Songfacts®:

• In 2002 Kim Deal's mother Ann was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and Deal moved back to Dayton, Ohio, to help care for her. But as anyone who's been in a caregiving role knows, life has a way of throwing curveballs. In early 2020, Deal thought she'd found a brief respite in Florida, treating it as a writing retreat. That retreat, however, was cut short when Ann's condition worsened, calling her back to Dayton. Ann passed away just before the world shut down for COVID.
  
  Somewhere amid all this, there was a moment - one of those simple, weighty exchanges that stick with you. Deal recalled to Mojo magazine how one day her mother stopped her in the hallway and asked, "Are you my baby?" She didn't remember Kim's name, but there was something deeper than names at work.
  
  "It was more than 'who are you?'" Deal said. "She meant, 'Were you my baby doll?' It just showed that the strand of motherhood actually can endure. Even with the mind completely gone, and all notion of what a family might be gone, there was still some umbilical cord there."
  
  That moment became "Are You Mine?," a song soaked in warmth, love, and the strange resilience of human connection. "I wanted to live in it," Deal said. "To think about it, to understand it. And, you know, it's a good love song too."
• Written in 2011, Deal first released "Are You Mine?" as a solo single in 2013 soon after leaving the Pixies. In 2024, the song found a new home on her debut solo album, Nobody Loves You More.
• Nobody Loves You More garnered significant critical acclaim and was ranked in year-end lists by music publications. Mojo placed it at #6 and Uncut at #42 in their best albums of 2024.
• Deal produced the track and also played guitar and keyboards. The following musicians joined her:
  
  Susan Voelz: violin, string arranger
  Paul Mertens: clarinet, flute, wind arranger
  Dave Easley: pedal steel guitar
  Mando Lopez: bass
  Lindsay Glover: drums
  
  Some of these names may ring a bell. Both Voelz and Mertens are members of Poi Dog Pondering, the long-running, genre-blending band known for their lush, orchestral arrangements. Mando Lopez was the bassist in Deal's group The Breeders from 2000 to 2012.
• The 2024 recording of "Are You Mine?" is elevated by romantic, yearning strings, bittersweet against the painfully raw lyrics. "This was a total re-recording," Deal told Uncut magazine. "I originally tracked it on a Tascam 388, but I lost channel eight, which had the guitars on it. I tried to save it, but it was gone. I even went to a proper studio and had them transfer it on to a 16-track reel, but it was nowhere to be found. The recording was always a little bit broken, although I thought it sounded cool."