00:00When I can play that, that's when I'll finally admit I'm a good guitarist.
00:04And I still won't admit it, but I can play it.
00:07I probably can't anymore, I haven't played it in so long.
00:14Hey guys, how's it going?
00:15I am Sophie Lloyd and I am here at Download Festival with Metal Hammer.
00:20And these are my five favourite solos.
00:24So, number one is going to have to be, I know it's an obvious choice,
00:28Eruption by Van Halen.
00:36Especially the live in New Haven version.
00:38Oh my god, Eddie is just like the biggest inspiration for me.
00:42That tapping lick is something I think pretty much all guitarists learned
00:45when they were growing up, is that descending tapping lick.
00:48I actually used it in my solo I played today.
00:51I have a little acapella solo and I used that kind of style of lick.
00:55His techniques, he's just absolutely incredible.
00:58So, it was my alarm though to wake me up while I was at university.
01:02So, I do have a love-hate relationship with it because it was kind of traumatic for me
01:07when I had to wake up early for lectures.
01:09But it's still one of my favourite solos to this day.
01:12And he looks so cool when he takes his cigarette and puts it in his guitar.
01:16I aim for the day I can be that cool.
01:19My next one is going to be, we're going to change the tone a bit.
01:22It's going to be Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd.
01:30This one has a special place in my heart because I feel like I did a shred version of this
01:34one on my YouTube channel
01:35and I did the original solo.
01:37And I think before this, I was very much, you know, more is more.
01:42Let's put all of the notes in.
01:43Let's shred like crazy.
01:44And then I sort of had to learn this and I really had to kind of adjust my playing style
01:48and like change it a bit.
01:49And I think studying the way David Gilmore bends, the way he puts licks together and stuff
01:54just really kind of opened my eyes to this thing of playing with feeling
01:58and telling a story through your solos.
02:00And I think I really credit that as a turning point in my kind of soloing journey.
02:08So, yeah, definitely big credit to David Gilmore there for Comfortably Numb.
02:12My next one, again, we're going to shift gears completely
02:15and we're going to go for Beast and the Harlot by Avenged Sevenfold.
02:24This was because when I was growing up, I remember thinking,
02:26listening to that solo in the car, thinking, when I can play that,
02:29that's when I'll finally admit I'm a good guitarist.
02:32And I still won't admit it, but I can play it.
02:35I probably can't anymore. I haven't played it in so long.
02:37But like just the techniques that Sinister Gates uses are just incredible.
02:42Like his little chromatic runs at the end,
02:43like he really is the daddy of shredding to a lot of people.
02:47And I think he just comes up with such cool, creative ideas.
02:51The harmonies with Zaki Vengeance as well is just like really cool
02:55and really, really inspiring to me.
02:57And he's definitely a guitarist that I look up to.
03:00And I think kind of you can see in my playing a lot of,
03:03you can see where I get the inspiration from them quite a lot.
03:06So my fourth one is going to be Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne.
03:18Randy Rhodes, of course, recorded this solo.
03:20And it's just like, I think, a masterclass in good rock metal soloing.
03:26It's just, it's like, it's got so much feeling in it.
03:31It also like really kind of resembles like the crazy,
03:34you feel like you're on the crazy train with like the way he kind of uses his techniques
03:38and uses the whammy bar and stuff in the solo and does his tapping down.
03:42Like it really kind of portrays that craziness, if you know what I mean.
03:47I'm not very good with my words.
03:49I'm better with my guitar, I promise.
03:51But yeah, I just absolutely love that one.
03:54Big inspiration for me.
03:55Again, that was another one.
03:56I was like, when I can play that, I'll admit I'm a good guitarist.
03:59And I still won't admit it.
04:00But I love, absolutely love that solo.
04:03Randy Rhodes is such a big inspiration for me.
04:05Like his little techniques and tricks he does.
04:07Like his like finger slides on the fretboards is definitely something that's inspired me a lot.
04:11And I tried to bring into a lot of my solos as well.
04:14And the last one is going to be the final solo in November Rain by Guns N' Roses.
04:26This is just an all-round beautiful song.
04:29It's amazing.
04:30But like they kind of switch up from like the slow song to suddenly having like this build
04:35into this epic solo at the end with the epic bends.
04:38And it's just so, like everyone knows that scene with Slash in the winds.
04:43Like everyone wants to recreate that.
04:46And it's just, I think it's just something that really stands out in people's minds as a solo.
04:51Like Slash is one of my biggest inspirations of all time.
04:54So I couldn't not put a Slash solo in there.
04:57And that one, I think, again, I did a shred version of that.
04:59And kind of learning that solo really taught me so much about emotion and picking different,
05:04putting different notes into different, you know, scales to make it sound good
05:07according to the backing track and everything.
05:10And yeah, they are my five favourite solos.
05:14Thank you so much, Metal Hammer, for having me.
05:16I am Sophie Lloyd here at Damloid.
05:17I am Sophie Lloyd here at Damloid.
05:29I am Sophie Lloyd here at Damloid.
05:29I am Sophie Lloyd here at Damloid.
05:29I am Sophie Lloyd here at Damloid.
05:29I am Sophie Lloyd here at Damloid.
