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

The 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".

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.

In 2013, Deal left the 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.

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,[4] and grew up listening to hard rock bands such as AC/DC and Led Zeppelin.

[5] 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.

She eventually earned an associate degree in medical technology from Kettering College[8] and took several jobs in cellular biology, including working in a hospital laboratory and a biochemical lab.

[10] 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.

[11] 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.

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

[15] During a 1988 post-Surfer Rosa tour of Europe with Throwing Muses as part of the Pixies, Deal began to write new material.

As neither band had plans for the short term, Deal discussed possible side-projects with Throwing Muses guitarist Tanya Donelly.

Pod was praised by contemporaries; Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain later named the album one of his favorites and remarked, "I wish Kim was allowed to write more songs for the Pixies.

[20] A year after the Pixies' breakup, Kelley Deal joined the Breeders on lead guitar, replacing Donelly, and the band released Last Splash to critical acclaim and considerable commercial success.

At the height of the Breeders' popularity in the early-mid 1990s, the band scored a number of hit music videos featured heavily on MTV, including "Cannonball", "Safari", "Divine Hammer", and "Saints."

Deal has contributed her voice to numerous projects, including This Mortal Coil's 1991 version of Chris Bell's "You and Your Sister" (a duet with Tanya Donnelly); the 1995 Sonic Youth single "Little Trouble Girl"; and the For Carnation's "Tales (Live from the Crypt)" in 2000.

In 2004, Deal returned to the newly reunited Pixies, releasing the single "Bam Thwok" and touring North America.

[23] In December 2012, Deal played a solo set at the All Tomorrow's Parties "Nightmare Before Christmas" festival in the UK, debuting several new songs.

[27] In the following months, the Breeders also collaborated on multiple tracks of Courtney Barnett's May 2018 album Tell Me How You Really Feel, with Kim and Kelley singing backing vocals on the singles "Nameless, Faceless" and "Crippling Self-Doubt and a General Lack of Confidence".

In August 2024, Deal announced the pending release date November 22 of her debut solo album Nobody Loves You More noting it contains several collaborations.