There were several large visual music production companies in the United States and all of them emerged about the same time at the beginning of the era known as "the sixties", circa 1964-1970. The Electric Collage was based in Atlanta Georgia and worked all over the southern United States.

The live show was produced by Steve Cheatham, an experimental filmmaker and multimedia artist and Frank Hughes a projected media artist  Most of the media was produced by Frank and Steve and evolved weekly as the show worked with different bands and venues.

The Electric Collage visual music was produced by combining movies, slides, abstract color and shapes into one "Electric Collage" of images that flowed with the music. It was described by one viewer as "a spectacular visualization of music through color and images designed to extended your musical experience."

Producing a visual music light show week after week was a full time life. The rigors of producing new content, using experimental technology and traveling made for some exciting times.

Steve said, " Before the Electric Collage I had been making experimental movies. I started shooting 8mm experimental movies in 1966. Then as I went on into kenitic media the premise that colors and textures have harmonious relationships in aural and visual music were at the core of my production values. As an artistI I had studied this in depth and did many experiments. I had done some small scale light shows at my apartment for some friends. I combined my films and kenitic art to the Rolling Stones. I was just having fun making art.

During that era when I was living in a midtiown Atlanta apartment. I met my light show partner Frank while I was doing a show at a local coffee house called The Catacombs with a band called The Bag. It was on the corner of 14th and Peachtree St.in Atlanta and was the first gathering place for the new culture. Several 60's bands got their start there. Frank and I clicked immediately and went in business together. We got a house to live in so we could live where the equipment and production facility was located. We built a darkroom, bought some projection equipment and started a commercial venture doing light shows at music concerts.

We worked almost every week. Several times many weeks. Frank worked at his band booking agency Discovery, Inc.and kept us and many local bands in jobs. I worked as an artist and filmmaker. Together we produced media and the shows. We put a lot of miles on the black dodge van and went through a lot of projector bulbs. Somehow between the two of us if we needed something done, one of us had the right skills. We built our own control panels, had a darkroom and made many different pieces of media. We produced a live show setting up scaffolding and screens and projectors show after show.

We worked a lot at rock concerts and not much at the symphony. We wanted to work other styles of music. We could do some very different visuals. But we did a lot of rock concerts. So the media library was full of stuff that was appropriate for rock and roll. Everything we did in the sixties seemed to be related to some mission to fix society or improve life for the entire world. Much of our imagery was associated with those ideas. I recall doing a few shows with other styles of music but the rock and roll jobs paid the bills.

As an experimental filmmaker images were flying around in my head all the time and it was all I could do to get them all rounded up and into the light show. I was always seeking new ways to make my visualizations come to reality. I had to push photographic, projection and a couple of other technologies to get the images I wanted. It was a very creative process much like any other art form. The experiments with the media, the completion of a work of art and all the joys of being artists when your ideas work out. Frank and I working together experimenting with the media and producing films keep us in new media.

For me the liquids were just a piece of the collage on the wall and mostly used for blending the various pieces of media and to add motion to the screen. I depended on them to be very accurately manipulated and that is why I did that part myself during the show. Over time I spent a lot of time developing the formula to produce the liquids. This was one of our trademarks. Our colors were always brilliant and full of different hues.

Using the multiple projectors and custom control panel we could mix much more complex images than you saw on television or in motion pictures. TV was still very basic with images that were mostly designed for black and white. Except for color and resolution movies were not much more sophisticated than TV and had very little special effects. 2001 A Space Odyssey had just been released and their single special effect with the infinite color tunnel was taken right out of a light show. People used to flock to that movie just to see that sequence.

In contrast, our imaging was multi layered, windowed and very complex. Plus they were in real time and spontaneous. We often had many different story threads going on the screen. Very complex images. However, it was our intent not to distract from the music but to enhance it. It took a lot of instinct and elegance to use all those special effects without being a distraction. But as artists were had no problem blending the visual music with the aural music and building a harmonious experience for the audience.