We Insist

We Insist! was born in late 1995 in Paris, bringing together musicians with various styles and aspirations around trumpeter François Mellan. The group then took over the funk standards. For three years the septuor will tour the Parisian bars and eventually dissolve, with a few coppers, after two recordings. At the end of 1998, the band continued to work to release a first 5 eponymous titles in 1999. At the end of that same year will come the first self-produced LP I Witness! , anagram of the group's surname, giving this time in the hazel-rock deconstruct. The title "La Valseuse" from this album will be used for the credits of the show "Painture Fraîche" on France Culture. The line-up will stabilize for a while: Etienne Gaillochet (song/battery), Julien Divisia (guitar/chore), Eric Martin (guitar/chore), Julien Allanic (bass), François Wong (saxophones). This will be enriched by a second saxophonist (Cyrille Méchin), who will remain 8 years in the group. We Insist! followed the dates and released Inner Pond (2001) and Crude (2004) on the label Le Triton, produced by Martial De Roffignac. Crude will set the tone of the quintet's musical ambitions, punctuating everywhere, in math-rock as much as in post-hardcore, jazz, or even pop, striving to give coherence to the ensemble. In 2006, We Insist! eats bitumen outside the borders (Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, etc.), and it is quite naturally that Andreas Kohl, owner of Berlin label Exile On Mainstream, signs them in 2007. The result is the 4th LP Oh! Things Are So Corruptible, in a more melodic and delusional vein. After that the band will shoot with 31Knots, Unsane, Dyse, Bulbul, or the Ex and David Yow. In 2009 released the album The Babel Inside Was Terrible , still on the same label, produced by Peter Deimel (The Kills , Deus , Chokebore ...), darker and more oppressive. Tired by the weight of years and tours, saxophonist Cyrille
Méchin and guitarist Julien Divisia leave the band, at one year
Interval. We Insist! cash the deal and get back to work
in 2010, this time on a completely new project: a film-concert about Walter's film
Ruttmann Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt ,
1927 silent documentary film about the Weimar Republic. The group therefore goes back on tour to defend this project. In February 2014 released the 6th
album, eponymous, on the Toulouse label Vicious Circle . The trio delivers more noise-rock and stripped compositions. In 2017 Julien Divisia returned, instead of Julien Allanic, for the release of Wax and Wane . line-up : Etienne Gaillochet : Battery/Synthé/Chant Julien Divisia : Bass/Guitare/Voix/Mandoline/Piano Eric Martin : Guitar/Voix