Fish And Scale on Tapestry – A Feast of Memory, Fear and Survival

As a songwriter, I know how easy it is to grab a spark from another record and run with it. Plenty do. Others pull from life, from some ugly corners, from your inner band of demons, tuning up at the worst possible hour. But this one comes from something real.

Today, Fish And Scale, the project of German artist Roland Wälzlein, opens that door and lets some cold air in. With Tapestry, he writes from an inner corner many people spend a lifetime trying to name, and he keeps it tight.

The wound at the centre of Tapestry

Roland grew up in Franconia, in the south of Germany, and survived serious heart surgery at the age of six. And now I’m just asking myself: can a story like that ever settle inside a person, or does it slowly shape the questions and the silences? You can feel that history all over Tapestry.

The lyrics walk through hospital corridors, with fear in the air, longing in the throat, and that need for warmth from someone who should have felt close. The emotional slap showed up immediately. I hear it, and yeah… I just lock myself in that moment for a second.

Tapestry – Half in the light, half somewhere else

The video follows the same thread, but this time it breathes half in the light, half somewhere else. Just a man, a body, almost uncomfortably close to the guitar and piano chords.

There’s a line in there that pulls everything into focus – “a little yellow dog on the wallpaper.” Nothing grand, nothing poetic on paper, but that’s the one. That’s what keeps him there, breathing, holding on.

Fish And Scale writes with scars still warm

A silent retreat later changed Roland’s understanding of life, and that deeper searching runs through his writing too. Tapestry, out March 20, 2026, feels like a man going back to the hardest chapter of his early years. Giving it this kind of shape, colour, and voice takes skill. And in a time full of artificial workarounds – to be honest – I’ll always go for a song that comes from real endeavour.

While I was writing this, I caught myself holding my breath a couple of times, and somewhere along the way it clicked. Despite the cold water, this deep dive lined me up with something out of the ordinary.

I’m not sure about you, but if you felt something in this one, don’t leave it here. Find Fish And Scale on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Spotify. Keep this in a safe place, and go back to it when you need it.