,” Riley says, tapping her head) and sewing costumes wasn’t enough, the vocalist taught herself how to craft metal mesh – a challenging endeavor, though she confessedly left her brand-new scalemail look to a expert from NYC. “It seems like actual armour,” she grins.

Fan Response and Obstacles

What about the crowd? They took to the fake blood, soft weapons and papier-mache rat skulls with equal enthusiasm as the musicians. “We played a gig in the Motor City and it looked like a historical festival,” reminisces Riley fondly. “All attendees was in capes, sheepskin, metal wear.”

That’s not to imply, though, that life on the road as sword’n’sorcery vagabonds has been easy. “Everything is frequently damaged and gets repaired with tape,” Riley says. “Additionally I get endless ideas as to how I envision the aesthetics, but we’re traveling in a vehicle with restricted capacity. It’s a fascinating test to make it feel like a larger-than-life story, then store it into minimal luggage.”

We’ve encountered additional practical issues that didn’t affect legendary fantasy heroes. “We experienced an ‘oh shit’ moment when we played SonicBlast festival in Portugal and my luggage – which had my weapon in it – was misplaced,” says Riley. “That was a terrible situation, because we don’t have an backup plan of the performance where I don’t have a weapon.”

Upcoming Plans

Like a true warrior queen, Riley is enthusiastic about the what’s next. “I want to go to the top – we should play stadiums,” she says. “The only thing that’s deeply meaningful to me is maintaining the self-crafted look, guaranteeing all elements is crafted by us. That’s an element I want to keep true to, no matter what we grow into. Oh, and I want to appear on a magical horse each show. Remember how legends do the motorcycle thing? Exactly that, but using a unicorn.”