Ryan Gosling is picking up the guitar again. The Barbie star's spooky indie-rock duo Dead Man's Bones will release its first new music in 17 years on October 27, the band announced in a haunting video posted to Instagram on October 22.
The comeback announcement
Gosling formed Dead Man's Bones with musician and screenwriter Zach Shields (Krampus, Godzilla vs. Kong) in 2007, bonding over a mutual obsession with Disneyland's Haunted Mansion ride. The duo released one self-titled album in 2009 through the label ANTI-, recorded with the Silverlake Conservatory Children's Choir — and then went silent for nearly two decades.
The teaser revives the band's signature supernatural style: a man's face floats in a sinister spiral while a voice recites a poem about ghosts returning to the world — "Dead man's bones must wait to rise, from the house where shadows cry. All of this must change" — before a young girl's voice announces: "Oct. 27!" ANTI- also posted the teaser, titled "Hypnotism," on YouTube, signaling the label will release the new music just as it did in 2009.
Eva Mendes had been dropping hints
Gosling's partner, Eva Mendes, teased the comeback earlier in the week, writing on social media: "Trying to summon new music from DEAD MAN'S BONES. I can feel it in the air…" After the announcement dropped, she reposted the teaser with the caption: "He came through on his promise to me."
Rolling Stone memorably described the band's sound in 2009 as "Arcade Fire, Tom Waits and the cast of Sesame Street performing a Kurt Weill musical," inspired by the Haunted Mansion ride and cult schoolchildren-choir records.
Gosling's musical second act
While the band lay dormant, Gosling built an unlikely music career on screen: his jazz pianist in La La Land earned him a Golden Globe, and his performance of "I'm Just Ken" in Barbie earned a Grammy nomination and a standing-ovation live performance at the 2024 Academy Awards. He's currently campaigning for an Oscar for Project Hail Mary, with Star Wars: Starfighter and Marvel's Ghost Rider on the horizon.
The timing is perfect: a gothic, ghost-obsessed Halloween release from Hollywood's biggest movie star. Whatever drops on October 27, fans have already made the verdict unanimous — they're ready to be haunted.
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Silly Fun (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0