By Martin Popoff

Even though THIN LIZZY are continuing to traipse the big stages, right now touring Europe as support for JUDAS PRIEST, the minds of this army of proven songwriters are focused on one thing – writing some songs.

“The tour is great, man,” begins bassist MARCO MENDOZA, providing BraveWords.com with a road report (down a cell phone line that is not great – i.e. might have got a few words wrong here!). “We’re the first week in and the shows are massive, as you can imagine, and the response has been overwhelming; just a great vibe, you know. You couldn’t ask for a better result, to be honest. Mission accomplished, if you will.”

But back to new music. Discussions with other members of the band as of late have yielded responses similar to the following. No surprise, given that there is so much talent for songwriting in the band, present company, Marco Mendoza heartily included.

“Well, all of us have been throwing some ideas into a melting pot, and we are sketching out some studio dates as we speak, and that will be figured out in the next month or so – because we get little breaks between the legs of different legs. So I think the studio has been booked. I just don’t have the dates off the top of my head. But it will be this month; we’ll go in this month and we’ll start chopping away. And if you can imagine, we want to be really careful about what we put out. But the wheels are in motion, and we’re all excited about that, obviously. So yeah, definitely we will have new music by this summer, if not before; we’re jumping up and down about it.”

Asked what it’s like being part of a rhythm section with Brian Downey, one of classic rock’s deftest touches, Mendoza figures, “Brian has a very unique style, and me being a bass player, yeah, I’ve had the luck to be playing with some major cats, you know? And like I said, Brian has a very unique style, and having been able to play Thin Lizzy music with him and with different drummers, with all due respect to the other cats, Brian is THE cat. He has a soul and a shuffle that is just incredible; it’s monstrous, and it’s perfect for the Thin Lizzy grooves and Thin Lizzy music. And he’s a great guy; I’ve known Brian since ‘94. When I knew he was going to be involved with this, I wanted in. I definitely wanted to be involved with this. So yeah, it’s great touring with Brian; it’s an honour. He’s done a lot, seen a lot, and now we’re sharing a stage. I’m having a blast.”

Consummate music man that he is (check out his jazz bass and scat singing on youtube – stunning), Marco, just as a matter of course, like breathing, keeps his chops up by playing club gigs, in betwixt plying the fat strings for legends that in the past have included WHITESNAKE and TED NUGENT.

“Yeah, yeah, this is something that I’ve done for quite a while. Got a few albums out there, and whenever opportunity knocks and I get invited to this and that, I’ll go, because I absolutely love what I do, man; I really do. And I love going to new territories that are untapped and knocking on and opening some new doors, you know, cultivating some kind of relationship. If it involves music, I’m there, bottom line, if I have the time. So again, this little tour that I did taught me a lot on the business side, and taught me a lot on what I need to concentrate on, things I need to work on, and what songs to play and all that. You’re always learning; that’s what I think. I dig the whole process of it. I’m always learning a lot of things about myself, but I’m always willing to take chances, check it out. What’s the worst that could happen? You’re gonna learn something, either good or bad. So I must admit, man, I had a blast. It was short notice, ticket sales were not over the top and the places were not that big, but I left every gig knowing that I did the best I could, and I know the people that came to the gigs left satisfied. I’m always going to have something on the back-burner, because when you love the whole process like I do, and a lot of it’s new, man, you can’t wait. I don’t want to get comfortable and just go out on the big runs, although I enjoy that. I kinda tended to do that with Whitesnake, to be honest with you. I kinda sat back too much, and five, six years went by, and when it was time to move on, it was like oh shit, man, I could’ve been cultivating this and doing that, and so now that I’m a little older and wiser, I’ll always do that – always.”

But in terms of songs and recording, even though Marco can craft killer solo music, as witnessed on Live For Tomorrow, it’s pretty reasonable that he’s intent on pouring all his talent into new music under the mighty Thin Lizzy banner. These guys really have the opportunity, and the guns, to make a good record, critics be damned, and you can tell that Marco realizes that…

“I’m focused, absolutely, focusing on the Thin Lizzy tracks, next. That’s priority number one. That’s what we’re all thinking and breathing, and God willing, man, we’ll get in there and come up with some great tracks. There’s no doubt in my mind that with this lineup, the well is so full. There’s so much talent in this lineup – in every possible way. Damon, Ricky, Scott, Brian, Darren… I mean, there’s a lot. The hardest thing, to be honest, is going to be picking and choosing, because there’s going be so much. And we just have to know how to go about it, so I’m not worried about it. But that’s priority number one.”
“There’s always something’s cooking,” continues Mendoza, who has also worked with DANIEL CARTER and KELLY CLARKSON as of late. “I got a deal with Frontiers to do another solo album, and I’m thinking about it. But I would much rather have some cats to hang out with, you know? It’s sort of the thing I love. It’s a lot of work, man, picking up players here and there, whoever’s available, and the unfortunate thing, the music suffers, because you don’t have enough time. You have to stay tight together, playing the music, sharing good times together. You kind of need to make the whole thing gel. And then you do ten or 11 or 12 gigs in any given moment, and then you go out again, and, you know, for the most part, the music gets compromised. But I’m thinking, later, in the future, hooking up with some buddies, some friends that I love dearly, that I respect both musically and as human beings, and getting something going.”
“But Thin Lizzy is priority number one, where we’re going to all concentrate all our energies and efforts,” says Marco in closing. “Because, bro, we are carrying the flag, man. We are carrying the flag for Thin Lizzy, for Phil, for Gary, for the boys, for Robbo, Snowy, the legacy that is Thin Lizzy, and I think we’re all ready for it – we’re chomping at the bit to go forward.”