As part of their Double Joint tour, Ozric Tentacles stopped by Northampton to perform an unforgotten gig (reviewed here). In honour of this auspicious occasion, The Midlands Rocks sat down with founding member Ed Wynne to explore the past and look to the future.

You are currently on tour with Gong. How’s it going?

So far, so good. I always forget how nice they are in between tours, then we tour with them again and it’s great. We have a mutual respect and it’s full of happy vibes.

This tour’s itinerary is really old school with not many days off. What’s your survival plan?

We know touring very well, and the exhaustion doesn’t really hit too hard because the elation from playing counteracts it. The good vibes keep us going and that’s how we survive really.

Over the years Ozric Tentacles has had a very fluid line-up. Do you feel that aided the band’s longevity?

I guess it has. A lot of people have joined this band and then recognised the musical potential in themselves and then gone and done there own thing. It keeps it going, apart from myself getting younger and younger [laughs], as people veer off and do other things. But yes, I think the fluidity has a lot to do with it.

In the ‘80s music was very tribal, but Ozric Tentacles was the one band who united punks, ravers and metalheads. What’s your crossover appeal?

That’s very nice to hear. Personally, I don’t care what music I’m listening too, I love most of it and I take inspiration from it as much as I can. I don’t care if it comes from a certain genre, if we are making a rock tune and we feel it needs a techno blippy bit, then we’ll slam one in there. Why not? If it works and makes you smile, then go for it.

When Ozric first started you were defiantly D.I.Y., but now you have PR representation and you’re signed to Kscope Records. How has it been relinquishing control?

It has happened very gradually, and to be honest I haven’t really noticed. We started off making our own tapes and selling them from the front of the stage, to getting the odd record deal here and there, it has evolved very incrementally and has felt very natural. The main thing is that we weren’t in a particular hurry and it feels comfortable enough.

Have you faced any hostility from your fanbase for drifting away from the D.I.Y. aesthetic?

No, it’s all been very cool. The thing is we kept going through the years and I think there’s a respect there from having stomped through all that. Some people didn’t want us to become “mainstream”, we kind of did and it has been fine.

I think you’ve found a happy medium.

The style is definitely D.I.Y,. we’re not getting many influences from other places. We live quite remotely, away from the fray and the influence of other music. We spend all day playing around with music and pulling it out the ether with not much thought to the style or genre.

2023 is Ozric’s 40th anniversary which is kind of mind-blowing. Are you one for looking back, and how do you feel about this milestone?

I think it’s incredible. I feel incredibly gratified to still be able to do this band and have as much fun as I always did and that’s amazing. I feel very blessed for that. I look back on it very fondly, although I miss some of the people I’ve played with, but people come and go. I appreciate it and I’ve had a very happy career thus far.

Does it feel like 40 years, or has it flown by?

There’s aspects of it that feel like a million years and it feels like yesterday when we called ourselves Ozric Tentacles by the fire at Stonehenge festival.

As you mentioned, the band were formed in Wiltshire. That corner of England is a very magical place. Did that magic play into the band’s formation?

Yes, for sure. The people we attract are into that stuff, and we’re into the other-worldly, spiritual side of things and that corner definitely has that going on with Cadbury Castle and Stonehenge and all those places. It’s lovely, I really like it down there.

If Ozric Tentacles were to form today, do you think you’d be able to have the same type of career? It’s so hard to live an alternative lifestyle in this day and age.

It is. It’s hard to say, but I don’t think the band would be the same if we formed it today. It was very fortunate when we did start, some people say it was foretold [laughs] but it seemed we were there at the right time when it needed to be formed. We were able to weave our little story through the musical otherness that is the alternative English rock music.

Coming to the present, you’ve recently released a new album Lotus Unfolding (reviewed here). When making an album how do you walk the line between pleasing your fans and yourself?

I please myself first [laughs], because it’s a fun thing I do everyday. The thing is, whatever record I make there’s going to be people who love it and people who don’t, who wish it was like the old days and playing with musicians who used to be in the band, but people move on, in the same way they don’t hang out with the people they used to. But it’s a bit of both really, It seems that when I’m pleased with something then it’s pleasing to the people who come to listen to what we do. At least most of the time, I do occasionally go off on one sometimes! Thankfully, what we like goes down, and enough people like it to keep it all alive.

Lotus Unfolding has a very organic feel. Is that what you were aiming for?

I don’t really aim for anything [laughs], I just make tunes and when there’s enough I plump them together. But, yes, it does sound organic, I don’t know why because it has been done a similar way to the other albums, but each one has a different energy.

What motivates you to keep touring and making albums?

Everybody else! They say “Come on, we’ve got to go on tour” and I say “Alright then”. But making albums is my world, I wake up in the morning, have tea then go straight to the studio and make music all day, then cook and sleep, then do it all again. It’s my art, it’s what I do. It’s like a mad painter who can’t stop painting, it’s my thing.

You have your own studio now, has that been an aid to making music? Brian Wilson (The Beach Boys) once said he played the studio like an instrument.

I’ve always had a studio of some sort, this is one of the nicer ones, certainly not the nicest, it’s not bad; a garage converted in the garden, soundproofed and painted blue on the inside, which is very important to me, it works in a room for me, creatively. It’s outside, which at this time of year is a challenge to get out there, especially in Scotland with a sideways blizzard in your face, staggering along with a cup of tea. It’s all good.

So, what’s left for you to achieve?

Just more of the same. I’ve got another record that I’ve almost finished, and I’m really enjoying working with our new drummer, it’ll be his fifth show with us tonight. I’m really looking forward to recording some music with him, that’s going to be a real thrill and that’s the next exciting thing. For various reasons, I do have to programme a lot of drum patterns myself, and some people do miss the real drum thing but having Pat [Garvey] on board, he’s probably the first drummer who could achieve what I’ve programmed.

There’s something about a real drummer that can’t be replicated by a machine.

There really is. When someone’s playing, their energy does transfer onto the recording. If they can do it, because my programming is pretty intricate, and it seems Pat can, it’s wonderful for me.

It sounds as if he’s going to open new musical avenues for you.

He is, both on stage and in the studio. It’s very exciting.

There’s still a lot of musical territory for you to explore. There’s more chapters to be written.

There are, at least three [laughs].

Finally, if I had a magic wand and could make one dream come true for Ozric Tentacles, what would it be?

To be able to keep doing what we are doing right now, and for a long while yet. We’re in a very happy place at the moment.