Being born in Scotland, emigrating to Windsor, Canada and then settling in Toronto, has certain advantages if you are a musician...

First, Windsor has the unique feature of being situated just two minutes by car across a narrow river from Detroit, Michigan; a city known for a diverse, rich music scene and a surprising number of remarkably good FM radio stations. The sounds of early techno, garage rock and R 'n B broadcasted from these Detroit radio stations , were easily received by the radio of a teen-aged Paul Edwards, the founding member of The City States.

In the meantime, Paul's cousin back in his hometown of Dundee, Scotland was sending him a steady stream of mixtapes via airmail with the sounds of the ever-evolving underground UK music scene...

Moving to Toronto after some years singing and playing guitars in local bands, Paul's discovery of synthesizers and other electronic devices led him to produce electronic music.  As an electronica performer, he shared the stage with Orbital, played Toronto's Edgefest, and was invited by techno pioneer, Carl Craig, to be part of the Detroit Electronic Music Festival.

Eventually Paul was drawn back to playing guitars and writing songs - but now, with the desire to weave the full array of his influences into the songs.

"As a kid, my parent's were playing Beatles 8-tracks; I was wearing out my Sex Pistols cassette; my cousin would send me obscure mix-tapes," says Paul.  "Listening to Detroit DJ Electrifying Mojo mash up a Prince 12", and the Detroit techno that influenced my live PA sounds; The City States is all of that."

On stage, Paul is joined by Leah Stephenson on synthesizer, guitarist Mark Stewart, and drummer Phil Stryker.

The City States new EP entitled "From A Distance" , will be available online everywhere July 9th 2008.