In 1963 his family moved to São Paulo, Brazil, where after growing up he learned how to play the drums and the electric guitar, and studied Economy and Journalism at the PUC-SP, but did not finish either course.
[2] In 1993 Roland returned to Brazil, settling in Rio de Janeiro, where he met film and theater director Bia Lessa, his future wife; he arranged the soundtracks of many of her plays, most notably her adaptations of Virginia Woolf's Orlando, Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters, Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities and Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth.
In 1997 he co-directed alongside Lessa their first independent full-length film, the critically acclaimed Crede-Mi, which was loosely based on Thomas Mann's 1951 novel The Holy Sinner.
[5] In 2007 Roland formed the musical project Os Ritmistas alongside Stéphane San Juan, Domenico Lancellotti and Zero Telles; they released their first album in the same year.
[8] Prior to acquiring greater prominence as a musician and producer, Roland was well known for portraying the character "Fernandinho" in an iconic series of commercials made by Brazilian clothing brand USTop, which aired from 1984 to 1988.