Tanya Donelly on Belly, Breeders, and Throwing Muses

From Teenage Gigs with Kristin Hersh to the Breeders with Kim Deal and ’90s Belly Fame: Tanya Donelly Reflects on the Journey

Tanya Donelly began making music with her step-sister as a teenager. Her step-sister happens to be Kristin Hersh, and their collaboration turned into Throwing Muses, which was the first American band signed to the 4AD label, 1986. She played on the band’s first four albums, and left in 1991 to commit more time to the Breeders, a band she had formed with Pixies bassist Kim Deal.

Donelly reveals that the Breeders and her next band, Belly enjoyed a strange intersection before Belly’s “Star” debut in 1993. Donelly also reveals a little bit about why not all of the members from the formative line-up appear in the video below.

In conversation, Donelly touches upon everybody mentioned below, however, host Pat Healy erroneously identifies the movie Twister as something that stars actress Laura Dern. It’s really Helen Hunt. He regrets this error.