An Oscar-nominated Hollywood heartthrob and his best friend round up a bunch of instruments-- some of which they don't know how to play-- and a massive children's choir and make a concept album about the supernatural. Seems like a recipe for disaster, right? Guess again.

Meet Dead Man's Bones, a collaboration between actors Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson, The Believer, The Notebook) and Zach Shields. The duo plan to release their debut album, Never Let a Lack of Talent Get You Down, on their own label, Werewolf Heart, this summer. You might have seen their MySpace page, or a video for their song "In the Room Where You Sleep" floating around the web recently. In the clip, Gosling and Shields lead a bunch of kids, all dressed in Halloween costumes, through a spare acoustic lament. It's creepy and catchy. It sounds like a middle school assembly gone goth. And it's pretty damn good.
As far as celebrity music projects go, the quality level on this one is a lot closer to She & Him than, say, Joaquin Phoenix's rap career. While listening to tracks from the Dead Man's Bones album at the office, I've been asked by co-workers if I'm listening to Bryan Ferry or something by the Arcade Fire. No lie.
Earlier this week, Gosling and Shields gave Pitchfork their first-ever interview about Dead Man's Bones. The pair were nervous and excited to talk about the band, and they seem genuinely committed to the project, which is a labor-intensive D.I.Y. undertaking. As Gosling put it, "We've worked on it solid for two years. I made a couple movies because I had to, but this is all we do."
"We had both made music before, and both of us hated what we did," Shields said. "We worked with people who were super professional, really accomplished musicians. And I always felt-- I think Ryan felt the same way-- everyone I was working with, I was trying to step up to their level and be as good as they were, technically. When we recorded before, everyone we worked with, they tried to make us good, and you know, we're not, we're amateurs. They would put it through a click track, have us do a million takes, Auto-Tune my voice because I can't sing well."