If, for some reason, they ever choose to get out of the deal they signed with Capitol Records a little more than a year ago, Austin, Texas’ SOUND Team know exactly what to do.

“We’re not allowed to release spoken word albums or Christmas albums,” says bassist Bill Baird. “So I think if we ever wanted to get out of our contract, all we’d have to do is record a bunch of albums really fast that don’t really qualify as music. Like Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music… it counted as two [records].”

But don’t hold your breath for a SOUND Team Christmas, or anything similar to Reed’s 1975 great big fuck you to the music industry, because this band is ridiculously hands-on and obsessive about the details when it comes to every aspect of how their music is made.

And that they have demanded such creative control seems to be just fine with Capitol.

The SOUND Team also remembers well the woes fellow Austinites Spoon went through when they first signed with Elektra, which is something that doesn’t bother them in the least.

“I think they ended up just fine,” says Baird.

He’s right. And considering the scant discography the band had before their first release on Capitol, Movie Monster – just a couple of cassettes, a few EPs and a full-length – it’s a testament to the band’s sound and early live shows that a major even showed interest.

Their appeal is as obvious as their name: six members with varying influences anchored by a rock-steady rhythm section, topped with a moog and other noisemakers, heavy synth, an echo guitar and a raspy-voiced singer whose pop sensibility and affinity for Motown isn’t lost in all the experimentation. In fact, the band often covered Otis Redding’s That’s How Strong My Love Is during their early days.

“Motown stuff is the closest that American pop music has come to what I would consider to be perfect music,” says Baird. “Which, to me, is a really strong, driving, low-end and drums and bass and with the really high, wild sounds – really ethereal sounds … that’s something that we’re definitely striving for.”

What began as a four-track recording project between Baird and singer Matt Oliver grew into a full-blown musical and aesthetic arsenal: the band converted an unused record-pressing plant into their studio in 2003, designed the covers for their CD-Rs and sold the homemade recordings on the street.

“Matt and I met and started recording songs together for about a year and a half, and decided to expand,” said Baird. Keyboardist Michael, Baird’s brother, then joined. The three recorded Sound Team and Into the Lens, two CD-Rs of four-tracked songs. The lineup jelled as a six piece in early 2003 and the band embarked on several short tours, including one with the Walkmen.

“We [became] large enough that we could express all the different and crazy parts; all the things that we wanted to do, and still small enough and close enough where we could all be really good friends and collaborators,” says Baird.

Even in support of Movie Monster, which was produced by the band and Mike McCarthy, who has worked with Austin heavyweights Spoon and And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, SOUND Team is sticking to its formula for abbreviated jaunts rather than long stints out on the road.

“We’ve been doing a lot of short tours,” Baird said. “I think that keeps you a lot healthier mentally. We’re going to be playing lots of shows, and our label will try to get us on bills that will probably draw huge numbers, but right now we’re just trying to build up our own fan base on a real grassroots level.”

The band recently wrapped up a short tour with Midlake and the Cold War Kids by playing Lollapalooza in Chicago.

“We played the brunch set [of Lollapallooza]. We were the only band playing before noon,” he joked.

They’ll tour the East Coast in September with the French Kicks and will reunite with old tourmates the Walkmen later in the year for a tour of England. “Basically,” Baird said, “it’s one long tour from here on out. Touring is going to be non-stop from here on out.”

Don’t feel bad, though, they’ve officially quit their day jobs and are living on Capitol’s capital.

“But,” says Baird, “it’s not like we’ve achieved some sudden success because it’s all been so gradual. Nothing feels any different than it did before, it’s all so incremental. If I think back to three or four years ago it’s massively different, but I tend not to look back that much. And I hope in three years from now things are massively different… but in a good way.”

William Inman is editor of Dry Ink. Write to him at william@dryinkmag.com