‘I’m intrigued by failure’: Kim Deal on death, addiction – and releasing her debut solo album at 63

That writing has become a solo album – her first, Nobody Loves You More, due in November. Deal, finally, is on the sleeve. She agreed to it on the basis that it would be “a good shot”, so she enlisted the artist Alex Da Corte to take her picture: on a podium, out at sea, with a guitar, an amp and a flamingo for company. It’s inspired by a photo of the Dutch performance artist Bas Jan Ader’s attempt to cross the Atlantic in 1975. He set sail from Massachusetts in a tiny boat “and they never saw him again”, says Deal. “He’s dead because he’s fantasised this journey.”