British YouTuber and electric guitar virtuoso Sophie Lloyd has taken on some titans of rock and pop culture in her time, shredding-up classics like Sultans of Swing and Comfortably Numb, but always adding something new to the mix.
Her latest effort might top them all, though – a monstrous, shred-heavy reworking of the The Office theme song, which morphs the comedy series’ signature tune into an airy, virtuosic lead guitar masterclass.
Lloyd has spent a significant chunk of the year on tour with Machine Gun Kelly and in support of her solo album Imposter Syndrome, but took to Instagram recently to drop the clip, announcing she was “back in the office.”
The song starts off with the an impressively accurate take on the original’s distinctive piano opening, replacing it with a chiming clean guitar and a distorted electric for the synth-y top line.
While the original lasts for a scant 32 seconds, Lloyd lets her imagination run wild on this one, turning it into a lead guitar odyssey that cleverly weaves in and out of the main theme, before loading in some wild two-handed tapping.
It’s been well-received online, with one commenter invoking Eric Johnson comparisons, writing “Big Cliffs of Dover vibes!” – which is an equally bizarre and brilliant observation, given the context.
It’s not necessarily the song we expect to hear Lloyd choose to channel her inner Eric J., but there genuinely is something of Johnson’s brightness to it: that speed-of-light picking, vibrant touch, and ultra-harmonic amp tone are all in there.
We also think it’s one of her most fun and creative treatments yet, bringing a completely new life to the classic TV theme.
As ever, it works weirdly well, but the very fact that Lloyd can do this consistently is really a testament to her well-rounded ability as a player and her ear for melody – not always a given, especially among the prodigious shred talent online.
It’s not the first TV theme, the guitarist has found inspiring, though. Back in our cover interview earlier this year, she revealed that it was actually a cartoon that led her to pick up the guitar in the first place.
