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 Fire Child. 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 EP Fire Child highlights just wide how Cole's artistic reach can be. She serves as her own bandleader and co-producer throughout these seven tracks, singing each song in a voice that's been sharpened by years of heavy touring, supporting acts like Carrie Underwood, Brothers Osborne, and Tim McGraw along the way. Recorded in Vancouver and featuring musicians from both sides of the Canada/American border, Fire Child blurs the lines between genre and geography. 

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From the bluesy Stratocaster riffs and Motown-inspired vocal harmonies of "Let Alone My Heart" to the larger-than-life pop melodies of "What Am I Doing," Fire Child is every bit as multidimensional as the songwriter who created it. Raised in British Columbia, Cole fell in love with radio hits by Bryan Adams, Shania Twain, and Celine Dion at a young age. "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. 

 

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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Cole didn't need any more convincing. She rounded up a group of fellow instrumentalists and headed to Vancouver with Brian West, the Juno Award-winning producer behind albums like Nelly Furtrado's Whoa, Nelly! Over the course of two days, the group recorded songs like the epic, rock-inspired "Real Thing" and Fire Child's seize-the-day title track in a series of live takes, capturing the chemistry of an amplified band and its invigorated leader. Pat Stewart played drums and Cole handled much of the record's guitar duties, even playing one of Bryan Adam's own Stratocasters on the John Mayer-inspired "Let Alone My Heart." They finished the EP at West's home studio, adding horns to "What Am I Doing" and punctuating the breakup song "Slow Motion" with swooning pedal steel.

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On "Running Deep" — a song about wanderlust and young romance — Cole sings about the same adventurous spirit that has taken her across North America for much of the past decade, playing her own music night after night, earning new fans with every song. "I've always had this love of music and traveling," she says. "I've always felt the need to spread my wings. I wanted to write a song that could be anybody's story — a song about going out and living your life." A similar message anchors "Fire Child," which unfolds like a guitar-driven call-to-arms for anyone in need of inspiration. "It's never too late to go chase those dreams, remember your inner child, and become the person you want to be," she says of the track. 

 

And who, exactly, does Raquel Cole want to be? Just listen to Fire Child — a collections of songs that burn bright with sharp songwriting, organic performances, and a fearlessly wide range of songs — and the answer becomes clearer. Raquel Cole just wants to be herself.  "I want my story to be one that inspires other people to be the entirety of who they are.  I'm inspired by people who aren't afraid to embrace the full range of their identity. I hope Fire Child inspires others to do the same."