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| Actor Ryan Gosling arrives at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Monday, Jan. 28, 2008 in Santa Barbara, Calif. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Michael A. Mariant) |
TORONTO - Memories of childhood ghost-busting and family trips to the cemetery served as the spooky stimulus for the macabre vibe on "Dead Man’s Bones," the new self-titled debut album from actors Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields.
"We may or may not have lived in a haunted house in Hamilton," said Gosling - who was born in London, Ont., and grew up in Cornwall, Ont. - in a recent phone interview.
"It’s hard to believe that it’s true, but my parents moved for that reason ... I have some pretty specific memories of it being haunted," continued the Hollywood heartthrob, who was nominated for an Oscar for his leading role in "Half Nelson."
"Also, my mother loved cemeteries and used to take me there to play in them while she read the tombstones; so I just have always been around these things I guess, and so they’re kind of normal to me.
"A graveyard isn’t really a scary place - it’s more of a playground."
Gosling and Shields said they met in 2005 at the Toronto bar Sneaky Dee’s. At the time, Gosling was dating Toronto-based actress Rachel McAdams, his co-star in "The Notebook," and Shields was reportedly an item with her sister, Kayleen.
After bonding over ghostly encounters, they decided to write a Gene Kelly/Fred Astaire-type ghoulish song-and-dance stage show with haunting tracks bearing titles like "My Body’s a Zombie for You" and "Werewolf Heart."
The duo is in Montreal on Monday and Toronto on Tuesday to support its gothic rock/folk/doo-wop project, which was released earlier this month.
"I was obsessed with ghosts when I was a kid," said Shields, who grew up in Rochester, N.Y., and studied drama at the University of Toronto.
"My mom ... started getting really concerned so she sent me to therapy for ghosts because all I was drawing was pictures of monsters and ghosts, things like that in school, and my teachers were getting worried about it as well.
"After I got out of therapy, I was just a closeted ghost lover."
Their play was to star "giant puppet versions" of themselves, "with swords and huge muscles and standing three-storeys tall," said Shields.
But the project became solely a musical one due to funding issues, he added: "The giant puppet versions of us alone would be like, $2 million each because of the detail."
As they hit the recording studio about a year ago, they hired the Silverlake Conservatory Children’s Choir in Los Angeles to sing with them on the album.
The recording process took about five months, they said, as they only got an hour with the choir once a week and were relative rookies at playing the instruments, including piano, guitar and drums.
Gosling already had prior experience as a singer - in 1993 at age 12 he was a Mouseketeer on TV’s "The Mickey Mouse Club" alongside Britney Spears - but felt his vocal training in the past was "not enough" for this project.
He’s also self-deprecating when he hears that critics are comparing their sound to that of Montreal indie rockers Arcade Fire.
"That’s a huge compliment to us and a giant insult and slap in the face to them," Gosling said with a laugh.
During their tour, which also hits Vancouver Oct. 24, the band will sing with local choirs that they recruited several months ago.
Their opening act will be a talent show consisting of local acts.
"It’s a bit of a suicide mission already," said Gosling, who has two films due out next year: "All Good Things," with Kirsten Dunst, and "Blue Valentine" with Michelle Williams.
"Twelve cities in 14 days, a different choir in every city, and then a talent show opening for us in every city with local talent.
"If we make it out of this alive then we’ll think about going somewhere else."
What they are thinking about, though, is a second album to work on as they continue their acting careers.
"We’re already kind of making it," said Gosling.
"It’s hard to tour this record and also do writing, but a lot of what we end up writing for the next record just finds some way into the live show ... into our old songs, so I think that we’re playing our songs differently now."
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