Bandier musical trio strikes harmony, friendship singing in SU’s stairwells
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On any given night in Sadler Hall, the sounds of doors creaking or footsteps of students heading home may echo in the stairwell. But last school year, a new sound filled the space: a blend of three voices, trilling in acoustic harmony.
Those voices belong to the now-sophomores whose late-night singing spun into their acoustic cover band, Mothers and Mirrors.
“I remember I was out once, and this guy came up to me and was like ‘You’re in that group that sings in the stairwell,’ and I was like ‘Oh my God,’” SU sophomore Alyssa Pena said.
Started in October 2025, the group covers slower, indie-folk and rock songs, with pieces ranging anywhere from “Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon to “I’m On Fire” by Bruce Springsteen. The group’s first post on TikTok was a cover of True Blue by boygenius last December and shortly after posted their Instagram debut in January. They now have over 30,000 likes on TikTok.
Pena first met SU sophomores Kyra Rubenstein and Ronnie Kabbash through the Bandier Program, where they immediately became fast friends, Pena said.
Rubenstein and Kabbash met in high school during a tour with their local School of Rock house bands. So when they met Pena at an orientation event at the start of freshman year, they all bonded over their love of music and passion as musicians.
“We didn’t really know each other, and we just instantly clicked. That was super early on into freshman year and then it kinda just stuck,” Pena said.
When the trio arrived to college, they longed for an outlet to sing with other people, Rubenstein said. The more time Pena, Rubenstein and Kabbash spent together, the more they found in common with one another.
“We all love to sing and we all love to play instruments, and after leaving School of Rock I was missing that part of my life, playing music with people I love,” Rubenstein said. “And I think I found that so easily with Ronnie and Alyssa.”
After becoming friends, the trio thought of starting their own group but didn’t begin singing with each other until later into their first semester at SU. In October 2025, Crossroads Collective, a volunteer club, was looking for a group to perform at its Food Crawl. Pena, Rubenstein and Kabbash volunteered, marking their first live performance together.
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Around the same time, the trio gathered for “acoustic nights” in Rubenstein’s Sadler dorm room, where they’d sing together for fun. One day, they randomly decided to start posting their covers, Pena said.
The trio continued posting on TikTok and Instagram throughout their freshmen year and into the summer. Someone Kabbash worked with at School of Rock later reached out to ask if they wanted to play an acoustic set at The Rock Shack, a venue attached to the Summerville location.
Even with their previous experience, performing at The Rock Shack felt different for Kabbash and Rubenstein because they weren’t used to singing without a full rock band behind them.
“Acoustic in general is nerve-wracking and so vulnerable, a lot more raw. And there’s no hiding the mistakes,” Kabbash said.
Acoustic singing with two other people was very different for Pena since she said she previously only wrote music and played guitar on her own.
“I always have stage freight, I could perform a million times and I’ll be nervous, but (Kabbash and Rubenstein) energies are very calming,” Pena said. “So it was great to sing songs that were special to us as a group.”
This was the first time that it felt like the trio had officially transformed into a real group, beyond just singing in a dorm, Pena said.
The group draws inspiration from the band boygenius, as well as artist Adrianna Lenker, which is why they decided to emulate their singing style, Pena said.
“I live in the middle of New Jersey, nothing fun happens there, so you kind of just gravitate towards depressing music,” Pena said.
To choose the songs they cover on their social media platforms, each member picks a song they want to do, usually one that is trending at the moment, Kabbash said.
(From left to right) Alyssa Pena, Ronnie Kabbash and Kyra Rubenstein strum their guitars in their South Campus apartment. The trio began posting covers on social media after singing together in the stairwells of Sadler Hall. Rivka Spitzberg | Contributing Photographer
Whoever chooses the song they’re recording will typically take the lead during their cover, without any strict rules on who takes which voice part each time. Then, once a week they sit down to actually record their cover.
Usually, Rubenstein plays guitar while all of them sing. In the future they hope to incorporate more instruments for a more complete band sound, Rubenstein said. Many of their videos contain just the three of them, but some have included their friends, like sophomore Jonah Martinez on guitar.
A unanimous favorite is “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac, which they drew harmonic inspiration from the cover Tiny Habits did of the song. Their second favorite is a cover they did of “God’s A Different Sword.”
The Mothers and Mirrors name came to Kabbash when the girls were relating about how they each got their looks or personal qualities from their moms, Kabbash said.
“Me, Kyra and Alyssa are such accurate reflections of our moms in the best way,” Kabbash said.
Their families, friends and other students in Bandier have all been supportive of the group’s continuous endeavors. They’ve received overwhelming positive feedback that keeps them posting, Pena said.
Nowadays the trio lives together on South Campus, where it’s hard to find a stairwell that’s exactly like the one they started in in Sadler, Rubenstein said.
“We can’t replicate the beautiful reverb that the staircase creates,” Rubenstein said. “But now that we’re here (on South Campus), we just have to find different ways to be creative and try new things.”
With Mothers and Mirrors gaining popularity on social media, the group has gained enough support to encourage them to keep going, Pena said.
“I think a big thing that I want to happen is for us to play a couple more shows and keep doing that because there truly is nothing like live music,” Pena said.
