Seriously Seely.

Not much for labels, the group's gay and lesbian contingent would rather talk music than sexuality

Steven Satterfield and Lori Scacco, the guitarists, main vocalists, and gay haft of the talented Atlanta-based rock band Seely are happily out, but they insist that sexuality has little to do with the rich, atmospheric music the band has made since 1994. And Satterfield and Scacco--who met in 1992 while architecture students at Georgia Tech--are just as resistant to efforts to pigeonhole their music.

Is it alternative? Retro? "I really try to stay away from labels and categories when it comes to this band," says Satterfield, 30. "What we do is an amalgamation of different rock styles--moody sometimes, pretty other times. We can be edgy, but mostly we're just trying to make beautiful music."

Seely's newest release and fourth full-length album, Winter Birds (Koch Records), succeeds in that goal, as the quartet (which also includes Eric Taylor on drums and Joy Waters on vocals and bass) creates an intriguing and moving blend of loungey rock, ambient, jazz, and Europop. While most people don't associate Atlanta's music scene with Europop--this is REM and Indigo Girls territory, after all--Seely's sound was good enough to land the band on the renowned British label Too Pure in 1996. At the time the group was the only non-British act signed to Too Pure, which has also featured such rising artists as Stereolab, Moonshake, and PJ Harvey.

Since then, Seely has toured with the likes of Gus Gus and Cornership. The band has also continued to elicit attention; CMJ New Music Monthly called the band's last album, Seconds, a "landmark of American synth pop." The good gigs and kind words are appreciated, but Satterfield and the 28-year-old Scacco know that those alone won't help them quit their day jobs (Satterfield works in a restaurant, Scacco in a music store).

"We haven't been able to lead true rock star lives yet," says Satterfield, who has been out of the closet since he was 15. "True gay rock star lives," Scacco adds, heavy on the irony, because she is the most vocal about differentiating her art from her sexual identity. "I really want to be remembered for my work, not my sexuality."

Denizet-Lewis formerly a staff writer at the San Francisco Chronicle, a/so writes for Spin.