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While many musicians have borrowed from high fantasy, only a handful have truly lived the fantasy way of life. Admittedly, they may adorn their record jackets with monsters, beasts, chained damsels and muscular warriors, but has any musician ever been forced to retrieve a missing unicorn horn from a snowy field in the depths of winter? Has anyone taken the time peering in the back of a road transport, fixing their own armor?

Living the Fantasy

Established in 2019, the Brooklyn-based Castle Rat have encountered these exact challenges and additional ones as they act out their heroic dreams. From heraldic, earworm-heavy anthems to eye-popping concerts, outfit creation, visuals and cover artwork, they’re not so much a rock act as a complete sensory journey.

“It wasn’t planned to be a outfit with characters,” states vocalist, guitarist, blade-handler and creative overlord Riley Pinkerton as the band’s tour van speeds from a sold-out gig in a German city to another in another town – they are playing several shows in the UK currently. “Initially, we performed twice and received an offer on a Halloween gig, where I decided spontaneously to dress up. Everything was highly handmade, but we had a blast and the feeling in the room was electric. It occurred to me, ‘Imagine if we could have this much fun at every show?’”

Growth of the Group

Since then, the ensemble – which features Pinkerton as the “Rodent Monarch” alongside a pestilence physician (bass player), aristocratic undead (six-string player) and secretive shaman (drummer) – never turned back. The Bestiary, the group’s sophomore release, brings to mind of famous rock groups joining forces to struggle onward through a mythical painted realm – a heroic opus that places them on the edge of bigger achievements.

This album was a new experience for Pinkerton in that she invited input to her collaborators. “It made it a more powerful project,” she says of the collaborative process. “I had difficulty at first – There was a sense of a particular degree of satisfaction as a female in music doing everything solo. There have been numerous occasions where I’ve got off stage and an audience member will say, ‘The other members write great riffs!’ and I respond, ‘Wait – I composed all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

As the band’s stature has increased, so has the scope of their visual elements. “My motto is always that if an effort matters, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton laughs. At first, she had been on track for a art school education before hesitating at the prospect of so much debt. “What’s enjoyable about Castle Rat is there’s so many different ways to express artistic expression,” she says. “Be it making masks, attire creation, mastering post-production song visuals … everything is I don’t know how to do, but it’s exciting to discover on the fly.”

Even though building the ensemble’s complex backstory (“People are encouraging me to record it because it’s all in here,” Riley says, indicating her head) and making clothing wasn’t enough, the vocalist self-educated how to create armor – no mean feat, though she confessedly left her all-new scalemail look to a expert from NYC. “It seems like actual armour,” she grins.

Audience Reaction and Challenges

As for audiences? They took to the theatrical gore, foam swords and crafted rodent bones with equal enthusiasm as the band. “We played a show in the Motor City and it resembled a Renaissance fair,” reminisces Riley happily. “Everyone was in robes, wool garments, chainmail.”

However, this doesn’t mean, though, that traveling lifestyle as fantasy adventurers has been easy. “Everything is frequently damaged and ends up repaired with tape,” Riley says. “Additionally I’ll have endless ideas as to how I desire the presentation, but we are on the move in a van with only so much space. It’s a unique problem to create the impression like a larger-than-life story, then pack it down into minimal luggage.”

There have been other logistical problems that wouldn’t have troubled fictional warriors. “We did have an ‘oh shit’ moment when we played a Portuguese festival in the European country and my suitcase – which had my blade in it – went missing,” says Riley. “This became a nightmare, because we don’t have an backup plan of the performance where I don’t have a blade.”

Goals Ahead

As a genuine leader, Riley is gung-ho about the days to come. “I want to go all the way – we should play large venues,” she says. “The only thing that’s truly essential to me is maintaining the handmade style, ensuring each detail is custom-made. This is a feature I want to remain faithful to, whatever we grow into. Plus, I desire to appear on a unicorn at all performances. You know how famous musicians use vehicles in concerts? That, but using a unicorn.”