Although guitarist Gregory Uhlmann has long been a part of Meg Duffy’s Hand Habits band, the two have recently begun exploring folk music outside of the confines of pop songwriting. 2023’s debut Duffy x Uhlmann LP saw the two guitarists in improvisational conversation with each other as they wove together expansive yet minimalist tapestries of ambient-folk music in between Hand Habits’ gradual glow-up to the dream-pop project revealed on 2025’s Blue Reminder. That experiment picks up again today with the release of their new single “Doing It for Me,” a relatively short acoustic-electronic sketch that lacks any of the brooding uncertainty heard throughout Doubles.
The title itself positions “Doing It for Me” as a mantra of sorts for two artists leaning into a form of joint creative expression that obviously isn’t gunning for any type of commercial success. Regarding the new track, poet, biographer, and friend of the band Rosie Stockton notes that the single “winks” to the sense of collaboration at the heart of Duffy x Uhlmann, “a palimpsest-like collective of two individuals trying to reach each other,” they explain. “Here, they establish a rhythmic base that feels like a time-lapse bloom and ends with a swirling gallop, and slowly introduce bubbling guitar riffs that pirouette before becoming part of the ensemble of inside jokes and shifting moods.”
Hear the song for yourself below via the visualizer illustrated by Christina Huang. “Doing It for Me” is out now via Orindal Records, and you can catch the duo live in Pasadena on August 19 at Sid the Cat—find tickets here.
