This month, somewhere amid e-mail forwards about poodles that look like ninja turtles and personality quizzes about what you might smell like to Edward Cullen, perhaps a good pal had the forethought to e-mail a mysterious new music video featuring Oscar nominee Ryan Gosling and a choir of trick-or-treating kidlets?
That video would be "In the Room You Sleep," the first from Gosling's new band, Dead Man's Bones.
And while the world hasn't known much about the project apart from: (a) Gosling's co-conspirator in the band is Rachel McAdams' sister's boyfriend, Zach Shields, and (b) Gosling seems to be going for an Arcade Fire meets The Langley-School-Project vibe, the band revealed several new details in an interview with Pitchfork.
Dead Man's Bones will release their first album, Never Let a Lack of Talent Get You Down, as early as this June, the outlet reports. Plus, expect a spate of new music videos that'll look a bit fancier than the home movie feel of their last clip. The band says they're planning videos for all of their material, and have brought on Robot Chicken animators and sculptor Arthur Ganson as collaborators.
If anything, it seems like Gosling's been giving this new career move more thought than some of his colleagues (cough -- Joaquin Phoenix -- cough). "We've worked on it [the band] solid for two years," Gosling told Pitchfork. "I made a couple movies because I had to, but this is all we do."
As for where their video costars of underage pirates, Edward Scissorhandses and skeletons came from, that spooky crew has ties to another star, Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. All the kids -- who range in age from five to 17 -- are students at L.A. Silverlake Conservatory of Music, a school co-founded by the Chili Peppers' bassist.
Gosling and Shields reportedly spent several months working with the kids, rehearsing their dark and twisty songs about death and spooky whatsits.
"The whole idea about working with kids and their imagination is true," Shields told Pitchfork. "Everything out there that we threw at them they totally embraced and went for it."
The band already has a show scheduled this March at SXSW, and as they roll out further dates, Gosling and Shields won't likely be buying fake IDs for the rest of their bandmates.
There's going to be a revolving door policy for Dead Man's Bones' monster squad. Fair warning for teen girls who've worn out their Notebook DVDs; Gosling plans to recruit kids' choirs along their tour route.
"I think it'll keep it interesting for us, because every time we'll get to work with new kids and get new ideas and hopefully tailor each performance to that experience," Gosling told Pitchfork. "And, you know, we can't play bars with kids, so we'll have to put together a night-time version of our act, which we're working on. I think we're excited about that, we're excited about how many different ways we can dress it up, with different kinds of choirs and artists, and it should be interesting."
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