Kim Deal is one of the most celebrated musicians of her generation with influential roles in both the Pixies and The Breeders. Kurt Cobain once said he wished she wrote more of the Pixies’ songs and counted The Breeders’ Pod as a central influence, and, just last year, Olivia Rodrigo asked the band to open a handful of dates in New York and L.A. on her tour.
Deal just released her first solo record titled Nobody Loves You More last November to critical acclaim. She’ll start a tour in support of the record this month that begins with two back-to-back local shows this week on Thursday, Feb. 20 in her hometown of Dayton at The Brightside Music and Event Venue, followed by Feb. 21 show in Cincinnati at the Woodward Theater.
CityBeat spoke with her ahead of the appearances where she talked about her beginnings in Dayton with twin sister Kelley Deal, a special early Breeders show, her new record, capturing ideas and inspiration, the passing of collaborator Steve Albini and more.
Her enthusiasm and energy in conversation may be a little insight into why her new record and solo debut Nobody Loves You More sounds so vital and fresh. While she’s laidback, Midwest charm intact, she’s often spirited, laughing or acting things out as she explains them, singing parts of a song or humming the guitar part, full of life.
There is also an air of effortless style, even a touch of glamour to her that feels like you’re talking to Cate Blanchett or some Hollywood star, but she’s just hanging out, having a good time.
Maybe that’s because Deal has been a central figure in some of the most influential music circles of the last few decades since she answered an ad in 1986 to join a still-forming Pixies before starting her own highly influential band The Breeders a few years later.
Deal and her sister Kelley grew up in Huber Heights and got involved with music early on. She recounts her first public performance singing with a disco cover band in a nearby bar in Piqua. “I was still in high school, I was probably 16. It was a place called Moe’s Lounge and me and Kelley were singing backup to a disco band there that did covers and a friend of ours playing drums. His name is Greg Martin. Now, he’s passed recently, which is really sad, but he’s a friend of ours.” She continues, “I looked at him, scared to death and then I turned around and the first words I ever sang like that were, (singing) ‘You might not ever get rich,’ you know, going into ‘Carwash.’”
She talks about an early performance in Dayton’s Oregon District where she and Kelley competed with other local talent and were picked to return week after week based on applause.
When our conversation moves to longtime downtown Dayton venue Canal Street Tavern, it brings up an interesting piece of Breeders history. ”Oh my god, we played there. Mick Montgomery was so cool. He got me and Kelley to sing at Sam’s; he had Sam’s Club before Canal Street Tavern.”
The venue was important for the now-classic lineup of The Breeders when it first formed.
“When The Breeders played our first show, for real, we went to Canal Street and did a show and the next day we flew out to Ireland to open up for Nirvana,” Deal says. “That was our only show with Breeders being Josie (Josephine Wiggs), Jim (Macpherson), Kelley and me and then the next show we played was with Nirvana.”
The new lineup was so fresh that Breeders drummer, Macpherson, didn’t know what a stage monitor was. She recalls an exchange between Macpherson and Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl: “Jim Macpherson asked Dave Grohl, ‘What are those black boxes next to the drumset?’ and Dave Grohl said to him, (mimicking a surprised Grohl) ‘Those are monitors.’ He said, ‘What do you do with them?’ ‘You put the band in them!’”
Deal mentions Macpherson and Grohl have remained friends and that he was in L.A. at the time of our interview with Grohl for the wildfire benefit concerts with a re-formed Nirvana that included guest vocalists Kim Gordon, St. Vincent and Joan Jett. “Jim is still friends with Dave from way back when, from when Dave was telling him what to put in the monitors,” Deal says.
Nobody Loves You More is surprisingly Deal’s first solo album but has been received as well as anything in her noteworthy career. The record has been widely praised for both its timeless touch and, at the same time, its immediacy.
The album’s beginnings came from a string of solo releases she did beginning in 2012 as 7-inch singles that stretched over the next few years featuring songs she knew weren’t Breeders songs since she was using things like horns and different musician friends playing on them. Deal says once the song “Nobody Loves You More” came along, it felt different. “But when I did ‘Nobody Loves You More,’ it sounded like an album track.”
Only a couple of the songs from the singles were reworked for the album; the rest came together later.
When asked about capturing inspiration, Deal tells CityBeat about the act of creation in the most playful and possibly accurate way it may have ever been described. “The only thing that sort of keeps me on the path I think is just, like, I don’t have a grand scheme, (adopts formal sounding voice) ‘this album’s gonna be about world peace,’ but I do know that I’m thinking something sounds cool and then I chase it,” she says, laughing. “And try not to break it by the time I record it. Something is inspiring, something sounds cool, something’s working for me and I’m trying to get it from the record or that I heard in passing, capture it like an animal, wild animal that it is (she says acting out grabbing something out of the air and putting it into place with a playful intensity in her voice) and make it go onto the tape and make it stay there without turning into suck.”
Deal is notoriously a fan of recording to tape, but has been more open to Pro Tools and digital recording in recent years. She says she still uses Tascam 4-tracks to write. “I think because it sounds better. It sounds groovier.” She continues, “Like, if I’m gonna sing and have a guitar and I’m trying to come up with something and I think I’ve got something kind of cool, I’m gonna put it on a cassette.”
The two songs originally from the solo 7-inch singles were recorded on tape but Deal explains that those were redone for the record to meet a slightly higher standard. “Then everything got recorded up to that instead of, like, a 388 Tascam with 8 tracks where one of the tracks is busted and won’t play the guitar part anymore.”
The record’s production also has several local connections. A lot of tracks were recorded or partially recorded at Candyland Recording Studio in Dayton, Kentucky. Also, In addition to her sister, Kelley, playing guitar and singing backing vocals on a few tracks, Deal tells CityBeat that Jack Lawrence from local legendary garage rock group The Greenhornes played bass on a few tracks alongside Britt Walford from Slint on drums.
“We met up, they’re Kentucky dudes. Well, I think Jack’s in Nashville now but his family’s from around that area. So, yeah, it was the first time I had worked with Jack but of course I’ve known Britt since the ‘80s for God’s sake, and then we went there to Candyland and we played it. Then Michael Mavridoglou, he’s a Greek king, he played trumpet, he’s from Cincy. Michael’s (Montgomery) from Cincy, he’s on it.”
The record also features engineering from Albini before his passing last year.
“I can’t even imagine him being gone,” Deal says. “To me, he’s upstate, you know, he’s just up in Chicago.”
The new album makes a statement and the album art and title song’s music video helped solidify its arrival. Deal made the connection to video director and concept artist Alex Da Corte through a chance meeting backstage at a Breeders concert after being introduced to the director’s boyfriend by her sister. Once she discovered he directed one of her favorite videos, St. Vincent’s “New York,” she knew she wanted to work with him.
The Cincinnati connections continue for the upcoming Woodward Theater performance. Local solo musician and cellist/vocalist of Lung, Kate Wakefield, will join Kelley on backing vocals for the occasion. “Kate’s been helping write the score because I’m playing Barbican which is quite fancy, darling, it’s in London (she says adopting a posh English accent). I just saw her yesterday. She drove to Dayton. She’s gonna write the music score to send over there to people.”
She also says old friend and local designer Chris Glass designed the poster for the show.
“So, there’s a lot of Cincinnati stuff going on. I’m excited.”
Kim Deal performs at The Brightside in Dayton on Feb. 20 at 8 p.m. and the Woodward Theater in Over-the-Rhine on Feb. 21 at 8 p.m. More info: thebrightsidedayton.com and woodwardtheater.com.
This article appears in Feb 19 – Mar 4, 2025.