Tyler Ballgame, Rough Trade Records’ astonishingly gifted, infectious crooner has released his debut album For the First Time, Again. A bracing reminder of how great songs delivered by a gifted vocalist can move, captivate and inspire, it boasts 12 finely crafted tunes rooted in classic rock, indie and Americana. Ballgame’s infectious melodies draw the listener into a story, and his message of belief in one’s true self resonates deep and wide.
Praise for Tyler Ballgame
“Mesmeric… the kind of easy, confident performance that feels like alchemy” -The Guardian
★★★★★ –The Times of London, Live Review
The album’s lead single, the rhapsodic Lennon-meets-Orbison ‘I Believe In Love’ was released with a video by Ballgame’s friends and roommates Joey Casale and Victoria Gagnaire Stein. Recorded live, the song is the first one that Ballgame wrote explicitly knowing there would be a record and that it would change his life. “I had met [producer Jonathan] Rado and he told me to write the biggest song in the world, so I sat down at my kitchen table for two days and put the puzzle of the composition together. It’s turned into an anthem about love of love and the fools it makes,” he explains.
For the First Time, Again was recorded with acclaimed indie producer-multi-instrumentalists Jonathan Rado (Foxygen, Miley Cyrus, Weyes Blood) and Ryan Pollie (Los Angeles Police Department). Known as unapologetic “analog fetishists,” Rado and Pollie shape the sonics of Ballgame’s work with propulsive acoustic guitar, soulful rhythms, colorful keyboards, occasional horns, and lush harmonies, all rendered with the same recording technology as in classic albums of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Drummer Amy Aileen Wood (Fiona Apple) and bassist Wayne Whitaker contribute mightily to the pulse and character of the album.
Second single, ‘Got a New Car’ came with a video directed and produced by his friends and roommates Joey Casale and Victoria Gagnaire Stein, the video for ‘Got a New Car’ was shot in their apartment and perfectly encapsulates the warm, playful, slyly metaphorical nature of the song.
Ballgame drew the inspiration for ‘Got a New Car’ from philosopher Alan Watts. He explains, “Watts said ‘The ego is an obsolete vehicle for human consciousness.’ So I wondered, what if I bought a new car? It’s about my spiritual awakening. Realizing I’m not this set of stories. I don’t need to attach to stuff around expectations, which is 90% of human suffering. There’s so much peace under personality, there’s so much peace in the cessation of the active mind and surrendering to the Now.” In the song, Ballgame sings, “Saw my old self / Beat his brakes off / Doesn’t know yet, he’ll feel it when he wakes up / Got a new car / Hear me start it / I was beamin’ nearly cryin’ when I bought it.”
Renowned for his live shows, Tyler Ballgame caught the attention of Rough Trade Records’ co-managing directors Geoff Travis and Jeannette Lee, who say hearing him reminds them “of the tenderness that can exist within the most powerful framework of a human voice. Like Elvis, Roy Orbison or Harry Nilsson.” His astonishing, versatile tenor is a bracing reminder of how great songs delivered by a gifted vocalist can move, captivate and inspire.
The child of a classically trained music teacher mom, who encouraged him to joyfully perform anytime, anywhere, Ballgame grew up in Rhode Island, obsessively downloading classic rock from Napster before attending the prestigious Berklee College of Music. Post-Berklee, none of his musical endeavors caught fire and doubt began to creep in. At his lowest point, Ballgame toiled on the cover band circuit, playing three nights a week in Rhode Island bars.
Ballgame traces the genesis of For the First Time, Again to a pivotal moment that almost didn’t happen. Stuck in his native New England, depressed and isolated during the pandemic, living in his parents’ basement, Ballgame knew in his heart he was destined for a life in music. He’d known it since he was a child growing up with a classically trained music teacher mom, who encouraged him to joyfully perform anytime, anywhere – which he did, to great effect. He’d known it when he obsessively downloaded classic rock from Napster, and when more than one teacher at the prestigious Berklee College of Music told him he had the goods, as both songwriter and vocalist. As Ballgame says, “I think I’m meant to sing for people.”
Post-Berklee musical endeavours were fun, but nothing caught fire. Demons of doubt crept in. At his lowest point, Ballgame toiled on the cover band circuit, playing three nights a week in Rhode Island bars. Feeling he had little to lose, Ballgame applied online for an office job in Los Angeles, where he’d never set foot, and got the gig. With encouragement from a life-changing, body-positive-centric counsellor, and the support of his family, Ballgame left the East Coast, he says, “in desperation to find myself.” As traveling companions, he carried books by philosophers Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now) and Alan Watts (The Way of Zen).
Soon, Ballgame was renting a room at Venice Beach, and slaying at a weekly open mic, playing his own songs. These low-stakes baby steps, Ballgame says, “spiraled out into a community. The move was the best thing that ever happened to me. It opened my eyes to the nature of risk, and the nature of betting on yourself. My whole album is about that experience.”
After a year of growing an ever-larger audience wowed by his extraordinary voice, charismatic stage presence, and catchy repertoire, Ballgame met Eastside L.A. movers-shakers Pollie and Rado. The deeply impressed duo told him, “Let’s make a record – now!” Within a month, Ballgame had written a plethora of new songs.
On For the First Time, Again, Tyler Ballgame and his talented circle of fellow music-makers enthusiastically offer listeners songs to fill them with hope, acceptance, delirious happiness, and support for rough roads ahead. For healing to occur, Ballgame offers, “We need to dissolve into experience.” With its gorgeous melodies, wise invocations, irrepressible – and sometimes mischievous – generosity of spirit, and THAT VOICE, For the First Time Again is in itself an amazing experience.
Most recently Ballgame shared new track ‘Matter of Taste’ and accompanying video.
A hook-laden rocker, ‘Matter of Taste’ shows Ballgame and his band cutting loose, with what the singer-songwriter calls the trademark “Ballgame voice”. Lyrics like “Don’t let me go to waste / No I wasn’t worth my salt / Just a matter of taste / You don’t know me at all” acknowledge a desire for love – from a person, an audience – but also assert that it is just fine if one doesn’t receive it. “That’s not a rejection of me as a person, it’s just a matter of taste,” Ballgame explains.
Listen to ‘Matter of Taste’
Tyler Ballgame
For the First Time, Again Album Cover
Track Listing:
01) For the First Time, Again
02) I Believe in Love
03) You’re Not My Baby Tonight
04) Matter of Taste
05) Got a New Car
06) Down So Bad
07) Goodbye, My Love
08) Ooh
09) Sing How I Feel
10) I Know
11) Deepest Blue
12) Waiting So Long
Tyler Ballgame on:
