After playing in other people’s bands and making two albums under the band Hand Habits, Meg Duffy is taking their music to new, adventurous territory. Their forthcoming album Fun House, which is due later this month, is the result of several life changes onset by the pandemic, and now, Duffy is ready for a breath of “Clean Air” with their latest single.
Along with releasing their new single “Clean Air,” Duffy shared a stirring video directed by V Haddad. It juxtaposes the song’s tenderhearted nature with the chaos of moshing bodies at a Hand Habits live performance, allowing Duffy to find serenity in disarray.
Speaking about their inspiration behind “Clean Air,” Duffy said, “When writing songs for Fun House, I had become exhausted and bored by the idea of writing more songs out of blame, spite, or anger. ‘Clean Air’ is about finding clarity, leaning into acceptance, and acknowledging someone else’s experience as truth without blame or resentment, even when it differs from our own.”
About the LP as a whole, Duffy recalls how the pandemic led them to discovering a different side of their music:
“When the pandemic happened, everything stopped. I had been touring consistently for five years, both on my own and playing in other people’s bands, so I wasn’t really writing a lot in between. It had been full pedal to the metal in terms of traveling and scheduling, which meant I really didn’t have a lot of time to think about how I felt or really check in with myself. Then, when the world basically stopped, it turned out to be the longest I’ve been alone in my entire life — without being in a relationship, without being on the road, without working myself to exhaustion — and the result was really like, holy shit. I slammed on the brakes and everything psychologically that I’d been pushing down and ignoring for the past few years suddenly flew to the foreground.”
Watch Hand Habits’ “Clean Air” video above and find their Fun House cover art and tracklist below.
1. “More Than Love”
2. “Aquamarine”
3. “Just To Hear You” Feat. Perfume Genius
4. “No Difference”
5. “Graves”
6. “False Start”
7. “Clean Air”
8. “Concrete & Feathers”
9. “The Answer”
10. “Gold/Rust”
11. “Control”
Fun House is out 10/22 via Saddle Creek. Pre-order it here.