 Courtesy: Missing Piece Group
Hailing from New Mexico, singer-songwriter Max Gomez recently released the follow-up to his debut album, Rule the World, entitled Me & Joe, in September. Produced by Jim Scott [Cash, Petty, Lucinda Williams] and featuring Williams’ collaborator Doug Pettibone (guitar) and Eric Clapton accompanist Greg Leisz (pedal steel), Me & Joe is a five-track collection that is enveloped in a gentle melodic warmth coupled with an emotional lyricism that will overwhelm your heart with love and hope...or break it, but somehow, in the best possible way. Gomez, currently on tour promoting the album, kindly took some time to speak about the record, working with Jim Scott, and more.
Your dad was a craftsman and you have said that you see similarities between what he does and what you do. How so? Well, let me rewind a bit and say that when I first started doing music on a professional level, these sort of questions, like how did you become a musician, how do you write, or is your family musical, would often come up. I never had answers for them, but over time I started to think about it. My dad is an artist, a painter, and a builder of fine old-fashioned New Mexican furniture. One day when I was younger, I was sitting in the woodshop watching him, and looking around at his cabinets, which were loaded with books on different types of furniture and making specific things like dovetail joints….and it made me sit back and realize that maybe I wasn’t so different from him because my little bookshelf was filled with books about musicians I looked up to, songs, music theory, and other things music. I started to connect that a little bit and laid that out as a little piece of my history and how it correlates to me feeling that that’s partly where my drive and self-education comes from. Even though it’s different from what I do, when I look at my old man and what he does, I see a reflection; and underneath it all, it feels very similar. 
Artists title their albums in various ways, how did yours come to be called Me & Joe?
I was sitting with a friend and we were kicking around titles, like using a title track, which is the easiest way out of that deal, when another friend mentioned how we had “Make It Me” and “Joe” which were kind of the meat and potatoes of this record, so why not call it Me & Joe…..and it stuck. I think it’s great; it’s grammatically incorrect and rolls off your tongue…it just feels perfect. "Joe" is the one song on the album you did not have a hand in writing. I wrote all the songs with the exception that some were co-written, but yes, “Joe” is only one I did not have any authorship on. My best friend Jed Zimmerman wrote that song which is sort of like a cult classic in our lives here in New Mexico; it's a song Jed never promoted or often plays, but it always stuck with our close friends. It was always the intention to put one cover song on the album and it was originally meant to be John Hartford’s “In Tall Buildings,” but when we were in the studio, someone suggested we play the “cocaine song” and about ten minutes later, we had the song completed. It was kind of a point and shoot moment and as fate would have it, I would venture to say it’s pretty well the best record I’ve ever made and the centerpiece of the record. While three of the other tracks are new, you brought back “Rule The World” which opened your previous album and now, closes it out here. “Rule The World” is the repeat offender. This project shapeshifted a few times. It was originally going to be an acoustic EP that was meant to fill the interim between the next album, but as things shifted, someone suggested putting “Rule The World” on there again. It's the song that was always meant to be a single from the first album, and the song that I could hang my hat on, but that never happened, so we felt it was our obligation to shine a little more light on it. Though it has a somber lost love tone, it’s a pretty positive and uplifting song if you think about it from a lyrical standpoint. The album as a whole, to me, has this warmth to it that alternates between heartache and hope. You worked with producer Jim Scott to achieve the feel of the project. How did that come to be and what did he bring to the album? My friend Gary [Briggs] had been telling me about Jim for years and finally, I went and met him about A year ago. We talked about my main concern, which was how we were going to record and what approach we were going to take. For example, would we do things the modern digital way, record live, or piece it together, which are the basic questions you ask before recording; just like if you were buying a car you'd ask if it has 4WD or if it’ll go 80mph down the interstate (laughing). So, I was asking these questions, and his answers were beyond what I wanted to hear. At the end of the meeting, Jim said he was all in. We got together, made the record in two days and then on the third, we mixed, added harmony vocals and we were done. It just seemed too easy, and it almost was in a way. Sounds like a great collaboration; you would work with him again? Oh, yeah. Currently, I’m only working on touring, but I have a dream in the back of my head that next year, later in 2018, I’ll be able to go back to LA and record a handful of new songs with Jim and figure out a new record. That’s my goal. Speaking of touring, is that how you will close out the remainder of 2017? I am on tour all November with a handful of special shows in New Mexico around the holidays, and I have shows in December in Baja California, Mexico. Finally, I always like to know if there is a recent album you cannot stop listening to and recommend others check out? One new thing I have been listening to is the Michael Kiwanuka record, Love & Hate, which is a stone- cold hit, but other than that, I seldom listen to more than thirty seconds of new records. I listen to old stuff, and my new Hank Williams is a guy named Paul Clayton. He’s a true American folk singer who made records all his life and died of suicide in the 60’s. The one album of his that I listen to a lot is Home-Made Songs and Ballads. In closing, is there anything else you would like to add? Doing this on a really indie level with a new label is a new venture for me, but for that reason, we all worked a little closer, ended up hanging out, and became this pretty tight-knit family. So, I’d like to put in a thanks to Jim, the band, and my dark guardian angel Gary, who has been with me from the beginning, for helping me make this record. I owe credit and thanks to these guys because I couldn’t have done it without them. For more information visit his official website Find him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Purchase Me & Joe HERE
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