Their fictional biography says they're from Reno, but The Small Stars are an Austin invention - a band of accomplished local musicians exploring the common grounds between cocktail culture, everything but the kitchen sink revues and rock 'n' roll.
And it's all the vision of Fastball's Miles Zuniga.
Guy Fantasy is hardly rock and roll's first drunken, belligerent, womanizing egomaniac. He's just the latest, and it's a character Zuniga said he's having fun stretching to the limits.
"There's really not that much difference between me calling myself Guy Fantasy and someone calling himself 50 Cent. That's not his given name. Everyone in show business, to a certain degree, writes his own biography," Zuniga said.
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The Small Stars
A band of accomplished local musicians explores cocktail culture.
 
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The Small Stars are a band, the leaders of a vaudeville-style revue and hopefully, they say, the premise of a theatrical stage show and movie. Their gig feature jugglers, magicians and contortionists, plus a storyline that puts Mr. Fantasy's issues front and center.
"The narrative of the Small Stars is that the big fish in the small pond has to confront his demons. He realizes he has to grow up and conquer the demons that have plagued him his entire life. He's bitter. He'd delusional - it's all the stuff that's holding him down," Zuniga said.
So how much Zuniga is there in Guy Fantasy? Zuniga is best known as a third of Austin's Fastball, a band with a platinum record and their share of music business disappointments.
"The fact that we had a shot at the title makes it better because I've been there. But I could still write it as if that never happened from the frustrated musician's point of view instead of the bitter musician's point of view," Zuniga said.
Frustration and bitterness aside, Zuniga said the Small Stars is big fun - the kind of fun you really have to be in character to pull off.
"It's kind of like a license to kill. It feels that way, but of whether it is or isn't is not for me to decide. And I have no idea what the long term effects will be on my career. We're just doing it. And in putting on the show and the spectacle we're allowed to say things I'd never admit to saying. There's stuff that if I said I'd think, "Oh god. What are people going to think of me? Are they going to hold me accountable?" But if I do it in character, it's not me, it's the character. And that allows a lot of legroom. It's a lot of fun," Zuniga said.
The Small Stars' debut album is available now at Waterloo Records. They'll play Club Deville on Thursday, May 26. They'll also unveil a longer theatrical show at the Zachary Scott Theatre June 4 and 5.
