Ersin Secrin is a man with a knack for gently drawing you into a story. “Holding on to You” starts softly, remains intimate for a while, then reveals its larger emotions – and that’s what makes it so rewarding when it pays off.
Ersin is not a performer; he is more of a songwriter and lyricist who gives singers the words, tone and direction of his compositions to be completed. The attention to the writing itself is evident here, in the way each line is carefully crafted. The piano opening provides a contemplative mood that immediately comes into the listener’s mind. It’s like reading something personal, before even a single word is sung. It’s really done with care and compassion to introduce this song.
The verses are like little confessions, each one making a contribution to a complicated story that is very human. It’s a tension beneath it, a real desire for something that you know you shouldn’t want. Once the chorus has been introduced, there is an opening. The strings swell, the melody rises and the emotion is released – it is not sudden, but the culmination of what has been happening in the previous minutes and seconds has been building towards this moment.
The bridge takes the experience to the next level, and lands on the kind of question that anyone who has ever been torn between two possibilities will know immediately. This is a straight sentence but it packs a punch because of what has preceded it. Toward the end of ‘Holding on to You’, you don’t feel like you’ve ever been further from an answer. Ersin Secrin has penned something that embodies a certain type of ache, and the crafting of it is easy to feel through its entirety.
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