Tyler Joseph
Holding on to You (Bonus Commentary)
This next song is called Holding on to You and — if I’m being honest with you — I’ve never been super pumped on the name. I didn’t really know what else to call it other than just taking the words that I say most in the song and naming it. I always get this weird… like, 80’s rock vibe from the title of the song, which has always bothered me, but since then have gotten over. I remember the riff for the song "Holding on to You" — I can see it now, on the piano, on the keys. I’m very visual when I write music and I remember I accidentally jumped over a few notes when I was tryna figure out just the riff and I didn’t think it worked. Then I listened to it again and actually the riff anticipates the chord progression in a really nice way and then I fell in love with it. And then obviously, this is one of our key tracks that has been on this album that Josh and I — the other guy in my band — we’re a little… we don’t really know what it means exactly to have a single out because we’ve always just worked on a body of work, but this is one of those songs where we have to introduce ourselves and say “This is kind of who we are.” You know, this is one of those songs that’s kind of a staple for us.