MOMENTS OF TRUTH

SOPHIE LLOYD BREAKS DOWN HER MAIN RIFFS AND SOLO IN "DO OR DIE" AND OFFERS SOME USEFUL PLAYING AND PRACTICING TIPS

- SOPHIE LLOYD

HELLO, GW READERS! IN THIS exclusive lesson, I’d like to go over my guitar parts and solo in “Do or Die,” a song from my upcoming album, Imposter Syndrome. But first I want to thank GuitarWorld.com readers for voting “Do or Die” the second-best guitar solo of 2022!

“Do or Die” features vocalist Nathan James, an incredible singer who’s also a very good friend of mine. The song took off right out of the gate, and it’s now at 1.9 million views on YouTube. Again, thank you to everyone for the incredible, enthusiastic response and support!

The success of “Do or Die” was so crazy, because the song came out at the very end of 2022 and was the first single I’d released in ages. For it to do so well on all of the platforms was great, and I’ve read Guitar World since I was a kid, so the votes from the readers meant so much to me.

INSPIRATION

In writing “Do or Die,” I was looking to create an Eighties-style classic rock song. I love that kind of music — I’m wearing an Iron Maiden T-shirt right now! — so I knew I wanted to go in that direction. Nathan is one of my favorite vocalists and I had him specifically in mind for this song. The mindset for the style and direction of the song was along the lines of Iron Maiden, with some gallop-y palm mutes in the rhythm part.

PRIMARY INFLUENCES