Tyler Ballgame Explores Spiritual Awakening On New Track ‘Got A New Car’

Today, Rhode Island-bred singer-songwriter Tyler Ballgame released the new single “Got A New Car” ahead of his homecoming appearance at this weekend’s Newport Folk Festival. The recent Rough Trade Records signee recruited his friends and roommates Joey Casale and Victoria Gagnaire Stein to direct and produce the video that accompanied the track.

Tyler Ballgame grew up in Rhode Island and cut his teeth performing on the cover band circuit at bars in the The Ocean State. Ballgame moved to Los Angeles, where he decided to play his own songs at a weekly open mic night. Producer-multi-instrumentalists Jonathan Rado (Miley Cyrus, Weyes Blood, Foxygen) and Ryan Pollie (Los Angeles Police Department) saw Ballgame perform and were so impressed they invited him to make a record. More information on that record will follow.

The crooner read books by philosophers Eckhart Tolle and Alan Watts while traveling to Los Angeles. Ballgame was inspired to write “Got A New Car” by Watts.

“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,” Tyler Ballgame explained. “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.”

Tyler Ballgame’s “Got A New Car” video was filmed at the apartment he shares with Casale and Stein. The DIY visual captures the spirit of the song.

Watch Tyler Ballgame’s “Got A New Car” video below: