Catapulted to the Top : Stikkitty’s Double Success in Band Competition Serves as Motivation to Prove Itself Worthy

Even if Stikkitty someday gains mega-stardom, it is unlikely that the rock band from Orange County will be paid better for performing than it was last month--at least on a dollars-per-hour basis.

On Oct. 2, Stikkitty’s four members played for eight minutes at the Roxy in Hollywood and walked away with the $10,000 first prize in a national contest for rock bands that aren’t signed to major record labels. Judges also cited band members Vincent K and Dwayne Allen as the best singer and bassist respectively in the contest, which was worth an additional $1,000 for each of them.

The victory qualified Stikkitty for “Band Explosion,” an international showdown in Tokyo on Oct. 28. Playing at the Budokan theater against 15 unsigned contenders from around the world, Stikkitty again was judged best in the field. This time the prize money was $20,000--for a one-song performance lasting six minutes.

Gathered recently for an interview at their rehearsal studio in Garden Grove, the band members said they stayed on an even keel during the contest, and are back to business as usual now that it is over: Stikkitty has resumed its regular round of club gigs in Los Angeles and Orange County, including a show Sunday night at the Coach House where the band will open for the Sweet.

“It’s not that much money when you look at it,” said drummer David Outzs, especially after deducting taxes and paying off some of the band’s pre-existing debts for studio rental and the like. Nobody in Stikkitty is quitting his day job.

“We got a warm welcome in L.A., a warm welcome from our friends” after returning to the local rock wars as international award winners, Vincent K said. “That’s a driving force to go forward. We’ve got to prove ourselves all over again. Being from Orange County, we had to work so hard to get any kind of recognition (in Los Angeles). And now we have to prove ourselves worthy of winning this damned trophy. This time, people are expecting us to be something.”

With its black leather, metal studs and heavy boots, Stikkitty favors what has come to be the expected look for an aspiring band on the Southern California hard rock scene. In sound and concept, though, Stikkitty takes a more idiosyncratic approach.

Vincent K (he jokes about needing to keep his last name hidden in order to stay a step ahead of his creditors) fronts the band with a strong, tuneful wail and a decidedly theatrical delivery derived from such influences as David Bowie and Queen. Soul influences also crop up. “I grew up with my older brother’s music,” said Vincent, who is 30. “I was a big Ray Charles nut and a big Mahalia Jackson nut.” Taken together, the band’s blend of punk, metal and pop bears a general resemblance to Billy Idol’s approach.

When Vincent K hooked up with the other members of Stikkitty three years ago, he brought not just a strong set of pipes but an elaborate science-fictional concept, designed to be expressed both through rock music and in an accompanying “graphic novel,” actually an elaborate comic book.

At the time, Allen, Outzs and guitarist John Gurzi, who range in age from 28 to 32, were playing together under the name Les Risky. Vincent K had known Gurzi when they both were punk rockers growing up in Garden Grove.

“I got married, and got out of (music) for five years,” Vincent said. But when his marriage fell apart, he decided to re-enter the rock ring. “I came out of this heart-rending divorce. I had an insight on life. I had a fistful of songs, and a direction,” the thin, bony-faced singer said wryly, showing a bit of the self-irony that comes out often in his conversation.

Vincent said the name and concept of Stikkitty grew out of his less-than-friendly dealings with a cat that hung around his house.

“I hated that cat. But I didn’t do anything cruel or inhumane to it.” The cat became the subject of some fantasy sketches, which triggered Vincent K’s fanciful concept of a novel-with-pictures that would be narrated by “Stik,” a part-human, part-feline character living in a post-apocalyptic world populated by mutant creatures.

The band fits in as a sort of soundtrack to the conceptual scheme, with songs designed to bring out underlying moods and themes. Plot and character development will be left to the accompanying graphics drawn by Vincent K.

“It’s basically taking a setting in the future and making up characters who couldn’t possibly exist, and (drawing parallels) with today’s society. So you can say something about today’s society without naming names,” Vincent said.

He relies on the other band members to flesh out his lyrical and melodic ideas with song arrangements, and to serve as a sounding board for his conceptual flights.

“I’m one of these anti-government-rule whiners. I can get a little thick on that, and it can become kind of boring if you ride one subject,” Vincent said. “These guys have let me know a couple of times when what I want to say is downright stupid.”

In songs such as “Earthbound” and “The Pathetic Song,” (the number that won for Stikkitty in Tokyo), Vincent portrays a world falling apart, but still proclaims grand, often joyful ideals.

“It’s kind of a sardonic positive-thinking trip,” he said. Indeed, Stikkitty’s only release so far, a self-financed four-song record titled “Into the Boom Zoo,” ends with Vincent wailing “hooray for love!”--a sentiment far from the prevailing darkness of such art-minded heavy-rock contenders as Jane’s Addiction, Soundgarden and Metallica.

With its band-as-concept approach, Stikkitty hasn’t had an easy time selling itself to the big labels.

“We’re not stereotypical,” said Outzs. “It’s all mixed up (stylistically), so marketing departments at the labels go ‘uhh.’ ”

“We’ve been looked at for quite a while” by talent scouts, Vincent K said. “We had a couple of little offers made to us before we went to Japan. All (winning the international competition) has done is lend credibility to what we were trying to do before.”

Stikkitty opens for the Sweet, Sunday at 8 p.m. at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. Tickets: $16.50. Information: (714) 496-8930.