Kim Deal's first solo album, Nobody Loves You More (4AD), was released in November, and in early 2025 she'll kick off a tour in support of the album with a hometown show at the Brightside in downtown Dayton. Deal recently spoke with WYSO music director Juliet Fromholt about the album and its local ties.
Although Nobody Loves You More is Deal's first solo album, it's roots are in a series of 7 inch singles that were self-released in 2013.
"I got five out, and then I began recording [title track] "Nobody Loves You More" in Kentucky with Mike Montgomery at Candyland - local studio," said Deal in an interview with WYSO music director Juliet Fromholt. "And when I recorded that song, I thought, this is pretty good sounding. I should not put it on a seven inch because it needs to be on an album. The sound quality is so much better on an album. So that's where I really began. All the new solo songs that I had in my head, I began recording them into different various stages of done-ness. And then I just led them into an album stage of done-ness, which is different than a seven inch single, 45 stage of done-ness."
In reflecting on what done means when making an album, Deal said she tries to avoid becoming too attached to early demos of a song instead letting it thrive in the studio setting.
"I always end up listening to the bad demo thinking this is better. But then what happens is two years after that moment, I'll listen to the new recording, the one that I didn't like, and then I'll go back to the demo and listen to it and it's not as good as the new one."
Nobody Loves You More features a variety of guests and collaborators from different eras of Deal's musical life including past and present Breeders members Mando Lopez, Kelley Deal, Britt Walford, and Jim Macpherson with whom Deal renewed a previously fractured friendship.
"When I began [the seven inch releases], me and Jim Macpherson weren't talking to each other, and so that's why I wasn't using a Breeders lineup. There was really no lineup at the time. So I began just like finding drummers. Me and Jim didn't start talking again till the Breeders put out the 20th edition of anniversary of Last Splash [in 2013]. The best thing about it was becoming friends with Jim again."
Deal says Dayton-based friendships and community are still central to her music, both solo and the with the Breeders.
"Everything happens in Dayton. And it has been since 1992, all of it has been written and done here. It's good. Friends of ours will come, they'll know that we're loading out, and they'll just help us take some guitars. You should see when the big busses come down the street and the neighborhood, the neighbor kids will come in on the bus and stuff like that. It's really exciting because nobody sees tour busses, you know? It's so exciting to get on one, you know? And my mom and dad, they loved it. They just loved it."
Kim Deal will perform at the Brightside in downtown Dayton on Thursday, February 20 to begin her tour for Nobody Loves You More. Tickets and more information are available here.
