According to Eva Mendes, Ryan Gosling’s spooky band Dead Man’s Bones could be set to make a return after 17 years.
Gosling’s short-lived indie-folk duo Dead Man’s Bones only released one album back in 2009. According to their label ANTI-, ‘Dead Man’s Bones’ was originally conceived as the “soundtrack to a play about a monster-ghost-love-story” and that self-titled record is still attracting more than 390,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, despite the group having released no new music since.
While doing press for the Barbie in 2023, Gosling said “never say never” about a reunion and now Gosling’s wife Eva Mendes is teasing a Dead Man’s Bones comeback.
Taking to Instagram earlier this week (Wednesday October 21), Mendes shared a gothic Fiona Florence video soundtracked by Dead Man’s Bones’ ‘In The Room Where You Sleep’. “Fiona Florence’s spooky beauty to one of my favourite songs. Wouldn’t be the spooky season without Dead Man’s Bones,” she wrote alongside the clip. “Sure wish they had new music coming out…”
“We ALL wish they had new music coming out… do you know something we don’t,” asked one fan. “Maybe I do…,” replied Mendes.
Speaking to NME earlier this year Gosling said that he and Dead Man’s Bones bandmate Zach Shields originally bonded over their shared love of Disneyland’s spooky Haunted Mansion ride. “When I went on the Haunted Mansion ride when I was 12, it presented [death] like: ‘Well, maybe it’s not so bad or scary. Maybe it’s fun.’ So it just clicked for me. I’ve always loved that [Haunted Mansion] ride and Disney’s approach to scary things, like [Walt Disney’s 1929 short film] The Skeleton Dance and [1937 cartoon] The Old Mill. They’ve an angle on [scary things] that’s very unique.”
In the studio, the idea was for Gosling and Shields to play every instrument on every song, even if they didn’t know how to play the instruments themselves. “The goal was to figure it out. There was a quality to [that approach] that we liked, but I’m sure we had people come in and help make [the album] actually work,” Gosling explained.
‘Dead Man’s Bones’ was released in October 2009 and the rock duo played a handful of gigs at churches, synagogues and cabaret venues to celebrate. “We [definitely] kept on theme with the venues,” said Gosling. Dead Man’s Bones reunited for a string of shows the following year, but haven’t performed live since.
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