All the Stupid Smiling Faces

Chris Young and David Coffey instantly bonded over their love of The Stooges and The Beatles when they met in 2004 and started playing music together soon after. They began Insurgents as an intense, grungy 2 piece in the mid naughties and were then joined by Mike Ellis not long after. After acquiring Will Edmonds and lots of new and improved material the band soon became seemingly unstoppable.

Insurgents, alongside local Christchurch friends Bang! Bang! Eche!, The O'Lovelys, Charlie Bones and The Transistors, are a tight and fun-loving group who just loved to play good music and party. Despite (or perhaps thanks to) the often-messy nature of the shows, they were always a wonderful and memorable experience for those that attended.

After recording a four track EP - 'Yours Disappointedly' - with Joseph Veale, and having tracks make the charts of Kiwi FM and the bNet radio stations, all four decided to leave Christchurch. Rob Mayes at Failsafe Records recognized that what Insurgents had going was brilliant. Not wanting them to leave without saving a few more songs from becoming inevitably lost, Mayes generously offered to help them make an album. With a tight time frame of just a few weeks to record before Chris left to Europe, Mike and Will already living in Auckland, and budget of zero, Insurgents' debut album, 'All The Stupid Smiling Faces', has incredibly made its way to completion. None of us are getting out alive, so lets party!