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Meg Duffy began building a reputation as a session musician and touring guitarist for singer/songwriters including
Kevin Morby while developing the songwriting outlet
Hand Habits. Begun as a home-recorded solo venture, dreamy, delicately textured guitar songs first surfaced on a split EP in 2014.
Hand Habits had expanded into a band by the arrival of the project's second album, 2019's
Placeholder, and two years later, the
SASAMI-produced Fun House combined
Duffy's reflective folk-leaning instincts with elements of synth pop and dance-rock.
A native of upstate New York based in Los Angeles,
Duffy's first release as
Hand Habits was the split EP Small Shifts/Living with Abbreviation with the band Peg. It was released on Eschatone Records in early 2014.
Duffy spent several months over the next couple of years backing West Coast-based songwriters
Kevin Morby and
Mega Bog (
Erin Birgy) on tour. As a guitarist,
Duffy also played on albums by
Weyes Blood and
Amber Arcades that saw release in 2016. Later that year,
Hand Habits signed with the Woodsist label, home of albums by
Morby,
Little Wings, and
Real Estate, to name a few. Titled
Wildly Idle (Humble Before the Void),
Hand Habits' self-produced debut arrived on the label in early 2017. That year,
Duffy also contributed slide guitar to
the War on Drugs' album
A Deeper Understanding and performed multiple instruments on
Morby's
City Music.
Defining the project as a group instead of a solo alias,
Hand Habits returned in 2019 with a fuller but still intimate sound on
Placeholder, issued on Saddle Creek Records.
Duffy's other credits that year included playing electric guitar on
William Tyler's
Goes West, an album that also featured
Bill Frisell. After a 2020
Hand Habits collaboration with
Jess Williamson, they returned with Dirt EP in February 2021. In the meantime,
Duffy played guitar on albums by
Morby,
Vagabon, and
Sylvan Esso, among others.
Hand Habits' third album, Fun House, followed on Saddle Creek before the end of 2021. Produced by
SASAMI (
Sasami Ashworth) and engineered by
King Tuff's
Kyle Thomas, it put synths, strings, and even dance beats into play. ~ Marcy Donelson