Stir was founded in 1994 as a three piece band at the University of Missouri, and consisted of lead vocalist and guitarist Andy Schmidt, bassist Kevin Gagnepain, and drummer Brad Booker.
During support of Holy Dogs they made an appearance on then-popular VH1 show The List, performing "New Beginning" as well as a cover of the Nirvana single "In Bloom" live in the studio.
Even with all of this self-promotion, and the semi-success of the singles, Holy Dogs failed to make a dent in the industry, selling roughly 45,000 copies by the end of the album cycle.
In late 2001/early 2002, Andy and Kevin entered a new song of theirs into the International Songwriting Competition,[2] an annual contest typically receiving 15,000+ entries from bands and artists around the globe, featuring industry judges such as Rob Thomas of matchbox twenty, Arif Mardin, and many others.
Following the tour in support of Holy Dogs, founding member and drummer Brad Booker left the band to pursue a solo career, arranging compositions for some Volkswagen and NCAA ads, as well as joining up briefly with Gravity Kills and then Apartment 26 (see notes below).
The band was eventually dropped by Capitol after extended talks, but the label retained the rights to the unreleased material as well as the previous albums (both of which were out of print, but have since been reissued, both physically and digitally).
As posted to the band's message board, bassist Kevin Gagnepain refers to the unreleased CD by the title Untitled, Unmastered, and Unemployed.
The band unofficially broke up in 2005, shortly after Andy and Kevin played an acoustic concert on 11/26 at The Pageant in St. Louis, in support of a local musicians showcase.
During the extended hiatus as Stir, several members established themselves in new musical efforts as solo artists or with new bands during the lull: The original members of STIR started a "side gig" as El Monstero y Los Masked Avengers back in the early 2000s, where they would play a Pink Floyd cover show in between album/tour cycles in order to stay sharp and earn some cash.
St. Louis radio station 105.7 The Point announced on April 19, 2016 that Stir would be part of the lineup for its Wayback Pointfest on July 9, 2016 at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheater.
[5] The original members, Andy, Brad, and Kevin, along with supporting musicians, rocked through a ten-song setlist, including "Lady Bug", "One Angel", "Holy Dogs" and "Hold On".