You're listening to 20,000 Hertz.

The stories behind the world's most iconic and fascinating sounds.

I'm Dallas Taylor.

As an 80s kid who watched a lot of television, there are certain TV theme songs that instantly take me back to childhood, stuff

like Fragile Rock.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Wonder Years.

What's what you do if I sang attitude? and the Wonder Years.

Then there's Reading Rainbow.

As a little kid, that song felt magical, and it still does,

which is why I was so excited when out of the blue I got an email saying,

Hey, Dallas, I'm the original composer behind the reading rainbow theme,

and I'd love to come on 20,000 Hertz and talk about it.

Um, yes, please.

Hey, I'm Steve Horlick, composer, producer, performer of electronic music.

In the late 70s, Steve co-founded an experimental band called The Electronic Art Ensemble.

They played wild, improvisational music through interconnected synthesizers and effects.

This is a track called Caldron from their album in Quietude.

Steve wanted to bring that adventurous spirit into the world of commercial music, and he knew just the people to do it with.

My musical partner at the time was Janet Weir and another partner, Dennis, Neil Kleinman.

Dennis and I had been working together for several years doing some songwriting, and Janet and I were basically business partners starting our music production company in New York City.

The company was called Patchworks, as in the patch cables used to connect modular synthesizers and other audio gear.

At the time, there were very few music houses in New York City that did like crazy

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