Cole Rolland
Cole Rolland | |
|---|---|
| Born | Stephen Rolland December 5, 1993 Ontario, Canada |
| Origin | Port Elgin |
| Genres | Rock, Metal and Classical |
| Years active | 2009-present |
| Label | Independent |
| YouTube information | |
| Channel | |
| Subscribers | 1.53 million |
| Views | 412 million |
| Last updated: April 2026 | |
Stephen (Cole) Rolland (born December 5, 1993) is a Canadian artist, producer, guitarist and social media personality known for his electric guitar covers, most notably the recreation of dubstep songs.[1] As of July 31, 2026, Rolland has more than 1.53M YouTube subscribers and nearly 413M video views.
Biography
[edit]Rolland was born on December 5, 1993, in Port Elgin in Canada.[2] He started self-learning and playing guitar at the age of 10. At the age of 15 in 2009, he recorded and uploaded a YouTube video performance of DragonForce's "Through the Fire and Flames" from the Guitar Hero video game series.[3][1] Shortly after, he also released a cover of "Canon Rock". Both of these videos collectively gained 52 million views on YouTube.[4]
After school, Rolland worked as a process operator at Nova Chemicals before pursuing a musical career since 2019.[5] He performs rock, metal and classical covers on his electric guitar of artists including Skrillex, Krewella, Slipknot, Metallica and Avenged Sevenfold.[2] Rolland makes use of a variety of guitar techniques including slides/vibrato, along with various implementations of the whammy bar, and a killswitch.[1][3]
As of July 31, 2026, Rolland's YouTube channel has 1.53M subscribers and nearly 413M views.[6]
Acts
[edit]Rolland has performed stage acts with ILLENIUM, Adventure Club, Krewella and DragonForce.[7][8] He has also collaborated with Sophie Lloyd for Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.[9]
Gear
[edit]Rolland has a signature guitar line in association with California-based guitar manufacturer Kiesel Guitars, Midnight and Moonlight signature guitars.[3][4]
Guitars
- CR6 Midnight Signature Guitar
- CR6 Moonlight Signature Guitar
- DC600 Custom Pink-Purple Burst
- DC600 Custom Purple-Blue Burst
- DC700 Custom
Hardware
- Axe-Fx III by Fractal Audio
- Jim Dunlop Wah
- Digitech Whammy Pedal
- Digitech Drop Pedal
- Fractal Audio FC-12
- Universal Audio x4
- Neumann TLM 193
- Neumann TLM 103
Software
- Logic Pro X
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- STL Tones
- Waves: Mercury
- SoundToys: Effect Rack
Discography
[edit]Singles
- Echo (2023)[4]
- Lost (with Sophie Lloyd) (2023)[10]
- Ignite (2021)[11]
- Triple Helix (with Angel Vivaldi) (2020)[12]
- Equinox (2016)[13]
- The Last Night (2016)[14]
EPs
- Passenger (2019)[7]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 Wilkinson, Dan (4 June 2014). "EDM Isn't Just Laptops, A Guy Has Recreated Dubstep Songs Using an Electric Guitar". Vice.
- 1 2 Charlton, Steve (21 August 2023). "Cole Rolland shreds DragonForce's "Through the Fire and Flames" like a boss". The Music Man.
- 1 2 3 Torre, Chris dela (October 18, 2020). "Meet the Sarnia guitarist who quit his day job and earned 1 million YouTube subscribers". CBC News.
- 1 2 3 Stewart, Peter (30 August 2023). "Canadian guitar wizard Cole Rolland brings magic to his cover of Canon Rock". The Music Man.
- ↑ "Sarnia guitar phenom quits Chemical Valley job for music biz". The Sarnia Journal. 13 October 2020.
- ↑ "Cole Rolland – YouTube". YouTube. Retrieved 2026-07-31.
- 1 2 Roche, Sam (17 February 2021). "Cole Rolland: "EDM allows me so much more freedom to be creative and make weird guitar noises I hope people haven't heard before"". Guitarworld.
- ↑ Hebert, Sue (4 April 2022). "Guitar Heroes DragonForce Live Performance". Sound Check Entertainment.
- ↑ Owen, Matt (13 August 2021). "Sophie Lloyd and Cole Rolland join forces for monstrous, shred-heavy reinvention of Beethoven's 5th Symphony". guitarworld.
- ↑ "This week's essential guitar tracks: two of YouTube's biggest shred heroes team up and a slide titan pays tribute to a Southern rock guitar legend". Guitarworld. 26 May 2023.
- ↑ "Music career of online guitar star continues to expand". The Sarnia Journal. 15 December 2021.
- ↑ Stolzer-Gary, Isaac (13 December 2019). "ANGEL VIVALDI Releases New Music Video "Triple Helix" Featuring COLE ROLLAND". GearGods.
- ↑ Maan, Reuben (July 20, 2016). "Watch guitar guru Cole Rolland perform his song 'Equinox'". CBC Music.
- ↑ "Watch Cole Rolland totally shred while playing his song 'The Last Night'". CBC Music. June 8, 2016.