Tyler Ballgame, Rough Trade Records’ astonishingly gifted, infectious crooner today shares his debut album For The First Time, Again. Accompanying the debut album, comes the new music video for the title track, which follows earlier album singles ‘Matter Of Taste’, ‘I Believe in Love’ and ‘Got a New Car’. Watch here.
Speaking on the new single, Ballgame shares, “For The First Time, Again is a song about the perennial nature of love. Not only romantic love, but the love of friends and family that wraps us and forms us and sets us loose on the world. I believe that whenever we lose love, we are never far from its hand. It’s only waiting to be found again in a new form or in a new face.”
Tyler Ballgame will tour heavily throughout 2026, starting with dates supporting St. Paul and the Broken Bones in the UK before pivoting to a series of in-stores across the country. March and April see Ballgame supporting St. Paul and the Broken Bones in the US and a headline tour of the UK and Europe, as well as dates supporting Alabama Shakes.
For the First Time, Again was recorded with acclaimed indie producer-multi-instrumentalists Jonathan Rado and Ryan Pollie. 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 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.
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.
Stream / purchase For the First Time, Again here.
Stream / download ‘For the First Time, Again’ here.
