Zach took two music classes each semester while completing his degree at UT. One of his roommates, Eric Reehl, introduced Zach to his high school friends Eric Larson and Brady Hughes, who eventually formed the band Johnny Law. Zach jammed with them at parties and small gigs. Just before he graduated, and about the time he earned his pilot’s license, Brady, Johnny Law’s guitarist, asked him to join the band. Not long after Zach had made the choice to serve his country, Johnny Law recorded and released a successful album.
“Even as I did well and was enjoying my military service, music was always there in the back of my mind, prompting me to wonder, ‘What would have happened if…?’,” says Zach, who was born in Kerrville, TX and grew up in nearby Comfort, where he now lives. “I had written our class song in high school and many other tunes but everything was put on the back burner to focus on more practical pursuits. Interestingly, I discovered that the military attracts musical types of people and there were others just like me, setting aside their ambitions to serve their country.
While Zach’s multi-faceted military, career and family life granted success and fulfillment on multiple levels, the pragmatic paths he chose also took him far away from pursuing his early musical dreams.
Excelling in high school in football, basketball, baseball and track, Zach originally enrolled at Texas A&M, where he practiced with the football team his freshman year. But it was his other childhood passion, music, which made transferring to UT, which had a rep as a great music school, after three years a no brainer. He started classical piano lessons at six and later took classical guitar lessons before playing trumpet in the school band in middle school. But it was his older sister’s giving him a copy of The Beatles Sgt. Pepper that hooked him on rock and roll, a passion that later included love for the piano men, Elton John and Billy Joel, Rolling Stones, Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin. As a young adult, one of his favorite bands was nu metal legends Korn.
It proved to be an empowering choice, leading to two distinguished stints in the military (totaling 11 years) leading combat missions, training pilots and showing valor and heroism worthy of Maverick, Goose and countless medals, awards and distinguished service commendations. In between his first stint in Okinawa, Japan (1988-92) and Langley AFB and Bad Kreuznach, Germany (1996-2003) and after he separated from active duty service, he ran Sweeney Enterprises, a successful animal feeder manufacturer that his parents John and Doris launched in the late 60s. Zach also raised three amazing children (Quinlan, Aidan and Emiko, all now in their 20s) with the love of this life, his wife Kimberly, a western Virginia raised Naval nurse he met while serving in Okinawa. He spent much of his spare time coaching his kids’ football, soccer and baseball teams.
“I was lucky to play music quite a lot when I was in the Air Force,” he adds, “If there was a piano at a club we were hanging out at, I was always there, leading singalongs of Elton, Billy and The Beatles songs. In Okinawa, as part of the 67th Fighter Squadron (The Fighting Cocks), our squadron bar was the Zipper (think about it!). My commander got wind of my talent and hired me to play background music at Christmas parties. I also played at friends’ weddings over the years, but when I got out of the military, running a small business and raising three kids took precedence. My life was great in so many ways, but it always felt like I had unfinished business.”
Nearly four decades after choosing the Air Force over Johnny Law and wherever that road may have led, Zach is finally returning to his first love, recording a batch of his songs - some of which he’s been sitting on since high school and college! His goals are to both document the fruits of his creative expression and release them to the world, with the hopes they can connect with a world of fans who may be also inspired by his personal story as they vibe to his unique lyrical narratives and a hybrid style that draws from classic rock, alternative rock and prog rock.
The opportunity to pursue music more seriously than ever before arose serendipitously at Zach’s 40th Comfort High School reunion, when he reconnected with his old friend and fellow musician David Ehninger. The two jammed together at the party and with Zach’s son Aidan’s band (American Megafauna) then started talking outside on the patio. Zach learned that David, recently retired from his successful career in tech, had recently opened his own studio, Across The Road LLC, in Katy, TX (a half hour outside of Houston). The small facility has since evolved into a competitive music production company, one of the few music studios that is a Certified Dolby ATMOS mixing studio (www.acrosstheroadllc.com).
Zach and Dave jammed together at another party a year later and began to talk more seriously about working together at Dave’s studio. Zach was excited at the prospect not only of creating tracks with his old friend but also working with Dave’s main engineer, Danny Jones, a true behind the scenes legend who in his fascinating career behind the boards has recorded greats like Etta James, Patti Labelle, Ramsey Lewis, The Meters, Dr. John, The Staples Singers, The Neville Brothers, The Beach Boys and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Zach brought to the session his electric keyboard and both Quinlan and Aidan to play guitar.
At the first session, they recorded “Star” (a piano driven ballad he wrote back in high school), “Systems Overload” (a synthy pop-rocker he penned in college) and a song Quinlan composed titled “Getting Off The Beaten Path.” Zach’s two originals are now the foundation for his upcoming as yet untitled debut EP, which includes a total of six tunes written by Zach, plus a heartfelt version of John Lennon’s iconic “Imagine” featuring a string quartet. Zach performs most of the instruments (including acoustic guitar played on synth!), while renowned contemporary jazz saxophonist Dean James contributes powerful solos to “Blue Shade of Grey” and “Woulda Coulda.” Danny Jones played the drums throughout the recordings and his wife Rene Jones added the awesome backup vocals. Local legend Dan Smith plays bass on these songs. Dan toured with Mickey Gilley years ago and played on both a Grammy and Dove Award winning album.
“What I’m enjoying the most is writing and putting the pieces of the recordings together,” Zach says. “I’m learning that you really must invest the time to get every detail just right. I had recorded some of these on cassette years earlier, and there is an incredible difference in what it takes to bring them to life in a professional studio. I enjoyed sitting down with David and Danny and envisioning how these songs would sound and then engaging in the actual act of creation. It’s cool to have something swimming around in your head, and then a few weeks later emerge with something incredible that you can listen to. That’s a very satisfying experience for me.
“At this age now, I have a big bucket full of memories and life experiences to draw from in my songwriting,” he adds. “I tend to be a little philosophical sometimes, so the best way to approach lyrics is for me to make people think a little bit while also remembering it’s okay to be silly sometimes.”
While grateful that he’s finally been able to start fulfilling his long set aside musical goals, he is proud of not only his life as a family man but as the President and Owner of Sweeney Enterprises, keeping the company his parents founded over 50 years ago alive, surviving at times and thriving at others. His parents began making deer feeder timers in the late 60’s. At the time John Sweeney owned a clock and speedometer repair shop. A few customers brought in some homemade timers for repair. In order to serve them better, he began making his own timers and they were an immediate sensation. Sweeney Feeders carries a full line of Directional Pond and Lake Fish Feeders, Deer Feeders, Koi Feeders and Automatic Bird Feeders.
Nothing Zach has accomplished in business compares, however, to his life-transforming stints in the Air Force, which he would have stayed in 15 years longer had he not suffered a neck injury (pinched nerves and bulging discs) that prevented him from flying an ejection seat aircraft. His early service in Okinawa allowed him to develop exceptional aerial combat skills in the F-15C, brief and lead many complex training missions and coordinate and track 20 ground training events for 40 pilots.
Zach’s second stint included directly supervising and mentoring 10 F-15C pilots, training them to become combat mission ready, and to lead complex combat missions himself. Among his accomplishments, he planned, organized and supervised the deployment of the 27th Fighter Squadron to Saudi Arabia in 2001 – which included 12 F-15C aircraft, millions of dollars in equipment and 150 personnel. He served as overall Mission Commander of combat missions involving over 60 aircraft and 100 aircrew from all branches of service and dozens of international allies. He led missions over the hostile skies of Iraq while encountering enemy surface to air fire. Zach also served as Director of Aerial Operations for the 1st Fighter Wing’s air show in 2002, coordinating more than 20 aerial acts and 80+ aircrafts for an event with an audience of 160,000.
“Similar to trading ideas and working with Dave and Danny in the studio and much like when I was growing up playing on sports teams,” Zach says, “truly the most gratifying thing about being in the Air Force was the camaraderie I had with my buddies who I served with. Leading those missions was a great accomplishment I will always be proud of. Being shot at in the air is not the same as being on the ground facing attacks from the enemy and seeing your buddies get shot at. It’s more a remote experience. I didn’t find it to be stressful at all. Like the opportunity to make music now, it was exhilarating and energizing.”