The Demonstration Tapes Begin a Song for Every U.S. State on ‘First Amendment’

The Demonstration Tapes, a trio from Norway, formed in 2023 out of the quiet aftermath of Sister Sonny, a band that released records between 1998 and 2007 and then simply stopped. Last November they issued First Amendment, the first 14 songs in a project designed to eventually write one for every U.S. state. The idea arrived casually, tied to America’s upcoming 250th anniversary. “It sounded like a typical thing that we would do,” says Pedro Carmona-Alvarez. “It’s big enough to be filled with anything that you want, and still it’s something that can hold together your project.”

Carmona-Alvarez is an award-winning novelist and poet. Lars Heintz manages a theater, Fredrik Færden buys TV shows for a broadcaster. That long gap after Sister Sonny’s final album left them in separate creative fields, none obviously pointing toward a 50-song American survey. No standard formula guides the writing. “When we write we don’t have a standard formula that we follow,” Heintz says. Carmona-Alvarez adds, “There’s no censorship between us. Everything’s ‘Yeah, sure. Why not?’” The result on First Amendment moves like a shortwave scan through college radio circa 1985 to 1990, each track suggesting a different band entirely.

The trio hasn’t visited most of the states they are setting to music. A lifetime of English in school and undubbed film and television left a deep imprint that they filter through a decidedly outside gaze. “It’s difficult maybe for a U.S. citizen to understand how deeply U.S. culture is embedded in our everyday life,” Carmona-Alvarez says. “So it feels very close. At the same time, we filter the U.S. culture through our gaze. So it comes out a bit weird.” The project continues, one state at a time.