An interview with Billy Herzig, deep in the heart of the museum

by guest contributor, Eoin Donovan

On a late February afternoon behind locked doors at the Arlington Museum of Art, Billy Herzig had agreed to meet me for a chat in his esoteric recording studio: Zig Productions. As we walked towards the elevator that took us to the basement, we glossed over the installation of the next exhibition happening at the museum. Billy and I got comfortable in the studio’s control room and chatted for just over an hour and a half.

Topics that we discussed included his early career, his time in Nashville, and how he got involved with the Arlington Museum of Art (AMA). Aside from his career, it was refreshing to hear his thoughts on different topics like identifying burnout, valuing time, humility with egos, drawing inspiration from the community, and working efficiently.

– Eoin Donovan

Early Career

Billy sat in the producer’s chair near his mixing board and outboard equipment where he thought back to his early career in the music industry. The first recording studio he worked out of was on the north side of Fort Worth, in the backyard of his parent’s house coined Abalone Studio by his friend and business partner at the time, James Ray Richardson. A four-track tape recorder that he purchased for close to twelve hundred dollars ended up being a valuable tool for him in recording audio. With it, he managed to record all the bands in his neighborhood. Through this work, he met Victor Mantecon, the Program Director at KESS radio. In this relationship, Victor wrote copy and lyrics for radio jingles and Billy wrote the music, played instruments, and engineered them.

In the 80s, Billy moved his recording studio to Arlington into a warehouse near Dalworthington Gardens that shared space with a dance studio called Prism Performing Arts Center, where he became friends with owner Jane Alexander. At this point, he upgraded from an eight-track tape recorder to a sixteen-track tape recorder, which expanded his multi-track recording capabilities. In this studio, Billy’s clients were Arlington High School, the University of Texas in Arlington, and bands of many genres across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

Like it is today, the Country music genre was a prominent demand in Texas during the 80s. Billy took this as an opportunity to learn the patterns of it playing in country bands around the area and follow suit through writing. As Billy honed his craft, he would send cassette tapes of his songs out to LA and Nashville in hopes of getting a rare callback.

“I did receive a few calls from publishers and producers who liked my songs, but nothing that led to a cut on a record – just encouragement,” Billy remembers. “Then I gradually started to take trips to Austin and Nashville so I could play songs for people in person. This went on for several years.”

Nashville Years

In the late ’80s, Billy’s second song cut in Nashville pulled him into the Nashville scene. His song “Right From the Start” was performed by the late Earl Thomas Conley on RCA records and reached #1 on the Billboard Country charts. “Right From the Start” was co-written with Fort Worth songwriter and friend Randy Watkins.

“Randy’s a good writer, and we would always laugh and joke around whenever we wrote together,” said Billy.

The success of this song enabled it to be used in the soundtrack of a film. Billy suggests turning up the volume during the scene in the movie Roadhouse where they play a few songs on the jukebox in the background and might barely be heard. The heights this song reached proved the Nashville market made sense for his work. Billy then signed a deal as a staff writer for Tree Publishing, which became Sony/ATV. Later, he wrote for Warner/Chappell and opened Grey House Studio on 17th Ave (Music Row).

Having been a staff writer created opportunities for Billy to work with many talented people. During his time with Warner/Chappell and Music Daily Publishing, he produced and played on hundreds of songwriter demos for his colleagues as well as his own songs alongside well-known session musicians. In addition to his work with songwriters, Billy has also produced more than 60 custom independent CD projects.

Back to Texas

After 20 years in Nashville, Billy decided it was time to move back to Texas. Revisiting with his Arlingtonite friend, Jane Alexander, he was able to meet Nancy Tice and Chris Hightower at the Arlington Museum of Art. The basement of AMA was being used by the Arlington Independent School District at the time but was soon approved for Billy to build out his latest recording studio, Zig Productions. The construction was done by Chance Ford and his son Aliza Ford, who are both country singer-songwriters.

“They do great work, and Aliza is a cool Texas artist,” said Billy.

Producing and engineering music projects directly under a museum has had an immense impact on Billy’s work. In his words, “Over the years, I’ve enjoyed being around all the fun, creative people at the museum…artists and lovers of art and music. I worked on live music projects with Chris and Nancy and helped where I could at various events. And I got to see exhibits like Ansel Adams, Salvador Dali, Picasso, Keith Haring, Toulouse-Lautrec, etc.”

With his expansive history in the music business, Billy will continue his creative work in Arlington for many years to come.

More information on Billy Herzig: zigworld.com

Photos by Eoin Donovan