Hand Habits

Hand Habits is the project of Los Angeles-based songwriter Meg Duffy, and the music they make occupies a space between folk, chamber pop, and ambient texture that resists easy categorization. Duffy has been releasing music under the Hand Habits name since 2017, building a small but devoted following through three albums and a consistent presence on the margins of the indie world.

Before their solo work, Duffy was known primarily as a touring guitarist for Kevin Morby, a role that gave them visibility and experience without fully conveying what they were doing on their own. Wildly Idle (Humble Before the Void) in 2017 introduced the Hand Habits aesthetic: understated arrangements, a voice that sits back in the mix without disappearing, and lyrics that approach emotional subjects obliquely rather than directly.

placeholder in 2019 and Fun House in 2022 developed that approach while allowing the production to expand. Fun House, in particular, brought more electronic texture and a wider sonic palette without abandoning the intimacy that made the earlier work distinctive. It received significant critical attention and is probably the entry point most listeners should start with.

Duffy writes about identity and relationships with a specificity that avoids both sentimentality and distance. The music asks a certain kind of patience from its listeners, and rewards that patience in ways that are difficult to describe but immediate to experience. Hand Habits is the kind of project that accrues listeners slowly and keeps them permanently.