Sophie Lloyd on MGK, Social Media & Becoming a Modern Guitar Star

"When I would play live and I'd make mistakes, those were actually the parts that people liked the most because they want to see the human side to you." Sophie Lloyd on MGK, Social Media & Becoming a Modern Guitar Star

We caught up with Sophie Lloyd for a deep dive into her journey from YouTube guitarist to global touring artist. Hosted by Eliza Lee, this interview explores how Sophie built her career online, how social media has changed the guitar world, and what it really takes to stand out as a modern guitarist. Since launching her YouTube channel in 2011, Sophie has grown a massive global audience and gone on to join Machine Gun Kelly’s touring band in 2022, taking her from online success to arena stages worldwide. We also discuss the pros and cons of being an online guitarist, the role of guitar in modern pop music, and Sophie’s experiences touring both as part of a major act and as a solo artist.

I always like to start at the beginning I think to kind of contextualise guitar players and where you come at guitar from. I would love to know where guitar kind of started for you - was there that record that you heard and you were like ‘ it's guitar playing.’ I feel like every guitar player has that, right? What was yours? 

Yeah mine's much more embarrassing than every other guitar player though because most of them are like "it's an Iron Maiden" song. Mine was an episode of Spongebob Squarepants

Get in, was was it the goofy goober one?

It was the twisted sister song where he levitates up into the air with his flying v guitar and everyone's like ‘whoa’, that episode.

That's such a valid answer because that is a banger, that's an absolute banger.

It’s such a banger. And yeah I sort of saw that as a kid and that's when I was like okay that's what I want to do and then sort of I got in - that way kind of like my first intro into it I guess where I got like my guitar and then I started getting a lot more serious kind of about it when I was watching, I was obsessed with Jackass and I loved their soundtracks so I was just like that was like the soundtracks of my life that and like the Tony Hawk Pro Skater stuff. 

I was gonna say that I feel like that's the other main one.

Yeah so I started listening to them a lot and sort of just like having that I feel like whenever someone's into rock music or something, they always kind of end up wanting to play an instrument, you know, so. 

Yeah, it's like a natural progression, isn't it? 

Exactly. 

And then obviously you kind of started your career online, really. Yeah. YouTube and Instagram. I mean, I can remember seeing your posts sort of way back when there weren't as many sort of Instagram or YouTube guitarists yet.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

How was that journey was that how you expected sort of your career to go did you just decide to post for fun and then it kind of took off?

Yeah so when I started posting it was sort of before YouTube was really like what it is today you know you couldn't like monetise it was more like just a kind of you know you'd upload like a vlog about your day you know things like that. So I sort of started posting as a more of a video diary and to kind of, I grew up in a small town so there wasn't many musicians. I couldn't really join bands or anything there just wasn't really that culture there.

So that's kind of why I turned to posting stuff online just to try and like meet like-minded people, join the community a little bit more that I wasn't really getting in in real life I guess. But I never expected it to kind of blow up how it did and get so much like I didn’t…or become a career you know that wasn't even really an option when when I started it was just like I just wanted to kind of get my name out there because I couldn't do it in real life really.

Yeah I relate, I’m also from a town where there were, well I was the only person who played the guitar really so yeah I I relate to that when there's no one to play with I think the internet's a great space to actually have a musical outlet. 

Yeah, definitely. 

Do you think that the sort of social media landscape for musicians has changed a lot then since you started? I mean, as you say, like YouTube, it is so different now. But even sort of Instagram, it's changed hands and now it's Meta and even TikTok's changed hands, I believe. 

Yeah, definitely.

Is it different? Is it harder, easier, better, worse?

I'd say it's difficult because it's a little bit of both. I'd say it's, I’d say back in the day, I thought I always prefer kind of preferred long form content. Like I love doing like YouTube videos. That's kind of like the platform that I love the most. But now everything's kind of shifted to short form, quick attention spans and stuff. And that doesn't, I don't think it translates as well to musicians because we want to like create pieces. Like we put a lot of effort into quality and to you know you really want to dive into the creativity of stuff but now the attention span is so quick that you almost, you know the the worst videos kind of do the best almost, you know. Which is a little frustrating because I love doing the music video productions and kind of creating a big thing but now it's like And I guess for some people it would be better, you know, that the quick videos you can film in 30 seconds go can go more viral, you know. 

So I guess that's good in a sense for people who prefer that kind of quick content creation. But it's also like you're you're feeding the algorithm now. Like I think a lot of the OG kind of musicians online have lost a lot of love for it. You'll see a lot of them kind of go on hiatus lately and a lot of them just like aren't really posting as much because the views just aren't there because the algorithms all changed where it doesn't really like they're not pushing you're not pushing out content to followers anymore you have to fit this weird algorithm that keeps changing and it's really kind of uninspiring. You start you start kind of putting your worth into views and numbers and stuff that you get and that can be quite like dangerous when you're a musician because you can lose that passion for it and I think a lot of people have kind of gone through that loop and now are kind of coming back out of it a little bit where they're kind of realised okay you just need to do it for yourself and don't worry about the numbers and if videos go well great. 

So I think that's a difficult thing I think it can definitely be tough on motivation for them but like also on the other hand it is relatively easier for new people to kind of blow up and have careers and stuff and get noticed you know. There’s kind of that side to it as well where if you're starting out you might get a viral video within your first kind of 10 videos and you know go crazy so it's a bit of both really. 

Yeah, for sure. It's like seeing the swing to now, I think you see a lot more kind of just put your phone up and use sort of raw audio kind of videos doing well. Versus the sort of production value that maybe got you somewhere even just a few years ago. I think it's changing so quickly.

Yeah. Yeah, well, that's the thing. Everything changes. Everything goes in cycles and stuff, you know, and I think with the progression of AI, people are valuing that when you can see it's a real person and kind of hear it's a real person a lot more. So I'm trying to lean into that a bit. And that was always difficult for me just because, you know, I've always had kind of performance anxiety stuff. I liked the ability to kind of do a bunch of takes and have good lighting and stuff and, you know, all of that. So, you know, it's been a shift. I'm actually sort of starting to enjoy the kind of showing what things really are, you know and sort of showing that I think people are valuing that a lot more.

Yeah, it's for sure. It's like the imperfect takes…

Exactly yeah, and I think it's just sort of changing your mind to be like, okay. It is good to show people that side, you know.

100% It's vomit inducing isn't it when you're like putting up a take and you're like ‘well that didn’t quite go to plan’ but people kind of want to see it. So being a guitarist that's been so online as you have, and you know this question comes from a place of I, certainly not to the the extent that you have, have been a guitarist that’s posted videos in the past yeah and I know that it's a it's a bit of a wild west out there and you know are there times where being an online presence is really challenging? Similarly are there times where it's got an element of empowerment to it can you really control your own social presence in a way that maybe you can't with a more traditional career?

Yeah, definitely. Like I think for me, it's been like the best kind of career path I could have taken. And I've kind of managed to I guess, kind of fast track quite a lot of, you know, the horrible van tours. Do you know what I mean? Like stuff like that. I've kind of managed to fast track quite a lot of that. And I enjoy being in control and my own boss. You get to make content from home and kind of, you know, really do what you love and kind of shape your own career that way.

So, yeah, it's been the best career for me. I think there's definitely a negative side to it as well.

Obviously, there's a lot of trolls online. There's a lot of like, you have to make sure that you're mentally quite strong, I think, to do social media where you kind of don't put much value into what people say. Whether it's good or bad, you can't, your value's got to come from the people around you in your real life. You know, you've got to have that grounded, grounded sense. And I think for me as well, I think, starting on social media was it created quite a bit of imposter syndrome, which I've spoken about like quite a bit in my career. Well, like I was saying, because I like to do all the edits, I like the big production. So I like to kind of make sure everything was kind of perfect going out. And I was really, really happy with it. And I was quite self-critical. So I, you know, would film something like 50 times or something before I would have a take that I'd want to share. And then, you know, sort of as as your career progresses obviously you start getting more opportunities to play live and all of that and that kind of really really terrified me because it's like well I don't get those 50 takes when I play live you know it's kind of that one take and maybe that's not good enough and like people start to see like think I'm an imposter and all of that I shouldn't be don't deserve to be where I am. 

That kind of really got into my head so I developed quite bad imposter syndrome performance anxiety. So I just wouldn't play live. I went from, you know, sort of being scared to play live in front of even my own parents, which was, you know, quite difficult. Then with the progression of things such as Twitch, which is kind of live streaming, but you're from the safety of your own home, you know, I've kind of learned that, when I would play live and I'd make mistakes, those were actually the parts that people liked the most because they want to see the human side to you. Do you know what I mean? It's those sort of parts that are memorable it's about you, it's about connection not perfection. That's my new catchphrase. 

That’s a good catchphrase! I think it it makes so much sense when you know you're a guitarist that’s performed in a certain environment, whether that's in front of a camera or like the other way around where you're a live player, I think it's so easy to start beating yourself up. So for me, the big one is like trying new gear that I'm not used to, if somebody at a guitar show is like ‘here, try that’ and it's got 12 gauge strings on it and I've got a mild crunch tone on - oh, my god like I have no licks.

Yes, I can relate yeah.

I think you just have to give yourself that kind of grace of saying hold on why would I be comfortable with this scenario - I'm never in it, I’m never in it. Yeah it's the situations that you get used to and do more and more you’re just gotta lock in with I think more.

Yeah I completely agree with you and like you said it probably goes the other way as well where people who have grown up playing in bands and playing live suddenly you put a camera in their face and tell them you have to make you know five TikToks a week they're like ‘what? no!’ you know. It's sort of just exactly like you say it's just being you're comfortable with what you've done before and it's that you know being a self-employed musician you kind of have to become comfortable with a lot of things that you aren't comfortable with. I'm still struggling with it like to this day. When it's like like a jam night or like a live band I still don't feel in myself like I want to get up because I still love to be super prepared yeah like I'm still working on that kind of improvisation that kind of just trusting myself I guess a bit more in those scenarios. I think it's going to be a bit of an ongoing thing.

Yeah it's it’s own skill isn't it?

Yeah it really is but I think I've gotten [better] I can really see my progress from just like a few years ago to to now you know.

Amazing well that segues me nicely into um the next sort of portion of things that I wanted to ask you because it mainly concerns sort of the live stuff. Obviously you're playing live with Machine Gun Kelly which is huge I mean you're doing big big tours, massive venues. So that's really going 0 to 100 on the live front I guess. So how did that go down? How did you become part of the band and what were sort of the fan reactions that you had? 

So that was kind of through social media as well. Like I said, I kind of managed to kind of fast track a little bit because it was the drummer that sort of followed me on social media and had kind of seen quite a lot of my videos. And they were looking for a guitarist I think to kind of complete the lineup it was originally so Kelz could kind of step back from guitar a bit but I think like he sort of rediscovered his love for it recently which is cool so we've managed to work together a lot on that.

He basically just sort of reached out to me over a DM on Instagram like are you in LA and I was like ‘no but I can be next week if you need me to be!’ you know and I sort of took my took my shot with that you know it was such a big opportunity and I didn't really feel ready for it at the time but I was like I've got to take this opportunity because I know I can play that stuff you know it's not super difficult it's not like I'm joining you know the biggest metal band. Do you know what I mean? it's relatively easy-ish on guitar, you can make it as complicated and stuff as as we'd like, we have a lot of freedom with that but you know I knew it was an opportunity I wanted to take. 

Also it was an audience that I hadn't been exposed too much like my audience is kind of like a lot of guys like kind of American dudes and this was an audience of like quite younger girls generally which was an audience I'd love to - I’ve always wanted to have that kind of audience because that’s that's me. Do you know what I mean? Like that was me growing up, that's who I want to inspire and I want to connect to, you know? So that was the link that really swayed my decision as well. And it's been, honestly, it's been incredible. It really, really has. It’s just like playing on stage sort of seeing my favourite part about it all is just seeing the connections that happen in the audience you know like people crying to their friend during a sad song people you know sort of jumping around like crazy like making core memories like holding each other like that's because that was me like I was that kid in the pit like looking at the band like that and I think that's just such a beautiful moment.

 So I'm so grateful that the fans took me in so well, and I've managed to kind of reach a new generation of places, people that I can inspire and stuff. And I think that's always amazing when I see on Instagram, like ‘I bought a guitar because of you’, I think that's, you know that's what I want to do so yeah for sure.

I mean you've kind of already touched on basically what I was going to go into next which was the audience for Machine Gun Kelly because it's not an audience I necessarily know a ton about but I know that it's quite a young audience. And you know someone like Machine Gun Kelly ,correct me if I'm wrong, is probably a one of those sort of gateway drug artists maybe for younger audiences into rock and and potentially metal. I know there are those bands when when I was younger who it would be your first band that you were like ‘oh! I like music with a guitar in it’, ’oh I hear a guitar, I could do with some more of this.’ You start on Busted and before you know it you're on Cradle of Filth. I'm sure it was like that for many of us. Do you think that that's kind of generally what you see in the audience? Is it young people being kind of initiated into maybe a rockier sound? I guess it's nice to help them on that journey. 

Yeah, like I think especially since, you know, he released Tickets to My Downfall and Mainstream Sellout, it’s definitely kind of, they were like his big ones that kind of blew up. And I think that's why I work quite well in the band because I'm kind of the more rock/metal one you know I already have had kind of a name in the rock/metal scene. So it's kind of cool that I can, like during ‘X's Best Friend’ which is kind of like a more poppy song, it has guitars in but it’s kind of more poppy, but then I do like a kind of shreds metal solo kind of in the middle. I think it's cool that I can kind of introduce people a little bit more and to like yeah, you can play pop, but also look at this. Do you know what I mean? I think that's something that I enjoy kind of bringing to the stage. 

You know, everyone kind of has their own little niche. Like Justin, the other guitar player, is an incredible gospel player. Well, he's an incredible player, like he's just so seasoned, but his thing is gospel, soul, R&B, like he's just... 

Gospel players are next level.

Honestly, he's a machine. It's quite intimidating, but he's incredible. But yeah, I'm glad I can bring something different. I mean, I can kind of bring the more metal/rock side of things, which I think works quite well with Colson's stuff. You can definitely kind of see the progression with that, which is nice. 

Yeah, I mean, I think pop music in some ways, some ways... more than alt music at the moment, is a really exciting space for guitar right now I don't know if you've noticed this too I've noticed the guitar solo beginning to like eek through in pop songs in a way that it's kind of been shoved out of some alt music.

I completely agree like you know Chapel Roan and Pink Pony Club?

That is exactly what I had in mind yeah.

Yeah that jumps to mind that like kind of has a guitar solo and it's quite simple but it's sort of like it's bringing it back a little bit and you often see in a lot of live performances from from pop acts or from rap acts or whatever like they often actually turn songs into more of like a metal song. I think it was Lollapalooza it was like Cat's Eye doing ‘Gnarly’ or something that that like I went back at watched and they've got like metal guitar underneath and like drop A or something just like chugging away and it's like the line is actually quite thin between them if you know what I mean. If you listen to the beat like a lot of it can be translated to metal guitar and we do that occasionally with some of MGK's more rap songs like ‘Floor 13' and stuff where we'll take that and turn it into a metal song and we kind of we release that separately because everyone just everyone loved it.

I think you know, it’s part of a, especially like for a live show, I think it's really integral to a performance, you know, it was just like recently, like, I think it was not this Super Bowl, but the last one when it was, was it Usher or someone? And he had H.E.R come out, the guitarist, H.E.R, and do like a crazy solo. And that was the part everyone was talking about. So it's, Yeah, it's definitely making kind of a bit more of an appearance again. And like I said, I think with the progression of AI, people are kind of appreciating that kind of raw talent again, you know, like the raw human talent. 

Yeah, for sure. And then obviously you've got your solo stuff that you have going on as well, I think. I think we actually both played on the same Download, last year?

Oh, cool!

That was a fun download. So I caught a bit of your set. That was really cool. And, you know, how is it balancing doing the solo stuff with the MGK stuff? You know, is it, do they feed each other or is it a little bit of, okay, I can do the solo stuff when I get a bit of time?

Yeah, like I think I kind of struggle to do two things at once. I have that kind of ADHD brain where it's like I struggle to focus on anything other than what I'm doing at that moment. So like at the moment we're on the Lost Americana tour, obviously, and I'm only back for like a couple of weeks. So I'm kind of struggling to get back into my own stuff a little bit other than videos. Like I'm mainly very focused in on the tour and kind of you know the MGK world I guess and then when I come back I’m excited I'm going to start writing again and doing my own stuff because that's sort of where like my passion really lies. Just being silly on guitar, do you know I mean?

You know Colson knows this, I've never really wanted to be a session musician that was nothing I kind of… I didn't really want to be a touring musician for a band you know that wasn't really what I wanted to do but it's such a good opportunity I had to take it. And Colson gives us the freedom to be able to express ourselves in his music as well and be like ‘oh I want to do a solo there, I want to do that there’ and kind of bring our own flavour to that so that's why I think it's such a good opportunity. I think that that pairing works so well because I do have the freedom, I don't just have to like play what someone says, if you know what I mean. I have a lot of creativity there, which is great. But like, yeah, I love just… doing silly stuff on guitar. Making music videos, making performances, being creative and kind of doing the shred versions just sort of making music that makes me go ‘haha that's funny, that's fun’, you know?

For sure I guess it's that sort of having your cake and eating it thing of there's the kind of the the jobs that are the musical jobs that are just these amazing opportunities and the things that kind of feed your your musical soul as well.

Exactly yeah that's exactly it and like my own stuff is kind of what feeds my feeds my soul but the MGK stuff is incredible and I’ve learned so much from that as well. I wish I was better when I would go out on tour, I wish I could kind of divide my brain more like where like if we had a day off I could start writing my own stuff or be doing a YouTube video but for some reason like I I just really struggle. I don't know what it is.

Well, I guess, I mean, it's so intense as well, like touring's so intense. You kind of need that rest. I always think it's so hard to force creativity when you're just knackered.

Yeah no that's very true and like I think it's like I'm a massive introvert as well and it's sort of being around people like those sort of days off are very like kind of sacred to build your energy back up so that you are on top form again for the for the shows so.

Yeah I guess the the irony of being a musician is like you're all people inherently with a kind of a flimsy social battery but you need to use it so much.

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Okay, and so that pretty much covers solo stuff. I look forward to seeing what you do next time you get some time off!

 Yeah, definitely. I want to start writing later this year for sure. So hopefully there'll be a new record next year would be nice.

Amazing. And as something I like to really ask any guitarist I come into contact with, whether I'm actually interviewing them or just speaking to them, a little bit self-indulgent because I always like to steal other people's tricks - I always just like to ask if you had one piece of advice, a tip, and that could be super practical to where it's like play this exercise or something a bit more mindset based so that, you know, any guitar player kind of watching this interview could come away from it and just be a little bit better at the end, what would it be?

I would say the thing that kind of progresses me the most is writing because it's a bit more fun and it doesn't mean writing necessarily you have to sit and write a song that's not even necessarily what I mean it's just like getting something like GarageBand or Logic you know get some sort of software and put a drum track in it, could be one you download off YouTube and and kind of play along to it. Maybe record some chords, you're just playing a simple kind of blues lick or whatever it may be like a blues riff, you know I IV V, and then just sort of play over and see what happens. See what kind of things you can create with that. Like, every time I write an album, it completely changes the way that I play guitar after, because I delve so much into the kind of ‘what do I want, what do I hear?’ I'll write songs that I can't play so I can then learn to play them. I'll kind of write a riff that that I love like a sweep pattern and then I'm like okay well I can hear that it goes into a tapping pattern so I'll record them separately and now I actually have to like kind of learn what what have I played there you know and I almost like work backwards like that but I think writing and anything like that is so, so beneficial to you. You also just sort of start to understand music a little bit more and it's a lot more fun than just sitting there with a metronome, you know, sitting with a drummer actually playing a beat. Like, you know, like that Logic has that drummer?

Kyle! Love Kyle, big fan of Anders as well. 

Yeah, Yeah, Anders is great! 

He’s underrated. 

And Logan.

Yeah, Logan. Get the half pipe out. I feel like every musician has an intimate, long-standing friendship with Kyle and Logan.

100%. But that's how I start all my songs is I just get Kyle up and start writing a riff to them and seeing what happens. And if you struggle to write, sorry, I'm rambling now. But take what I do when I struggle to write. I'll take a riff that I know. Whatever it may be, it could be like an Iron Maiden riff or a riff from Slash or something and try and manipulate that riff in some way. So maybe take the notes, put it in a different tempo, maybe put it in a different key and then play it backwards and see what happens or what happens if I turn these quarter notes into triplets or something like that, you know, sort of so you're not starting from zero. You're just kind of giving yourself a challenge and to manipulate something in that way. And that's how most of my songs are written. And yeah, I think that just helps you from starting at zero. You're kind of just always giving yourself a challenge, giving yourself some parameters, you know, so you can create something cool.

That's fun. I like that as a writing prompt. I will try that. Okay, well, I mean, that's pretty much everything I wanted to ask. Quickly, is there anything you want to plug, shout out, anything you have coming up?

Just that I'm gonna start writing soon so we're gonna have a new record out but yeah follow me on all my social medias I'm posting a lot now different stuff Instagram @sophieguitar_ , TikTok YouTube. I’m still posting on YouTube I always will I love it so much and I have a Patreon as well which we do all the BTS stuff and we do a lot of live streams there and fun stuff we do podcasts every week so come come join that for for some fun.

Amazing, thank you so much!