Ryan Gosling is ready to rise from the dead—musically, at least.
Dead Man’s Bones, the indie-rock duo he formed with musician Zach Shields, is teasing its first new music in 17 years, with a new release scheduled for Oct. 27, just in time for Halloween.
Gosling’s partner, Eva Mendes, helped spark the excitement by teasing the band’s return on social media. After initially wishing for new music, she shared the group’s announcement and wrote, “He came through on his promise to me.”
View this post on InstagramThe band’s upcoming release will mark its first new music since its self-titled 2009 debut. For longtime fans, the news offers a chance to revisit one of the album’s strangest standouts: “My Body’s a Zombie for You,” a macabre love song featuring Gosling’s vocals, a lurching piano, and a children’s choir enthusiastically chanting about the undead.
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But the story behind the song is almost as unusual as the track itself.
Ryan Gosling and His Bandmate Bonded Over Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion
Dead Man’s Bones began with an unlikely friendship. Gosling and Shields met in Toronto in 2005 while each was dating one of two sisters: Gosling was with Rachel McAdams, while Shields was dating McAdams’ sister, Kayleen.
The two initially had little reason to expect they would become musical collaborators. Then they discovered a shared obsession with ghosts and Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion attraction.
In a March 2026 interview with NME, Gosling recalled how the ride changed his perspective on the supernatural.
“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,’” the Barbie star said.
That playful approach to frightening subject matter became part of Dead Man’s Bones’ identity. The pair drew on their fascination with ghosts, monsters, graveyards, and zombies to develop a musical world that was spooky without taking itself too seriously.
The Song Began as a Monster-and-Ghost Love Story
The duo’s original ambition was even more theatrical than the finished album. According to their record label, ANTI-, Gosling and Shields initially set out to write a stage production about a monster and a ghost falling in love.
They wrote songs for the proposed show, but the cost of mounting the production eventually became prohibitive. Rather than abandon the material, they turned it into an album.
In the label’s 2009 biography, the project was described as a collection of “doo-wop songs about werewolves” and “haunting melodies telling tales of zombies with broken hearts.”
“My Body’s a Zombie for You” fits that strange romantic universe perfectly. Its narrator may be undead, but the song treats love as a force that persists even beyond death.
The result was a track that sounded part vintage doo-wop, part indie rock, and part Halloween novelty song—without quite fitting into any one category.
A Children’s Choir Made the Zombie Song Unforgettable
One of the most distinctive elements of “My Body’s a Zombie for You” is the Silverlake Conservatory of Music Children’s Choir, which provides much of the album’s vocal character.
The choir’s exuberant delivery contrasts with the song’s dark subject matter, turning its zombie refrain into something closer to a playground chant than a traditional horror soundtrack.
The children were central to the album from the beginning. In a 2009 interview with Rolling Stone, Shields explained, “When we first wrote the songs, all the vocals were for the children’s choir to sing.”
As the pair worked out the arrangements, however, they began singing themselves, and the project evolved into a collaboration between the two musicians and the young performers.
The choir also connected with the band’s interest in imperfect, unconventional music.
Gosling and Shields wanted to play the instruments themselves, even when they were learning as they went, and established recording rules designed to preserve mistakes rather than polish away every rough edge.
Why Ryan Gosling’s Forgotten Rock Song Still Feels Made for Halloween
Dead Man’s Bones released its only previous album in October 2009. The duo later reunited for live performances in 2010 but had not released new music since, until the current comeback announcement.
In the years that followed, Gosling became an even bigger Hollywood star, eventually earning an Oscar nomination for his performance of “I’m Just Ken” in Barbie. Yet, Dead Man’s Bones remains a fascinating detour in his career: an ambitious, deliberately strange musical experiment built around childhood fears, theatrical romance, and a children’s choir.
Now, with new music arriving Oct. 27, the timing couldn’t be more fitting. Fans can revisit “My Body’s a Zombie for You” as Halloween approaches and discover the offbeat musical world Gosling and Shields created long before their band returned from the dead.
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