Meg Duffy is an American musician and guitarist who has played as a studio musician on records by The War on Drugs, Weyes Blood, Perfume Genius, Sasami, and William Tyler, among many others. Duffy was also a longtime member of Kevin Morby's live band, and is the sole member of indie-rock band Hand Habits.
Background
Duffy is originally from Amsterdam, New York, and first started playing guitar at 17, although they had played drums since 5th grade. After graduating from high school, Duffy attended Schenectady County Community College for guitar performance. After graduating from college they briefly relocated to Albany, New York, prior to joining Morby's band in Los Angeles, California. Duffy uses non-binary gender-neutral pronouns.
Session work
Duffy is credited on a number of albums as a session musician. They played a slide guitar solo on "Holding On" off The War on Drugs' Grammy-winning album A Deeper Understanding, and in 2019 they played on William Tyler's instrumental album Goes West. Duffy contributed guitar, slide guitar, and bass on the albums Fading Lines (2016) and European Heartbreak (2018) by Dutch artist Amber Arcades. Duffy played slide guitar on "Seven Words", a 2016 track from the album Front Row Seat to Earth by Weyes Blood. Duffy appeared on Mega Bog's albums Happy Together (2017) and Dolphine (2019). Duffy was a regular member of indie rock musician Kevin Morby's live band from 2015 to 2018, and played guitar, piano, and bass on his 2017 album City Music.
Duffy collaborated with music Jenn Wasner on Wasner's second album as Flock of Dimes, Head of Roses. They are also heavily featured in Sylvan Esso's expanded live band from their WITH tour, of which a full-length concert film and double LP WITH was released. Duffy also performed on the follow-up EP, WITH LOVE.
Their other latest credits include playing guitar on SASAMI's 2022 album Squeeze, Christian Lee Hutson's Quitters, Weyes Blood's And In the Darkness, Hearts Aglow, Mega Bog's Life, and Another, and many more.
Equipment
Duffy plays a Fender Lone Star Stratocaster with a rosewood fretboard. The guitar is set up with Seymour Duncan pickups in a HSS configuration (a single coil at the neck position, a single coil in the middle position and a humbucker at the bridge position.), also known as a “fat strat”.
Hand Habits
Duffy is the founder, primary songwriter, and only permanent member of the Los Angeles-based band Hand Habits. Their first release as Hand Habits was a 2012 split record titled Small Shifts (included as part of the pinky demos). On September 25, 2015, Hand Habits released double EPs titled This Sounds Like Nothing Tonight and This Sounds Like Nothing Before. Their first full length record Wildly Idle (Humble Before the Void) was released by Woodsist Records in 2017. Wildy Idle was self-produced by Duffy and recorded partially in Saugerties, New York and partially at their home in Highland Park. Kevin Morby said about the album: "Wildly Idle feels incredibly intimate, like a secret between her and the listener. It hits soft, like warm water, and before you know it it is all around you – a bath, and Meg's whisper has made its way inside you". In reviewing the album for Pitchfork, Quinn Moreland wrote: "Duffy sings of romances come and gone without ever sounding jaded or spiteful; future love promises a mystery, a sensuality that’s open like the road".
On March 1, 2019 Hand Habits released their second studio album, placeholder, produced by Brad Cook in Justin Vernon's Wisconsin studio. Duffy stated that the songs on placeholder "are about accountability and forgiveness .... These are all real stories. I don't fictionalize much".
In 2020, Hand Habits released singles "Pictures of Flowers", a collaboration with Jess Williamson, and "Comfortable", a collaboration with Ryan Hemsworth. They released their EP dirt in February 2021, and in June of that same year, they released the singles "motherless" and "no reply", produced by Luke Temple and Jeremy Harris.
Duffy's collaborative project with producer Joel Ford, yes/and, debuted with a self-titled album in July 2021.