Sophie Lloyd, courtesy.

Collaborating with Trivium’s Matt Heafy was a full circle moment for guitar shredding phenom Sophie Lloyd.

“There’s the picture of me when I was recording my very first EP, Delusions, back in 2016 and I was wearing this big Trivium T-shirt that I ironed on myself,” Lloyd said. “It’s cool to now be working with Matt because he’s the nicest person in the world.”

Lloyd’s latest track, “Fall of Man,” is the latest in a series of collaborations that will lead up to a full album release in September.

“I’ve always really been inspired by Slash’s solo albums, especially his first one, R&F’NR, where he collabs with a bunch of vocalists. I knew I wanted to do something quite similar to that,” Lloyd said. “It’s been so much fun writing for people and bringing my style into theirs. The vocalists are all people I used to have posters on my wall of.”

Lloyd can’t spill the beans quite yet on some of the other collaborations, but she says the tracks will span styles and genres. She’s particularly excited about one vocalist.

Sophie Lloyd and Matt Heafy of Trivium, courtesy.

“I’m so bad at keeping secrets; I’m worried I’ll blurt them all out!” she said.

Lloyd’s first collab release, “Do or Die,” features Inglorious vocalist Nathan James.

“Nathan has such an incredible voice; he has the ’80s hard rock voice,” Lloyd said. “It was really fun writing a song around that.”

A tour is already in the works for 2024. Lloyd says she’d like to channel an ABBA-style design by adding some virtual and video elements.

“That way all of the vocalists can ‘be there’ when it’s me and [drummer] Chris [Painter] playing, and then we’ll always have one guest vocalist come out and maybe sing a few songs.”

The U.K. guitarist has been a mainstay on social media. Check out Instagram, and you’ll find Lloyd’s “Metal Monday” shred-heavy hard rock covers. She’s also connecting with fans and musicians on Twitch livestreams.

Lloyd credits her dad, who played rock music at home, as well as an unexpected source for her love in guitar. The first time she heard Twisted Sister’s “I Wanna Rock” (one of her early covers) was in “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie” as the “Goofy Goober” song.

“That’s when I realized I wanted to play guitar, which is embarrassing, but I was inspired by a sponge,” she said.

Even before joining Machine Gun Kelly’s band last year, her success was serendipitous. All through school, she toiled away at her craft, learning riffs and licks. But she earned a scholarship to study forensic psychology. A week before starting college, she chose music.

“That’s when I started taking it really seriously on my YouTube channel and really pushing for that to be my career,” said Lloyd.

Then she got the call to join Machine Gun Kelly’s tour. A year before getting offered a spot in the band, Lloyd sent a long-shot DM to MGK on Instagram.

“I said if he ever needed a guitarist to just hit me up, and obviously he didn’t see it,” Lloyd said.

Flash-forward 12 months, the rapper-turned-pop-punk artist messaged her.

“He said ‘how serendipitous—we’re looking for a guitarist for tour. Are you in L.A.?'” Lloyd said. “I wasn’t; I was in London, but I said I was.”

They FaceTimed, she got a visa and was soon in the U.S. Sophie Lloyd said she feels lucky that MGK took a flier on her, as it was her first big gig. The transition wasn’t easy at first and she said she needed to overcome self-doubt.

“I have performance anxiety and imposter syndrome—that’s always been something I’ve struggled with, so I was quite worried and always felt very in my head,” Lloyd said. “As soon as I got on stage that first night, I had that moment where I was like, ‘This is what I’m meant to be doing; this is where I’m meant to be.’ It was this really awesome moment where I was looking out at the crowd. It was insane.”

Machine Gun Kelly’s band is stacked with talented musicians. Lloyd said one of her favorite aspects of being on the road was being able to both learn and teach, especially with fellow guitarist Justin Lyons.

“We’ve really been learning off each other because our playing is so different,” she said. “He’s from a soul, gospel and R&B background, and I’m obviously more rock and metal. I’ve been teaching him how to tap and sweep, while he’s been teaching me all these amazing chords.”

She’ll play a smattering of U.S. shows with MGK this year before performing on the European festival circuit this summer.

Follow writer Mike DeWald at Twitter.com/mike_dewald.