Correction, Aug. 20: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated Sasha Kaplan’s first electric guitar. It is a Les Paul by Epiphone. An earlier version also had a typo in the headline.
Children’s music classes are wrapping up for the day — a final musical scale floats through their air, lights are turned off, parents arrive to pick up their kids. But as small children leave the Matt Burk Music Studio in Plano, college students enter toward the back room for their once-a-week band session. They call themselves “The Paisleys.”
The Paisleys is a newly formed indie rock and pop band composed of Sasha Kaplan on guitar and vocals, Elijah Perez on the drums, Michael Mireles on guitar and Aditya Srinath on bass. They formed back in March, when everyone except Perez met through UTD’s music club Strings Attached and played their first show together during RadioUTD’s Pseudo Stereo showcase. With their energizing live presence and funk sound, The Paisleys are gearing up to release their first EP about heartbreak and growth.
The Members
Following a breakup, 2024 computer science alum Kaplan found himself with plenty of time on his hands. Instead of wallowing post-breakup, Kaplan bought himself an air fryer and taught himself how to make some awesome air-fried pickles — and got his first higher-end electric guitar: a modded Mexican Telecaster.
“My first electric guitar, because I’ve been playing guitar since I was like 14, was a gift from my parents,” Kaplan said. “It was an Epiphone Les Paul, but it was a starter’s instrument, super cheap [that] you get with the intent of, ‘This is something not too expensive for you to try out if you like it, then in the future we can get something nicer.’”
After saving up some internship money, Kaplan went to Guitar Center during a Fourth of July sale, browsing through a selection of guitars for an hour until he found “the one.”
“And there was just something about the guitar, and it was already set up and broken into,” Kaplan said. “That was my first musical love. Her name is Ashley the Telecaster.”
He met Nick Campisi, a former Strings Attached officer, back in spring 2023 at one of UTD’s on-campus pianos, who offered Kaplan join the club and encouraged him to come to their events. Kaplan went to a weekly open mic at Guitars & Growlers, a music bar, where Strings Attached members took to the stage to show off their musical talents. That is where he met Nader Ghassemi, a 2023 UTD alum, who asked him to return to the bar and play “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac the following week.
“I had never played or even listened to that song before,” Kaplan said. “I didn’t do a very good job, but I did it. It was my first time actually playing live and I was like, ‘Whoa, this is fun!’ So, I started playing more with Strings Attached.”
Ghassemi encouraged Kaplan to write music, so he created “Rooting for You,” the first single in The Paisleys’ upcoming EP.
“[The song] was just me processing like, ‘Well, shit, I guess I’m single. I guess I was right. Women don’t like me,’” Kaplan said. “And ultimately, the message is we both fucked up, but it’s OK.”
Kaplan said Ghassemi was a huge proponent for him to continue creating music and taking it seriously. He helped Kaplan with writing his own music and guitar technique, leading Ghassemi to become the first member of the band, formed to allow Kaplan to write music without garnering all the attention. The name “The Paisleys” came about after Kaplan bought a paisley patterned sweater from Target.
Ghassemi’s position as guitarist was short-lived as he had to leave the band temporarily for law school. That’s where Michael Mireles, a criminology sophomore, came in.
Mireles is the most recent addition to the band. He and Kaplan worked together creatively before, and Srinath was aware of Mireles’ talent since they are roommates. Before leaving for law school in May, Ghassemi told Kaplan he wanted Mireles to take his place while he was gone.
“I was already friends with Sasha and Nader and Adi … beforehand,” Mireles said. “It was always a point of, ‘Nader’s gonna move by the end of the summer,’ so they were kind of always looking for somebody. Me and Nader were talking one day, and he [asked me], ‘Do you want to join after I leave?’ And I [said] ‘Sure.’”
During Mireles’ first jam session with the band two weeks ago, he found himself at ease despite being the newest member of the lineup. It wasn’t much of an adjustment since they already got along great, Mireles said.
“The chemistry has been really good,” Mireles said. “Also, they’re just really great musicians that know what they’re doing. It’s very easy to communicate with them on a musical level.”
Kaplan became a regular at Guitar Center once he started taking music seriously. The manager of Guitar Center noticed his frequent visits to the store and asked him to work there. That is where he met Perez.
“We were at work one day and he mentioned something about needing a drummer,” Perez said. “I said, ‘I can do it.’ And we went from there. He came over one day, showed me the songs and I picked up on them pretty quickly.”
Perez released his own music before joining The Paisleys, under the name ESP on Spotify. Recording solo has allowed him to fully express himself the best he can, but it takes a lot of time and energy, Perez said. Perez was also previously part of another band but left because of a bad experience; he was hesitant to join The Paisleys but was convinced by Kaplan’s genuineness and the band’s commitment to music and regular practice.
“We’re in a good spot,” Perez said. “The three others have all been friends in college, so that helps [with the chemistry] and then when I came in, we clicked almost immediately …We’re all pitching in a lot creatively, and we’re all equally involved.”
Srinath, a math and data science double major and vice president of Strings Attached, first met Kaplan during an ’80s-night event trying to get him to join the club. After their first meeting, he saw Kaplan once again when he performed “Rooting for You” for Strings Attached’s pop night event.
“I saw [his performance] and I was like, ‘Oh, my God. This is really, really good,’” Srinath said. “He was telling me how he really loved playing his own music, performing it to people and seeing how they reacted to it. He was like, ‘I really want to start a band,’ and I [said], ‘If you need someone to help you start it, I would be totally down to join it.’ I really liked the song and other stuff he’d shown me that he had been working on at the time.”
The EP
The small, fluorescent-lit back room where they practice is their stage. Guitar pedals, amps, and never-ending cords surround the members as they jam out, laughing and enjoying themselves and the funky tunes they strum. They encourage one another, screaming “Guitar solo!” over the boom-boom clap of the drums.
Their soon to be released EP, “Rooting for You,” is a story-driven project following the ups and downs of a breakup. The EP will contain four songs, including title track “Rooting for You,” “Hypnotized,” “Silhouette” and “Learning to Love.” All four songs were written by Kaplan, with Srinath helping arrange the strings in “Silhouette” and with lyrics in “Learning to Love.”
“I just hope that [listeners] know that all four of us are very passionate about wanting to make music authentically [and] with integrity,” Mireles said. “I hope that comes across whenever they listen to our music or see us play live.”