With a breezy smile, sitting cross-legged beside the campus bookstore, Emma Tove Johanna Blum looks just like a Santa Barbara native. But this relaxed 19-year-old who hails from Sweden, has brought her raw record label worthy talent to Santa Barbara.

At 15 years old she moved to Torsås in Sweden to attend Stage4You, a renowned music school. The school is run by a record label and educates musically talented high school students. When she graduated, she was offered a record label, but she declined.

“Of course I want a record deal, but I don’t think that the first deal you get is always the best one. Most people say that, ‘Oh, this is your only chance!’ but I don’t think so.”

Blum’s optimistic attitude eventually lead her to a year of study in Santa Barbara.

“I’ve always had this dream about California, that I come here and am happy here. And I am so happy here,” Blum said.

Since coming to study at City College, Blum has declared her major theatre arts and plans to take music classes in songwriting as well as set design.

In Sweden, Blum applies her talents in her five-member band named Le Maine.

“We play rock music, and we call it epic rock,” Blum said.

Another musically inclined Swedish student, Emmy Anderson, says Blum “is a very talented songwriter and musician.”

Andersen and Blum have performed together for Professor Nathan Kreitzer’s Vocal Techniques class, and often get together to make music outside of school.

Last year Le Maine won Musik Direkt, Sweden’s largest youth band competition.

“I was in such a state of shock when we won,” Blum said.

“When I think about it today, I don’t get it at all. I don’t understand how we actually won. That was the best moment of my life.”

Blum’s eyes ignited as she recalled touring Norway after winning Musik Direkt. They performed in a club named Blaest.

The club was packed with over 500 people, and the fans had memorized the words to all of Le Maine’s songs.

During her song “Spin Me Round”, the audience recited the words while Blum celebrated with a physical performance of the song spinning around and dancing on the stage above the dedicated crowd.

“I was just on the stage smiling. I think I was even crying. It was just so powerful to have all these people singing my songs,” Blum said.