Jenny Toomey of Liquorice

by David Robbins

Jenny Toomey of Simple Machines Records, Liquorice, and formerly of Grenadine, Tsunami and Geek did an interview with RAD a few weeks ago while she was chilling at home in Washington DC Here's what we found out.

The rest of Liquorice is Dan Littleton (of Hated and Ida) on guitar and Trey Many (of His Name Is Alive) on drums. Jenny and Dan met about seven years ago at one of their bands' concerts. They've been playing guitar and singing together for about that long. Trey joined the band when producer/engineer Warren Defever (of His Name Is Alive) invited him to learn some songs Jen and Dan had written as Liquorice. He picked them up in about a day.

Liquorice recorded about 30 songs with Warren and left them with him for remixing, etc. These 30 turned into about 70, then Warren and the band chose the best songs and their best respective versions for the album, which was released in July under the title Listening Cap. Jenny says she wasn't really surprised by Warren's remixing with its quirky little sound effects (especially on "Drive Around") since she had worked with him when she was in Grenadine. She was a little freaked out by the "weird stuff" Warren made them do, like using the mouth guitar on the deeply buried vocal in the Trump Suit remix.

Jenny owns and manages Simple Machines records with her friend Kristin Thomson in our nation's capitol. In 5 years they've put out about 70 releases. Jenny says all their bands have the talent it takes to be huge, they just lack the funds to get them the exposure it takes to sell millions. bands on Simple Machines include Liquorice of course, Scrawl, Retsyn, Raymond Brake, Franklin Bruno, Ida, and Hated (which also has some releases on the Vermin Scum label). You can get Simple Machines recordings by writing them at PO box 10290, Arlington, VA 22201. Seven-inches are $3.00.

Liquorice is now on tour in the US for about 2 months. Dan and Trey plan to record with their other bands as early as December (Dan with Ida, Trey with Velour). Jenny has been working on a musical with Franklin Bruno (who wrote "Keeping the Weekend Free") and Rob Christiansen from Eggs and Viva Satellite. If she had her way though, they'd start working on the next Liquorice lp.

Check out the Simple Machines web site at sim.mach@aol.comm.

Go see Liquorice if you get a chance.