A phenomenal new voice launches his debut album. Out on Rough Trade Records on the 30th of January.

Going back to the pandemic Tyler Ballgame (real name Tyler Perry) was not in a good place. Depressed and isolated, he was living in his parent’s basement. He had always felt destined to make music, encouraged by his classically trained music teacher mother. Encouraged by teachers at the prestigious Berklee College of Music. After Berklee nothing was quite clicking, doubt was starting to creep in. He would play on the cover band circuit, playing three nights a week in Rhode Island bars. Ballgame got an office job in Los Angeles, where he’d never been before. He started seeing a counsellor who started to shift the whole way he viewed himself. He got into philosophy, reading EcKhart Tolle and Alan Watts.

In Venice Beach Tyler started attending open mic nights and found himself enveloped in a supportive environment. Ballgame says it, “spiralled 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 audiences and a reputation as something special Ballgame met Eastside L.A. musicians and producers Pollie and Rado. Rado has worked with Miley Cyrus, The Killers and Weyes Blood among a range of other talents. Fiona Apple’s drummer, Amy Aileen Wood, was drafted in.

This album is 12 finely crafted tunes, cloaked in classic rock, indie and Americana. Ballgame is a strong storyteller, crafting rich worlds. His voice is something special, beautifully soulful. It can create soaring hope and belief or imbue rich melancholy. There is a hint of Roy Orbison, sometimes Elvis when he would croon, rather than his full-on rock n’ roll work. The backing is at times exquisite – clever and playful, haunting and evocative. Both singer and band crib from a range of different sources producing something both classic yet very fresh. It opens with title track, ‘For The First Time, Again.’ The key refrain, “Can’t wait to meet you for the first time again” is an intriguing sentiment. You can’t do that, yet the idea of realising that something has shifted in yourself, that you have changed makes meeting that special person again different, like for the first time again. The lyrics throughout the album are thoughtful without ever being over complicated.

The album’s lead single and absolute highlight, ‘I Believe In Love’ is almost unbelievably, in this world of digital manipulation and trickery, a totally live recording. Ballgame says, “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. The vocals are totally on point. The playful music is reminiscent of a range of old classics.

This is an album about finding yourself, about hope and things getting better. Nothing is on the nose or immediately obvious and that creates a real layer of poetry to it all. In interviews he has expressed how he wallowed in depression for nearly a decade. The counsellor he met, Courtney Huard, had a profound impact on him. Yet tragically Huard was killed by her husband who then took his own life. Ballgame has said that he now lives on for her and the other people she inspired. He was subject of a record label bidding war but went with London’s very own Rough Trade Records over a shared love of Nick Drake.

‘You’re Not My Baby Tonight’ is a hugely emotional performance. ‘Matter of Taste’ is very much a companion piece to ‘I Believe In Love.’

The rest of the album is just as strong. Every track is well crafted and commits to the mood it goes after. Ultimately, it is an album that hits you in the feels from the get-go and then keeps on pulling on those emotions. Depending on where you are in life you might well have a very profound reaction to this album.

We got into Tyler Ballgame just too late to be aware of his show at The Lexington last September. In a years’ time it will seem unthinkable that an artist of this calibre played a show that small. Get in on the ground floor this year while you still can. We will be at his Scala show in London. Hopefully, we will also get to see him at Wasing On The Mount, where he has been announced as support for Alabama Shakes.

Essential Tracks: ‘For the First Time, Again,’ ‘I Believe in Love,’ ‘You’re Not My Baby Tonight, ‘Matter of Taste,’ ‘Got A New Car’ and ‘Ooh.’

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