"Interstellar Overdrive" is an instrumental composition written and performed by the English rock band Pink Floyd.

[10] "Interstellar Overdrive" originated when early Pink Floyd manager Peter Jenner was trying to hum a song he could not remember the name of (most commonly identified as Love's cover of "My Little Red Book").

[3][11][12] Guitarist and vocalist Syd Barrett followed Jenner's humming with his guitar and used it as the basis for the principal melody of "Interstellar Overdrive".

Bassist Roger Waters once told Barrett that the song's riff reminded him of the theme tune from Steptoe and Son (by Ron Grainer).

[4][13] Around the time the song was written, Barrett was inspired by AMM and their guitarist Keith Rowe, who had a pattern of moving pieces of metal along his guitar's fretboard.

[15] The opening hook of the piece is a distorted, descending guitar riff, played by Barrett, its composer, with Waters on bass and Richard Wright on organ.

[34] Stern said that "they're successful now", and suggest the pair go watch Pink Floyd, at their gig at the Royal College of Art.

[35] For the session, which was booked for two hours, Wood and Joe Boyd operated the mixing desk, while Whitehead and Stern were filming.

[nb 6][36][37] While attempting to get the band a record deal, Boyd returned with the group to Sound Techniques studios.

[42] An early, unoverdubbed, shortened mix of the album's "Interstellar Overdrive" was used for a French EP released in July 1967.

[22] Despite its encapsulation of their concert repertoire under the leadership of guitarist and composer Barrett, the long, improvisational, freeform structure of the piece is not particularly representative of the group's recorded output.

As drummer Mason states in his book Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd, live versions of the song featured many sections that did not appear on the album, and would often last more than 20 minutes.

[11] During one performance of the song, at a gig organized by Hoppy Hopkins, Pink Floyd managed to blow out the power of a venue.

[46] Pink Floyd were filmed performing the song for Granada Television's Scene Special Documentary, in January 1967 at the UFO Club.

[52] In 1969, Frank Zappa joined the band onstage at the Actuel Festival in Amougies, Belgium, to perform a long loose version of the song.