"I'm an intense-ass person!" says Saya Gray.

Handling an interview whilst working out at the gym, the Toronto-born musical polymath speaks to The International Pop Underground's Anthony Carew from on-the-ground in Wellington, on the eve of her first-ever shows in Australia.

Gray talks about her love of live performance, the influence of her hard-working Japanese mother, her run of work-in-progress style mixtapes (19 MASTERS, QWERTY and QWERTY II), her gorgeous debut album SAYA, becoming comfortable with being called a 'singer', and her love of using capital letters.

Feature image: Jen Cheng