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Under The Rock: Ryan Gosling Makes Weird, Beautiful Music

POP, ROCK, UNDER THE ROCK Tags: Actor, dead man's bones, new band, new music, Oscar, pitchfork.com, review, Ryan Gosling Posted on August 23rd, 2009 by Emma Renda

Just when I thought Ryan Gosling couldn’t get any sexier. Well, he’s in a band now. Not just any band – a duo with his best friend (and sister’s ex-boyfriend) Zach Shields called Dead Man’s Bones featuring, throughout the entire album, the Silverdale Conservatory Children’s Choir.

The result: songs with titles like “My Body is a Zombie for You” (the chorus of which is shouted by the aforementioned children), set to ominous piano-folk and the Roy Orbison-esque voice of Gosling. The mood is something like the Billy the Kid scene from I’m Not There, and if that reference is too obscure, let’s just call it Halloween. In the video for the band’s first single, “In the Room Where You Sleep”, the choir is outfitted in an array of costumes from skeleton to pirate to ghost.

Gosling has clearly gotten into character yet again – he and Shields created their own label, Werewolf Heart, that will release the debut Never Let a Lack of Talent Get You Down this summer. (Werewolf Heart has also taken on upcoming releases from Ima Robot and The Goat.) And just this week, Dead Man’s Bones announced plans for a North American tour in October, with stops in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, and will include a local talent show before each performance.

Dead Man’s Bones has apparently been a work in progress for a few years, according to Gosling’s first ever interview for the band with Pitchfork.com. And the children’s choir have been there from the start.

“We’d rather see a high school play as opposed to a Broadway show any day,” Gosling told Pitchfork. “Not that Broadway shows aren’t great, but there’s just something about a high school play…you’re not distracted by the achievements, you get to watch the process, the will to make something.”

Incidentally, the Silverlake Conservatory is a Los Angeles-based institution co-founded by Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The choir joined Gosling, Shields and producer Tim Anderson (of Ima Robot) in the studio every Sunday afternoon for several months. On their own, Gosling and Shields followed a strict regime in an effort to maintain the rawest feel possible for the album. Besides a three-take limit and the outlaw of electric guitars, the duo tackle instruments for their first time, including piano, cello and drums.

The stripped-down approach comes in the wake of Gosling ’sand Shields’ past encounters with industry execs trying to tweak their incongruities and refine their production styles.

“There was always some kind of function on the computer, a filter that would assimilate the thing that you wanted, and we didn’t understand why you couldn’t just record the thing that you wanted,” Gosling told Pitchfork. “Like, why you had to do the computerized version of it, why can’t you just record it? It’s more fun that way anyway, because you have to design a way to get that sound. For instance, if you want something to sound like it was on a PA system after a wedding and there’s a few people dancing, why not just create that situation and record that?”

The songs so far available on their MySpace page maintain an untreated vibe, with snippets of children’s laughter, instrumental falters and lopsided clapping rounds. But there is an element of polish coming from a couple of guys who know what they want their music to do. “My Body is a Zombie For You” has a haunting hook the Arcade Fire could have been responsible for, and “In the Room Where You Sleep” evokes a meeting between Morrissey and Tom Waits.

It all sounds a little weird, and it is. But Half Nelson was weird and Gosling landed himself an Oscar nomination for that one.