KIM DEAL
NEXT SPLASH
Pixie, Breeder… solo artist! KIM DEAL steps out of her pod to explain how iguanas, ukuleles, the Florida Keys, Hank Williams and “a crotch-led, old-school Playboy After Dark feel” have shaped her gigantic new album – and how she’s borne poignant losses along the way, including her parents and Steve Albini. “I want to do the songs justice,” she tells Tom Pinnock
“They made mea de Chirico suit”: Kim Deal poses for the cover of her first solo LP
Photo by ALEX DA CORTE
“I heard it all in my head”: Kim Deal, 2024
STEVE GULLICK
EEP in some of Watford’s thickest, most mosquito-plagued undergrowth is not, you might imagine, a natural location for Kim Deal. Yet here she is, miming on a borrowed Stratocaster for her first proper video as a solo artist. It’s a similarly unexpected place for her to be after years of playing in groups.
“I never start out thinking I’m gonna do a whole record, because it’s too daunting to look at it,” she explains, apparently as surprised as anyone to be stepping out from The Breeders with her debut solo album Nobody Loves You More. “If I have a song that I think sounds pretty cool I want to make it sound good. So then that’s done. But it takes so fucking long…”
Some 37 years after Pixies’ debut Come On Pilgrim, Kim Deal is throwing herself into her new role. She’s even appearing on the album’s cover complete with guitar, amp and flamingo, seemingly lost in the ocean as a tribute to Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader. “I’m in a suit, there’s some level of uncomfortability,” she says of the cover. “But why the fuck not? I can’t wear my sweats, so they made me a de Chirico suit.”
“I thought the album cover was going to be something more arty,” says Kelley Deal, amazed by how much her twin sister is pushing herself out of her comfort zone. “Just an eye with a shadow cast over… I don’t know! But it’s not only Kim’s picture [on the cover], she’s also in costume – go, you weirdo! Once I was over the shock, I was like, ‘I get it, you’re fully being vulnerable and exposing yourself.’”
Deal has never been one to do things by halves. That’s why The Breeders have only managed another four albums since their debut, 1990’s Pod. While dalliances with substances and alcohol may, understandably, have slowed Deal’s work rate, she’s also an artist who can only follow an arduous, lengthy process: reworking, rearranging, chipping away to slowly reveal the alchemical, imperfect essence of an idea.
“Kim’s never done anything that’s less than excellent,” says Richard Ayoade, a longtime fan of Deal’s work. He’s deep in the woods too, directing the video for “Big Ben Beat” after helming the clip for “Spacewoman”, from The Breeders’ 2018 LP All Nerve. “Excellent is like her minimum standard – it hovers between excellent and superlative. She’s amazing.”
However, the process of making Nobody Loves You More has led Kim Deal to stranger places than ever before. After hearing the story of its creation, Uncut puts it to her that this is her Florida album, her outlaw country album, her orchestral album and her electronic album all in one.
“Right, sure,” she laughs. “I don’t think so! I want to do the songs justice. I really do. I have songs on the go all the time. One that I’m working on now, I’m intrigued by it. I want to do it right.”