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Edgar Eugene Roland Jr. (born August 3, 1963) is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist and primary songwriter of the alternative rock band Collective Soul. He also contributes guitars, keyboards, producing, and engineering.
After finishing high school, Roland studied songwriting and guitar at Berklee College of Music in Boston for one year. He was the lead engineer and producer at Real 2 Reel Studios in Stockbridge, Georgia for eight years. In 1985, he was in a band called The Eddie Band and another during the late 1980s and early 1990s called Marching Two-Step, which also included future producer and music executive Matt Serletic, future executive Michelle Rhea Caplinger and longtime Collective Soul drummer Shane Evans. Roland released an indie album called Ed-E Roland in 1991. The album was meant to showcase his abilities to compose, record, and produce his own original music.
Roland changed the name of his band to Collective Soul with hopes of finding success in the music business. Not finding success, however, Roland became frustrated and almost gave up on the music industry. He had been active in the local Georgia music scene since the early 1980s. Despite the initial rejections, Collective Soul independently released Hints, Allegations & Things Left Unsaid in 1993 on a label called Rising Storm. It was a compilation of some of Roland's songwriting demos created when he worked at Real 2 Reel Studios.
Ed's brother Dean is also a member of the band. Their father was a Southern Baptist minister which influenced their spiritual background; however, Ed has cited that Collective Soul is not a Christian rock band.
Roland is currently working on a new act called The Sweet Tea Project. In 2012, the group's version of Bob Dylan's "Shelter from the Storm" was released on Chimes of Freedom: Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International, a four-disc compilation of Dylan covers.
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