Rough Trade Records is thrilled to announce Tyler Ballgame’s stunning debut album For the First Time, Again, out January 30th, 2026. 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.
The album’s lead single, the rhapsodic Lennon-meets-Orbison ‘I Believe In Love’ is out today 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, colourful 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.
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 endeavors 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 counselor, 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 including earlier stand-along single ‘Got A New Car’ which appears on the album.
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.
Tyler Ballgame
For the First Time, Again
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:
