INTERVIEW: Meg Duffy’s Cross Country Adventure with Hand Habits
09/23 @ Lark Hall, Albany
Photo by Jacob Boll
“To me, Blue Reminder feels like the most ‘me’ record that I’ve ever made. I didn’t make any compromises in terms of what I wanted to do or how I wanted to do it.”
Thomas Wolfe once wrote, “You can’t go home again,” and while the Lark Hall stage in Albany where they’ll perform this Tuesday night might not technically be home for Meg Duffy and Hand Habits, it’s pretty damn close. Duffy grew up in Amsterdam about a stone’s throw from the capital, and spent some time living in Albany, Saratoga, and Schenectady. They even spent time working at the legendary, now-defunct Valentine’s! So, yeah—you could say that Hand Habits’ ties to the Capital Region are pretty serious.
“I lived in the Capital District for a really long time, and from high school until I was about 24 I played in at least 10 different bands in the area,” Duffy told me. They attended Schenectady County Community College (SCCC) and began playing some jazz pickup gigs. It was a quest to expose themself to as many influences and collaborations as possible.
“I kind of just tried to play with everyone I could play with, every kind of music, and anyone that would have me.” It was during their time at SCCC that the concept of Hand Habits was born. While working at Hermie’s Music Store, Duffy began to get in touch with a lot of different influences through coworkers who exposed them to different types of hardcore and indie rock.
“I didn't really know what kind of music I wanted to make yet. I had so many iterations where Hand Habits was sort of like a poppy thing. Not like conventional pop, but like pop rock I guess.”
The direction of the band would remain fluid over time, leaning into a more rockified, Smashing Pumpkins-style sound with the influence of various members of another Albany band, Aficionado, such as Craig Dutra and Mike Cox. This iteration of Hand Habits led to an EP and some very DIY-style touring. Duffy also became involved with Saratoga-based independent label Eschatone Records around this time, which they described as a pivotal point in their artistic development. They took a bit of a step away from Hand Habits and slowly started the band Better Pills, rehearsing a couple of times a week and performing once in a while with that group. They also borrowed an Mbox mini audio interface from another Capital Region mainstay, Pony in the Pancake, and began making songs on their own again.
“I found this sort of joy in just doing stuff in my bedroom again,” they explained. “So I started writing these songs, and then didn't really tell anyone until I had already decided to move to LA.”
Duffy made the move to LA in 2015 to join Kevin Morby’s band. “When I got to LA and settled in, I was dropped into this amazing community,” they told me. “I toured with Kevin for about four years as part of his band and also restarted Hand Habits out here with a bunch of musicians. I started getting to play with musicians that I really admired, sort of by way of being in Kevin's band and by being fortunate enough to be dropped into such a very diverse and potent music scene.”
One of the things that was most striking about LA was that, despite this potency, the vibe was still so welcoming. Despite that, it could still be intimidating; being around so many amazing players meant that Duffy was no longer a big fish in a small pond, and forced them to raise their game even more. “I realized that you couldn't really walk out the door without running into a guitar player who's like 10 times better than you,” they explained. “But I got really fortunate and met so many great people here that welcomed me with open arms.”
Duffy describes the guitar community in LA as something beautiful. Players like Blake Mills, Harrison Whitford, Dylan Day and Ryan Richter became good friends and mentors. Reflecting on how they were able to rise through this lush and potent environment to their current status with Hand Habits (having recently released their fourth record), Duffy told me, “I got kind of lucky, and also—I was really hungry.” They were able to find studio session work as well as getting work as a member of bands like Perfume Genius. They credit their time in Perfume Genius with being vital to their growth as a musician.
Soon enough all of that networking paid off when a friend named Kevin Lareau of the band Quilt passed some of Duffy’s music along to a connection at Quilt’s label. A representative then reached out to Duffy about possibly making a record. “I was like, ‘I don't have enough songs to do a record!’ He told me we could make a record whenever we had enough.” That was when they remembered the old songs they’d made in their bedroom with the Mbox.
“I think I had, like, three songs at that point. Miraculously, this house that I found a room in had a basement where my friend Robbie lived,” they began. “There was this whole section of the basement that the guy who owned the house, who wasn't living there at the time, had all this music gear. So there was this guitar and a couple of microphones, a pair of bongos. I was like, ‘Great, I can use this stuff.’ I got a floor tom for $20 on Craigslist and I recorded the whole thing in that room by myself.” Those sessions became the first Hand Habits record, Wildly Idle (Humble Before the Void).
“I started playing some solo shows here. It felt so scary at the time,” they continued. “I started doing more tours as Hand Habits, and I was doing double duty opening for Kevin a couple of times. Now, I've put out my fourth record, and I'm on a different label now.”
That record is Blue Reminder, released on August 22nd through Fat Possum Records. Reflecting on the new album, Duffy told me it’s a culmination of that first record, the early recordings, and how they’ve grown along the way while staying authentic to themselves.
“I feel like if people are curious, they should just listen. To me, it feels like the most ‘me’ record that I’ve ever made. I didn’t make any compromises in terms of what I wanted to do or how I wanted to do it. I felt really calm with the choices I was making, and I feel like it takes a lot of time to get there [as an artist] because it’s hard to know what you want to make. It's hard to not imagine making something that other people will like and having that be the sort of moving target, but I wanted to make a record that I like this time and sort of remind myself why I like to make music.”
It’s that commitment to staying true to oneself that truly makes Meg Duffy stand out. Their creative journey has been about chasing what feels authentic at every turn, from humble beginnings as a local Capital District artist contributing time to way too many bands (as I know many of us can relate!) to making the difficult decision to chase their dreams across the country on the West Coast. Maybe, then, home is not a place at all. Maybe home is what we find when we figure out what kind of music we want to make.
Meg Duffy will make their return to the Capital Region with Hand Habits when they take the stage at Lark Hall on Tuesday, September 23rd with support from Fashion Club. You can get your tickets and more information here!
