Sophie Lloyd is a trailblazer who is redefining the concept of a “bedroom” guitarist. A talented composer and accomplished musician, Sophie graduated from BIMM in 2018 with a First Class Honours BMus in Popular Music Performance. Her hard work ethic has seen her go from a content creator to building an audience in the millions, and playing some of the world’s biggest stages as guitarist for multi platinum recording artist Machine Gun Kelly.
Through her viral “shredleys”, covers and her own original material, Sophie has amassed the kind of following that even the guitar gods she grew up idolizing would be envious of, with a reach surpassing 180 million views on YouTube and over 4 million followers across her social channels.
In addition to her own content, Sophie’s talent and popularity has led to collaborations with household name brands such as Amazon Prime, Ubisoft, Hard Rock Café, Bar S Foods and Blizzard Entertainment, including solo live performances for World Rugby and a stunning performance at Paris Fashion Week for Redemption Brand Clothing.
Sophie also created a guitar course for digital learning platform Truefire, contributing to a program that houses some of six strings' most prestigious names including Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Marty Friedman and Jennifer Batten, to name a few.
She has also released her own signature guitar, becoming the first female artist to do so for exclusive Californian Guitar maker KIESEL after launching one of the fastest selling “Artist Series” guitars in the company’s history.
Most recently, Sophie could be seen shredding on stage touring globally as guitarist for Machine Gun Kelly, taking on his Mainstream Sellout World Tour, sold out shows at legendary venues such Madison Square Garden in New York and Wembley Arena in London, Cleveland Stadium, festivals such as Lollapalooza, Hellfest, Rock Am Ring, Rock Im Park, and huge sporting events in NBA and NFL. While shredding for MGK, Sophie has also shared the stage with collaborators such as Halsey, Jelly Roll, Yungblud, Oli Sykes and Travis Barker.
Sophie released her debut solo album in November 2023, a completely independent endeavour via her own Autumn Records label. Recorded during the covid lockdown, Sophie reached out to some of her heroes to collaborate, on boarding names such as Lzzy Hale (Halestorm), Matt Heafy (Trivium), Chris Robertson (Black Stone Cherry), Brandon Saller (Atreyu) and Nathan James (Inglorious). The album received rave reviews, hitting number 3 in the rock charts and 11 in the independent albums chart on week of release, with the music videos for the album receiving over 8.6 million views and counting.
Having sold out her debut headline show at London’s Camden Underworld – an upgrade from the original Camden Assembly which sold out in minutes – Sophie now is now setting her sights on developing the live element of her solo career, with her first ever US show set for January 2025, with more touring and festival appearances planned beyond.