An evening with the New York band without a homeland

Lauren Dalban/TTM

It was a Thursday in mid-January, and Arlene’s Grocery was far from full. Fer Borrego, singer and guitarist for New York rock band Sans Patrie, was trying valiantly to convince the less than two dozen members of the audience to approach the stage, but to largely no avail. 

Despite this, the music never faltered. 

“My mentality is that the people that are going to be here — we're gonna convert them,” Borrego told Through The Monitor at a small restaurant in the Lower East Side called Cafe Himalaya, a mere 5 minute walk from the gaggle of venues where the band performs on a monthly basis. 

“Sans patrie” is a french phrase that loosely translates to ‘without homeland.’ Borrego, who grew up moving between Argentina and New York city, started the project three years ago, but only began performing with his band early last year. 

He wanted to connect with other people who also grew up moving between multiple countries — people who never felt like they completely belonged anywhere.

This desire helped him bring the band together. Though he met lead guitarist Eduardo Palacios and bassist Nicholas Moyal through the classic Craiglist advertising method, he and drummer Andrew Gorham relish telling the tale of their serendipitous connection. 

“I was having lunch on the sidewalk. I was on a date. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and I was in Williamsburg,” recounted Gorham. “And I see this guy walking down the street in a striped jersey.”

He was wearing a Real Betis soccer jersey, a local team in Seville, Spain.

Gorham, an Atlanta native, has spent many cumulative months in his mother’s hometown of Seville, where his grandmother lived right next to the local soccer stadium.

“When I saw him wearing the jersey, I — in the middle of a conversation — jumped up and ran to him at the end of the sidewalk,” Gorham told TTM. “We started exchanging information and telling our life stories.”

Gorham then joined the band’s rhythm section before he had even heard the music. For him, it was really about what the band represented. 

“I basically told him at the time, I don't even care what the music is — I’ll play,” said Gorham.

Over the course of the next year, Sans Patrie performed at a series of small venues across the Lower East Side and Brooklyn. 

Many of these spaces have poll door policies, where customers are asked which band they have come to see and base each group’s pay on those numbers. The band has a thin regular audience, so Sans Patrie often just breaks even.

“It’s not an economic payout as much as an investment in exposure,” Borrego explained.

Back at Arlene’s Grocery, ‘Sans Patrie’ was still going strong. Borrego’s voice drowned out much of Moyal’s bass. Although pleasing, it didn't justify the sheer volume of the performance. 

All four members are skilled in their own right, and there were moments, particularly when they performed “The Gin Twist,” where they seemed truly in sync. 

In other songs, however, an audience member may wonder if they had enough rehearsal time. The guitar riffs came through muddled, and Borrego’s voice seemed to lack the vocal range some of his songs require. 

But they love it.

Palacios masterfully performed multiple guitar solos — a reliable, standout performer. Moyal’s boyish excitement on stage successfully roused the crowd. He seemed at home. 

Sans Patrie’s brand of rock has a certain heaviness, weighing the music down with dirty distortion and Palacios’ frequent sped-up guitar shredding. 

After the show, Gorham, Palacios, and Moyal stood outside in the cold with their music gear. A group of female singers had come to join them, and they waited for a taxi to take them to Moyal and Palacios’ next performance as the pop music cover band Candy Shop. Borrego would join them later. 

“My primary source of income comes from cover bands,” Moyal told TTM. “Because right away, people are gonna want to hear and dance and sing along to what they know.”

Moyal is the only member of Sans Patrie that makes a living mostly from music, though he supplements his income with babysitting and bartending gigs He has performed at a variety of events, including weddings, corporate parties, and childrens’ birthdays. 

Once the taxi arrived, the band headed to The Red Lion — a Greenwich village bar that largely caters to the NYU student population. 

However, upon entering the place on that Thursday evening, one would never know it. People of all ages were there to hear a slew of cover bands perform rock songs and newer funk and pop jams.

Palacios and Moyal formed the musical backing to three skilled female vocalists, Hannah Knapp-Jenking, Anna Van der Linden,and Alex Sturtevant. The singers had impressive vocal range, taking the audience through mash-ups of classic pop songs like Black Eyed Peas’ “Let’s Get It Started” and Dua Lipa’s “Levitating.”

Though musicians can earn more money on a consistent basis from cover bands, Moyal laments that there are limits to a cover band’s potential for popularity. 

While bands that perform original music can grow endlessly and become very lucrative for the successful musician with a bit of luck, cover bands are often limited to performing locally. And outside of one-time events, they often perform at the same locations.

“It’s easier to get into [cover bands] but there is a ceiling,” Moyal told TTM.

The opportunity to perform original music that is deeply personal continues to draw Moyal and the three other members to regular rehearsals and monthly performances as Sans Patrie. And like for many local New York bands, it was never about the money.

“It's about finding where you belong, whether it's musically, whether it's geographically, whether it's culture-wise,” said Borrego.

Sans Patrie recently released their new single ‘Lullaby.’