Kim Deal is back, and this time she’s flying solo—officially. While we’ve all lived off the glory of her work with The Breeders and Pixies, Nobody Loves You More marks her first proper solo record. Well, if you don’t count Pacer, the 1995 album she put out as The Amps, which she doesn’t, so we won’t.
“I called it The Amps because I like bands,” Kim explains, leaning into her Midwest rock sensibilities. “But when people started calling me ‘Tammy’ in bars, I thought, maybe I don’t want to be Tammy anymore.”
The record has been a long time coming—about a decade, give or take a ukulele. That’s not a metaphor. Deal credits Steve Albini for gifting her the instrument after she played his wedding. “I hadn’t touched it for years,” she admits, “but one day I threw it in the car, messed around, and wrote ‘Summerland.’”
Albini’s fingerprints are all over Nobody Loves You More, both directly and through the collaborators he introduced. Much of the record was shaped in Chicago’s Electrical Audio studio, with strings, horns, and even the sea making appearances in the soundscape. “It’s not like a Breeders album,” Deal says, almost laughing at the obviousness of the statement.
But if it’s not a Breeders album, it’s also not the cobbled-together experiment a decade-long recording process might suggest. “It feels cohesive? That’s good to hear,” Deal says, almost surprised. “I think I’m the rug that ties the room together.”
Touring the album presents its own challenges—especially with those strings and horns. “You can pick up horns as you go,” she says matter-of-factly. “You give them a piece of paper, and they just play. It’s like, are you kidding me?” Chuck Berry used to do the same, minus the screaming at people for not being psychic about his setlist.
Speaking of screaming, Deal recently joined Olivia Rodrigo on tour with The Breeders, playing venues like Madison Square Garden. It wasn’t her first time there—she’d opened for U2 in the early ‘90s—but the experience hasn’t changed. “When you’re an opener, you’re just the soundtrack to people finding their seats,” she deadpans.
Still, Rodrigo’s co-sign highlights Deal’s enduring relevance. “It was exciting she asked us,” Deal says, “but then you realize, oh, we’re the legacy act now.”
Nobody Loves You More is racking up spots on year-end lists, a fact Deal brushes off with characteristic coolness. “Thanks,” she says, when pressed for how it feels to have created one of 2024’s standout albums. “I think.”
Nobody knows how to make a Midwest icon look effortlessly cool like Kim Deal—and nobody does it better.
Listen to the interview above and then check out the video below.
