Banyan Hold the Line on “Holding On To The End”

“Holding On To The End” comes in two versions: a 3:20 original and a 5:11 extended mix for anyone who wants to stay in it longer. Michael Saenz and Logan Gomez wrote it with Jack Luke Kenworthy, and Six Hills carries the feature. The title fits Banyan perfectly. This is a duo that has always made music about staying with people, and with feelings, a little longer than is comfortable.

It follows “Ether,” which Indie Shuffle picked up in August, and it keeps the same warm, unhurried pulse. Their own description of what music does for them says it best: “Music helps us transmute the hard times into something more beautiful.”

Saenz and Gomez bonded at their first festival together, Rothbury in 2009, and spent a while dreaming about starting a jam band. In 2016, Michael was apprenticing as an audio engineer under a former Allman Brothers soundman, and the studio happened to have two rooms for rent. They took them, and Banyan began. Michael leads composition and mixing. Logan handles the tech and business side and brings what they call the listener’s perspective.

Since then they have remixed Mild Minds’ “HAUNTED” for ODESZA’s Foreign Family Collective, picked up their first plays on BBC Radio 1 Dance and Capital Chill, and taken “Let Go” with Jyll to number one on SiriusXM Chill. For two kids from a freshman dorm, that is quite a run.

Start with the original edit, then put on the extended mix when you have five minutes to spare. It is a song about holding on, from two friends who clearly never let go of each other.