"Holding On to You" is a song by American musical duo Twenty One Pilots from their second studio album Regional at Best (2011). It was re-recorded for their third studio album and major-label debut, Vessel (2013) and released as their debut single. "Holding On to You" features upbeat rhythms and bouncy suspended chords over which Tyler Joseph delivers scattershot raps with down-to-earth sentiments and sings grandiose, euphoric choruses. The track's indie-inspired synth-pop transforms from a sensitive ballad to a hip-hop number with rapped verses and codas. The song contains lyrical elements of "Lean wit It, Rock wit It" by Dem Franchize Boyz. Lyrically, "Holding on to You" is an ode to self-control. It addresses "the claiming of one's own life and holding onto your values." The song's lyrics express introspective lines as well as a sentiment about taking back control of one's own mind, lost to mental health.
The song was released as the lead single from Vessel on September 11, 2012. It impacted rock and alternative radio in 2012 and later mainstream radio in the following year. Upon its release, "Holding On to You" received universal acclaim from contemporary music critics. An accompanying music video for the single was directed by Jordan Bahat and released on November 15, 2012. The video exhibits a mixing of an abstract blend of a live-shoot and radical stage performances. It features smoke, ballerinas and other contemporary dancers who wear skeleton facepaint and makeup while swaying and weaving their bodies around Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun as they perform the song. The music video for "Holding On to You" was praised for its choreography, and Twenty One Pilots was subsequently nominated for the Artist to Watch award at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards.
Background The origin of "Holding On to You" was revealed by lead vocalist Tyler Joseph during a special SiriusXM event on January 17, 2019. With only a piano, Joseph played an intimate, career-spanning set list of stripped-down songs before one-hundred fans of Twenty One Pilots. The performances were part of SiriusXM's Town Hall special with the duo on Alt Nation, accompanied by story-telling and followed by a Q&A session featuring both Joseph and bandmate Josh Dun, which was hosted by SiriusXM's Jeff Regan. Before performing the song, Joseph shared how he had been looking in his journal to prepare for the special and remembered where his mindspace was. A journal entry from 2010 detailed how he was uncertain of the band's direction at the time and contemplating abandoning his musical dream. However, Joseph started on a new song that had the working title "Entertain My Faith" and got very excited about it, so he decided to keep working. Originally named "Entertain My Faith", the song subsequently became "Holding On to You". Joseph said it was really cool to watch where he was when he wrote the song and see what it has become for both him as well as other people.
"Holding On to You" originally appeared on Regional at Best before becoming the first single from the band's major-label debut album Vessel. After expanding their audience with a series of music videos directed by their friend Mark Eshleman, Twenty One Pilots grew and captured the attention of the major record labels. In 2012, once they signed to the Atlantic subsidiary label Fueled by Ramen, the band released their Three Songs EP and began working with record producer Greg Wells on their debut studio album, Vessel. A mixture of songs from their previous EPs in addition to new tracks, the album was released in January 2013 and featured "Holding On to You" as one of its singles. "Holding On to You" was one of five songs retrieved from the band's sophomore release, Regional at Best (2011). The track's record production received polishing by Wells for inclusion on Vessel.
Recording "Holding On to You" was produced by Greg Wells and recorded at Rocket Carousel Studio in Los Angeles, California. It is one of five songs reclaimed from the band's sophomore release, Regional at Best (2011). The track's record production received polishing by Wells for inclusion on Vessel (2013). Twenty One Pilots saw a progression from rough demo versions on self-released recordings of Regional at Best to glossy, radio-friendly production on Vessel, handled by Wells. In an interview with HuffPost, the duo described what their progression from creating an EP into doing a full-length album was like. According to Tyler Joseph, "Regional At Best really is just a glorified mix-tape that we used as a background to solidifying fans, and it's been kind of our follow through. When you start a band, you need to have some sort of music for people to go home with. I sat down in my studio, and man, I cranked out songs." Regarding the track's engineering, when they entered the recording studio, there remained much of the same programming and vocals. The vocals for "Holding on to You" were the same ones that Joseph recorded in his basement before Twenty One Pilots ever got signed. They were able to take and insert those files where they needed to be in the mix.
The recording is a realizing of the band's pop sensibilities, bending parts of mainstream pop towards more introspective ends. During an interview with Rock Sound, Tyler Joseph provided insight into each song on the band's forthcoming album Vessel. He elaborated, "I've always just seen it as one big body of work but to have 'Holding On to You' kind of be the focus track makes sense to me. It does stand in the middle of what to expect from ushaving to do with a lot of different genres, the melody in this song is digestible and it's one of my favourite chord progressions I've ever done. I like that the chorus only happens twice in the song which is a big no no! You are supposed to do it four or five times especially if you want to see a lot of success and have your songs on Super Bowl commercials."
Composition "Holding On to You" is a hip-pop song that runs for a duration of four minutes and twenty-three seconds. The musical composition features indie-inspired synth-pop and transforms from a sensitive ballad to a hip-hop number with rapped verses. It is an energetic track that spans a range of genres while the band manages to compact several sounds into it. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by EMI Music Publishing, it is written in the time signature of common time, with a moderate tempo of 90 beats per minute. "Holding On to You" is composed in the key of B Major, while Tyler Joseph's vocal range spans one octave and four notes from a low F3 to a high of B4. The song has a basic sequence of Bsus2/G–Bsus2/F–B/E–Bsus2 in the verses and outro, changes to E–Gm–B–F–Cm at the chorus, maintains Gm–F/A–B–E during the interlude and follows Gm–F–E–B at the bridge as its chord progression. The track contains lyrical elements of "Lean wit It, Rock wit It" by Dem Franchize Boyz.
Opening with forceful rap verses, the infectious musical arrangement swiftly segues into piano-led chorus lines that build emotion. "Holding On to You" retains a sleek groove built on the immense beats and brunt electro-pop coursing through hooks, in addition to bouncy suspended chords. The song's instrumentation mixes squelchy synths, zippy keyboards and melodic guitars. The track features upbeat rhythms over which Joseph recites scattershot raps and ecstatic choruses with a catchy delivery and overwrought vocals. His vocal stylings compound rap with rock-oriented singing during the grandiose, spirit-lifting refrains. Josh Dun's drumming provides a rhythm, playing in a relentless punk-inspired fashion.
Lyrically, "Holding On to You" is an ode to self-control. The song addresses "claiming one's own life and holding onto your values." It delivers a plethora of contemplative lines as well as a sentiment about taking back control of one's own mind, lost to mental health. "Holding On to You" presents a different take from Joseph on battling depression, one with a more overtly spiritual subtext. His lyrics emphatically encourage listeners to fight self-doubt, with Joseph instructing, "Take the pain / Ignite it / Tie a noose around your mind / Loose enough to breathe fine and tie it". His down-to-earth lyrical sentiments punctuate the song's musical elements, arriving in energetic rap codas. Joseph passionately criticizes meaningless music on "Holding On to You", rapping the lines, "Lean with it. Rock with it. When we gonna stop with it? / Lyrics that mean nothing / We were gifted with thought / Is it time to move our feet to an introspective beat". They illustrate his use of clever wordplay on music beats and heartbeats in order to encourage listeners to look inward and impart a lesson of listening to one's own heart: "It ain't the speakers that bump hearts, it's our hearts that make the beat."
Release and promotion "Holding On to You" was released by Twenty One Pilots as their debut single. It was released as the lead single of their third studio album Vessel. The track originally appeared on "Regional at Best" before becoming the first single from "Vessel". "Holding On to You" was released as the first single from Vessel in the iTunes Store worldwide on September 11, 2012 but was first released on Twenty One Pilots's PureVolume account on September 7, 2012. The song impacted alternative radio on December 4, 2012, and released to mainstream radio on June 11, 2013.
In an interview with Rock Sound, Tyler Joseph gave his thoughts on the single release. He imparted, "We live in a world where there are singles and to think that way is very foreign to me... I've never thought 'Here's my single and here's all the other songs.' I've always just seen Vessel as one big body of work but to have 'Holding On to You' kind of be the focus track makes sense to me."
"Holding On to You" was released as the sixth song on the track-listing the second disc of their live album Blurryface Live. The album was released exclusively on vinyl record format as opposed to digital or compact disc on November 25, 2016. On Thanksgiving weekend, Twenty One Pilots decided to finish off the year with a vinyl-only live album recorded a month prior during their Emotional Roadshow World Tour. Blurryface Live is derived from their October 18, 2016 concert at Fox Oakland Theatre in Oakland, California.
Critical reception