Award-winning songwriter. Solo artist. Guitar player. Road warrior. Producer. For more than a decade, Raquel Cole has played all the parts, building an international following with a sound inspired by anthemic country, hook-heavy pop, and heartland rock & roll. 

That eclectic sound reaches a new peak with 2025's, ‘Slow Motion’ arriving on the heels of radio hits like "Think About You" and "Let You" — both of which reached the Top 50 on Billboard's Canada Country chart —  the new single unfolds like a larger-than-life breakup song, finding room for pedal steel, pounding percussion, and ringing electric guitar. Cole serves as her own bandleader and co-producer, singing each lyric with a voice that's been sharpened by years of heavy touring alongside headliners like Carrie Underwood, Brothers Osborne, and Tim McGraw.

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Cole grew up in British Columbia, where she fell in love with radio hits by Bryan Adams, Shania Twain, and Celine Dion. "I loved big voices, big melodies, and big songs that everyone could sing along to," she remembers. After receiving her first guitar at age 9, she began jamming with her father in the family basement, playing along to rock & roll classics from the 1970s. As her guitar skills grew, so did her songwriting and vocal chops. Turning down an offer to study jazz guitar at Capilano University, Cole headed to Nashville instead, determined to make her own music. 

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While attending a Bryan Adams show in Nashville several years later, she found herself backstage, talking to legendary drummer Pat Stewart. With both a CCMA and BCCMA award under her belt, Cole had already established herself as a songwriter, earning accolades from The International Songwriting Competition for her song "Imogene" (which won second place in the Unsigned Only category) and penning a track for Marie Osmond's Music Is Medicine, which reached the Top 10 in America. She'd built an acclaimed catalog of music, too, releasing solo records like Personal Truth and The Essence of Me.  Even so, she couldn't help but want to do something bigger and bolder for her next project. "I told Pat that I wanted to make an organic record with a real band, and rock out," she says. "He said, 'Why don't you just come to Vancouver and we'll do it together at Bryan Adams' studio, The Warehouse?'"

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Co-produced with Brian West (Juno Award-winning producer behind albums like Nelly Furtado's Whoa, Nelly!) and featuring musicians from both sides of the Canada/American border, "Slow Motion" blurs the lines between genre and geography showcasing just how wide Cole's musical reach can be. It also doubles as the first release from an upcoming EP that's every bit as multidimensional as the songwriter who created it.

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