Before we were Broken,
we were just Toothpicks
Spencer, Anthony, Taylor, and Bret, otherwise known collectively as the Toothpicks - were the first and last boy band to emerge from the student body of American Heritage. Set up in direct opposition to the Clothespins, an accapella trio comprised of two Spanish teachers and the Gym teacher, the Toothpicks set out to...well...sing, I guess. We didn't really have any other intention besides singing and being the rivals of the Clothespins.
Yeah, that was pretty much it.
We had sung in Seminary and in spontaneous groups at Youth Conference, and at least three of us were cast in the High School production of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown!, so we decided to perform in the school talent show. We sang Seize the Day from Newsies, and basically became rock stars by our own standard.
We talked of recording albums in Spencer's basement and even filming our own music videos! After all, we had filmed a few videos already and were beginning to get the hang of it.
But these dreams were all shattered when Bret left American Heritage to attend a high school more suitably equipped to meet his musical theater needs. We never heard from Bret again.
Broken-hearted over this abandonment, the
remaining Toothpicks did not sing together again for a whole year until the following summer of 2011, when we assumed the title of the Broken Toothpicks and came together to write our first official parody: Sandwiches (2011).
Likewise broken-hearted over the fact that the Vocab Wars saga would remain incomplete, we organized ourselves not only as the Broken Toothpicks singing group, but as the Chosen Ones Production group, and for the next nine months we recorded and published four music videos under those titles.
Eventually we each submitted papers to serve two years as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Taylor was called to Minnesota, Anthony to the Philippines, and Spencer to Salt Lake City, where each of us sacrificed all of our time and energy to the building up of the Kingdom of God in whatever capacity we were called to. Educational, professional, and romantic pursuits were all placed on hold - and so were the Broken Toothpicks.
Anthony draws his mission!
Taylor shares his mission!
In due time, we all returned from our missions older, wiser, and hungry for more videos! With new ideas and aspirations, we picked back up with our parody music videos, but this time leaving behind the Chosen Ones title and simply calling ourselves, Broken Toothpicks Productions.
Since that time, we've managed to record quite a few songs, with probably only half of those becoming music videos. Some we still hope to make someday, while others have been released as musical recording only, while yet others have been outright cast aside to be forgotten in the ash heap of history.
All that being said, we have done our best to fill the internet with our strange ideas, but mostly to uplift our viewers with positive ideas and humor - and although we have never been recognized on the street or received awards of any kind, we love what it is that we've done and hope you love it (at least) almost as much!
