Max Gomez is more than your average Joe…

The Latino singer-songwriter has released the official music video for his new single “Joe,” which encompasses everything about the young artist that his fans have come to love: his distinctive “old soul” voice, his love of his city of Nashville and his lyrics that call to mind the likes of Jackson Browne and John Prine.

“Joe,” a track from his recently-released EP Me & Joe, tells the story of someone who struggles with things like “running from the past” and being able to hold his head high.

Throughout the EP, the mysterious character is mentioned as Gomez’s counterpart. The song titled after him is an exercise, then, in learning from the lives of people around you — real or imagined.

When it comes to who “Joe” is, Gomez in his classic style reveals that Joe is an allegory: “To me, Joe is someone who wants to do good but can’t. I think a lot of people go through his same struggle in different ways. Joe tells you who he is throughout the song, and he isn’t shy.”

The video was created with “Gems on VHS” and matches the mood of the song: Gomez pensively sings (live, it’s worth noting) in an abandoned industrial building in Nashville at sunset. As to the video’s conception and Gomez’s satisfaction with how it all came together and turned out: “I sing ‘Joe’ for Jed Zimmerman; he’s the author of the song and one of my dearest friends… This performance was recorded live in Nashville with Anthony Simpkins. I knew Anthony was great at what he did just from meeting him. As we filmed, we caught the tail end of daylight as the sun set over Nashville.”