Kim Deal

Kimberley Ann Deal (born June 10, 1961) is an American musician.

She was the original bassist and co-vocalist in the alternative rock band Pixies from 1986 to 1993 and 2004 to 2013, and is the frontwoman of the Breeders, which she formed in 1989.

Deal joined Pixies in January 1986, adopting the stage name Mrs. John Murphy for the albums Come on Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa.

Following Doolittle and the Pixies' hiatus, she formed the Breeders with Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses, Josephine Wiggs of The Perfect Disaster, and Britt Walford of Slint; following the band's debut album Pod, her twin sister Kelley Deal replaced Donelly.

Deal became the bassist and backing vocalist for the Pixies in January 1986, after answering an advertisement in the Boston Phoenix that read, "Band seeks bassist into Hüsker Dü and Peter, Paul and Mary. Please – no Chops."

Deal's was the only response, even though her main instrument was guitar.

She borrowed her sister Kelley's bass guitar to use in the band.

To complete the lineup, she suggested they hire David Lovering, a friend of her husband whom she'd met at their wedding reception, as drummer.

For the release of the band's first recording Come on Pilgrim (1987), Deal used the nom de disque "Mrs. John Murphy" in the liner notes, chosen as an ironic feminist joke, after conversing with a woman who wished to be called only by her husband's name.

For Surfer Rosa (1988), Deal sang lead vocals on the album's only single, "Gigantic", which she co-wrote with frontman Black Francis.

Doolittle followed a year later, with Deal contributing the song "Silver".

By this time, however, tensions began to develop between her and Francis, with bickering and standoffs between the two marring the album's recording sessions.

Deal commented that the sessions "went from just all fun to work".

Exhaustion from releasing three records in two years and constant touring contributed to intra-band friction, particularly between Francis and Deal.

The tension and exhaustion culminated at the end of the US "Fuck or Fight" tour, where they were too tired to attend the end-of-tour party.

Pixies broke up in early 1993, and Deal returned her focus to the Breeders, who released the platinum-selling album Last Splash in 1993, featuring the popular single "Cannonball".

In 1994, the Breeders went on hiatus after Kelley entered drug rehabilitation.

During the band's hiatus, Deal adopted the stage name Tammy Ampersand and formed the short-lived rock band the Amps, recording a single album, Pacer, in 1995.

After her own stint in drug rehabilitation, Deal eventually reformed the Breeders with a new line-up for two more albums, Title TK in 2002 and Mountain Battles in 2008.

During that time, she also returned to Pixies when the band reunited in 2004.

In 2013, Deal left Pixies to concentrate on the Breeders, after that band's most famous line-up reunited for a new series of tours celebrating the 20th anniversary of Last Splash.

In 2018, the Breeders released their fifth album All Nerve, the first album to reunite the Deals, Wiggs, and Macpherson since Last Splash.

Deal was born in Dayton, Ohio, United States.

Her father was a laser physicist who worked at the nearby Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Kim and her identical twin sister Kelley were introduced to music at a young age; the two sang to a "two-track, quarter-inch, tape" when they were "four or five" years old, and grew up listening to hard rock bands such as AC/DC and Led Zeppelin.

When Deal was 11, she learned Roger Miller's "King of the Road" on the acoustic guitar.

Attending Wayne High School in suburban Huber Heights, she was a cheerleader and often got into conflicts with authority.

"We were popular girls," according to Kelley.

"We got good grades and played sports."

Still, growing up in Dayton was "like living in Russia", according to Kim.

A friend of Kelley's living in California sent the Deals cassettes of artists such as James Blood Ulmer, the Undertones, Elvis Costello, Sex Pistols and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

"These tapes were our most treasured possession, the only link with civilization," Kim later recalled.

As a teenager, she formed a folk rock band with her sister.

She then became a prolific songwriter, as she found it easier to write songs than cover them.

Deal later commented on her songwriting output: "I got like a hundred songs when I was like 16, 17 ... The music is pretty good, but the lyrics are just like, OH MY GOD [sic]. We were just trying to figure out how blue rhymes with you. When I was writing them, they didn't have anything to do with who I was."

The Deals bought microphones, an eight-track tape recorder, a mixer, speakers, and amps for a bedroom studio.

According to Kelley, the two "had the whole thing set up by the time we were 17."

They later bought a drum machine "so it would feel like we were more in a band."

Deal attended seven different colleges following high school, including Ohio State University, but did not graduate from any of them.

She eventually earned an associate degree in medical technology from Kettering College and took several jobs in cellular biology, including working in a hospital laboratory and a biochemical lab.