Why “StirFry?”

As we’ve grown our presence in the city we’ve started seeing a common question come up from new or perspective members. Why “StirFry?”

Well, what started as a small group of friends who would get together each week before an open mic, has grown into something much larger, and we truly never thought we’d need to explain this formally. It hasn’t been until recently that we put much thought into the name, but now that we’ve garnered some attention it feels as though its time to address it.

SO… Why “StirFry?” Well, the short answer is that it was the name of a group chat held between the three founding members.

It was nearing the end of the summer in 2023 and myself (Ian) and two new friends I had met an open mic (Trent and Graham) decided to meet up and Jam before the night got started. Graham offered to cook us all some food, but realized he only had a smattering of random ingredients which came together in the end as a stirfry. We didn’t think much of it and jokingly renamed our chat “The StirFry Sessions.”

Weeks went on and we continued this tradition, each week, meeting at grahams place where he would cook stirfry and we would all share new songs, ideas, stories, and generally just hang out over a shared passion in music. We began adding other musicians to the chat and soon had a regular group of about 4-8 people meeting weekly to commiserate over the joys and struggles of creative pursuit. None of us really thinking too deeply about special this was, just being glad to have a community of people to exist with.

At a certain point, the text chat just became a place to shamelessly plug show dates and project releases, but the community we were building felt much bigger than that. We decided we wanted to put on a show and one of our memebers had connections to the booker at The Roxy on Broadway. We booked a date in April 2024, utilizing the speakeasy in the basement to bring everyone together, and showcased three of our favorite people and performers. It was a magical night. The room was shockingly full and had an energy that people couldn’t help but comment on throughout the evening. It was here that we knew we had to pursue this further, whatever it was.

What simply began as a group chat, had brought to life a feeling that we want to recreate and relive as many times as we can. An inside joke, crafted without much thought, turned out to be the perfect embodiment for what we are now bringing to the larger Denver music scene. Stirfry is a dish that exists, in some form, in almost all cultures. At its base, its thing you make when you have a bunch the ingredients but maybe not an exact recipe. Thats exactly who we are and who we’ll continue to be; a smattering the right ingredients, seemingly unrelated, just add a little heat and you’ll never go hungry again.