This is a story about The Breeders, which can be traced back to the Pixies and Throwing Muses, which can then be traced back to the late-80s Icelandic alt-rock band The Sugarcubes, one of Björk’s early groups. Going by this logic, it’s possible to claim that Björk is tangentially responsible for The Breeders.
But there’s more to it than that. And actually, the story is simpler than one might expect. The Breeders emerged in 1990 with their debut album Pod, after Kim Deal of The Pixies and Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses formed the group the year before.
It began when The Pixies and Throwing Muses went on a joint tour in 1988. When the bands returned to the States after touring Europe, Deal and Donelly went to see The Sugarcubes play in Boston. Here’s where Björk comes in, you might be thinking. Maybe The Sugarcubes were so good that Deal and Donelly decided to start their own band right then and there.
The Breeders Emerged With ‘No Real Goal’ At First, But the Songs Soon Started Coming Together
That’s sort of what happened. But the inspiration was actually the dance music playing in the venue between sets. While in Europe, Deal and Donelly had discovered a mutual love of the club scene and would often go out dancing. So, some transitional dance music at a Sugarcubes show was apparently the catalyst for The Breeders.
The decision to start their own band allegedly occurred during that fateful Sugarcubes concert. But there’s speculation that both Kim Deal and Tanya Donelly had been feeling unsatisfied with playing second fiddle in their respective bands. Deal typically had less creative input in The Pixies than Black Francis. While in Throwing Muses, Donelly often played a supportive role to vocalist Kristen Hersh.
The main theory is that the two formed The Breeders to regain a sense of creative agency. Originally, the idea they came up with while drunk dancing to club music at The Sugarcubes show was to make their own dance album.
“We started writing songs,” Donelly told WGBH in 2018. “There was no clear goal for it, we were just sort of doing it, and then the songs really started to come together. We’re both big fans of the disco, and originally we were going to try to make dance music. We quickly found out that we were incapable of doing so.”
When Deal and Donelly really started putting the work in, Pod came together beautifully. In 2022, Donelly recalled the experience of working on the album with Deal.
“It was a singular recording experience in my life,” she said. “Kim and I really supported each other in moving on from where we were [by making the album]. I think of it as really a watermark in my life for that reason. It was a gift that we gave to each other.”
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