Hii team member Alex Berner-Coe interviews Amy Claire, an ASMR creator, covering audience-to-performer relationships,how some of the goosebump inducing sounds are made and more.
We’ve lightly touched on the topic of ASMR here at Hii before.
Supposedly “coined in 2010 by a Facebook research group dedicated to diving deeper into the tingly phenomenon,” (thanks for the reference, Max), ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, and is “the biological pleasure response to intimate aural and visual stimuli.”
As a genre of audio/video performance its proliferation across the internet is understandable – ASMR strongly divides people who either love or hate the intimate aural experience, plus the performance itself can be presented in limitless forms: as roleplay, as an adventurous dining experience or even through an unintentional performance. There are endless points of entry into the genre for enthusiasts and the curious.
Hii team member, Alex Berner-Coe got in touch with Amy Claire, a.k.a. Caring Whispers ASMR, an ASMR creator, “specialising in mindfulness and relaxation”, who is known for her elaborate costumes and sets. Amy has built a prominent following through her relaxing ASMR performances on “live” every night (22:30 GMT) on TikTok.
Here’s Alex with Amy now.
Alex Berner-Coe: Tell us a little bit about who you are and where you're from.
Amy: My name is Amy, and I'm from Wiltshire. I've lived in Wiltshire all of my life - that's in the southwest of England.
ABC: You are a TikTok creator. You go on live almost every night and you do ASMR for a very, very wide audience. Can you tell us a little bit about how you're creating ASMR, and how live streaming it came about in the first place?
Amy: I had this idea to create a safe space within TikTok, and I didn't actually set out to specifically make ASMR my main focus when I started. It sort of organically grew in that way. I realized how much of a need there was for it, and I soon realized how helpful, and how much of an impact it could make on people's routines and on their mental well-being as well.
ABC: How often are you surprised by a sound that an object makes? You pick up an object, you think it's going to make a specific sound, and it does something completely different? Does that happen for you?
Amy: Probably once every few days, I'd say at least. So even if I pick something up in a shop, I listen to it, I hold it up to my ear, you know. I rub it or scratch it or tap it - and I think, “Yeah, this is gonna sound good.” Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. And it's funny, to be honest, because I share that with the viewer. So yeah, there definitely are times when sounds are surprising. And I just think how does this sound so much like something else? You know, it's just so fun. I don't know how else to say it, really.
ABC: It really is super fun, and we want to have you show us some of those sounds in just a minute. But before, I just have a quick question. Before going live, do you have a structural idea of the experience planned out beforehand? Or does it take shape organically based on discovery and reaction?
Amy: It all depends on which theme I'm doing, and that's usually based on how I'm feeling, and what I feel that I want to do that evening. So if I've planned to do hair and makeup and things like that, there is usually a set routine. So I know I'm going to cleanse their face, then I'm going to wash their hair, I'm going to brush their beard, makeup, so on and so forth. However, I do challenge myself, so I do like to incorporate visual with the sound. So I’ve already got the sound of hair washing that they (the audience) feel is realistic. So what I might do, is I might put the microphone on the floor, use my foot, and use two hands so that it's even more real - and they're not really sure how I've done it. But I'm confident enough, because I've done that particular sound enough to mix it up a little bit and do it in a different way.
ABC: Would you like to make some sounds for us now?
Amy: Sure. Okay, well I've got a few things in front of me ready to go. I may need to mute the microphone to put the fluffy cover on for the ocean waves sound. Shall I do that one first?
ABC: Yeah!
<<ocean waves>>
ABC: That almost put me to sleep. (laughs)
Amy: It's one of the most popular and I'm really proud of making it as realistic as I can.
ABC: It’s very well replicated. It's very, very, very realistic.
Amy: Okay, we'll have rain next. Let's carry on with the sort of natural sounds.
<<rain sounds>>
Amy: That was the rain. Next one, I'll use the insulation tape.
<<insulation tape airplane/car sound>>
ABC: Wow, that one's like a car speeding off. Kind of.
Amy: Yeah, yeah, I've made a video on Tik Tok and it went viral. People were saying it did mostly sound like an aeroplane above up in the sky, and people were dueting it, and sort of looking up and looking surprised that there was an aeroplane there. The tuning fork - this doesn't sound like anything else. It's just a really popular sort of brain numbing sound. This is 128 megahertz tuning fork.
Amy: And what I've noticed with this particular frequency - it's really interesting because people have different levels of being able to hear it. So I always recommend headphones, but even age can come into it, like how clearly they can hear it. I've also heard that if they're (the audience) watching with a pet, like a cat or a dog, [their pets] seem to pay particular attention to that frequency for some reason. I don't know why.
ABC: that's kind of funny, I like that.
Amy: The hair washing - I can do the hair washing sound.
<<hair washing>>
Amy: That's the hair washing. I've just remembered another sound that I'm quite proud of is when I rinse the hair. So I've just got to get one more thing if that's okay for us to do that. They (the audience) don't usually see me do this because I've got the camera up, so they don't necessarily know how I do the hair rinsing, so I just say that the sound is going to be muffled because your ears are going to be under the water.
<<hair rinsing>>
Amy: That's the hair washing. And then if we're continuing with that process, I would then brush it and trim it.
<<hair brush and trim sounds>>
ABC: When I came across your page, you had already started doing these kinds of wild themes - they're very creative. I’ve seen you as a pirate on a pirate ship. I've seen you as a girl working in a flower shop. I've seen you as an astronaut. I've seen you as an eye doctor. I've seen you as a school teacher from the Victorian era. I've seen you as someone in a spa doing hair and make-up - just about anything you can think of, which is one of the reasons why I think your page has become so popular and really a safe space for people is because you create these actual safe spaces. Do you have a dream set? And what would it look and feel like if you could do anything?
Amy: I think, yeah, it sort of keeps it fresh and exciting for not only the viewer to change themes up, but it also keeps it exciting for me and I think that comes across. It (having a theme) makes it really fun. The set that I'm most proud of at the moment, when you say dream set, I really love being in my fairy woodland, so I dress as a fairy and I have two lighting states: I have the sort of daylight lighting state, and then I sometimes I turn the lighting down, and then sort of nighttime, so then I might make rain sounds on the microphone, or thunder sounds, so it's got that real cozy feel. I think also it allows people to escape the real world in a way when it's really something as far as a fairy woodland, or something mythical is kind of as far as you can go in terms of that. I guess my dream set would be something where I'm not just sat still, but I've got a set that's even bigger, so I could move around in it. So almost like a film set? That would be incredible. Yeah.
ABC: Are there any challenges or limitations that you run into with Tik Tok as a platform? Would you change anything about it if you could?
Amy: No, I don't think so. I'm really grateful to the platform for actually, you know, for having that space. If it wasn’t for TikTok, I wouldn't have the community that I do, so I'm really, really grateful. First of all, one thing that can happen occasionally is they have these interactive gifts on Tik Tok, and some of them make a loud noise, or loud compared to what I'm doing anyway. And sometimes that will wake the viewer up if they've fallen asleep. But most of the time, they're just really happy to see that I've received a big gift, and they join in with the joy of it, and then I'll get them back to sleep afterwards, so it's all positive.
ABC: Your ASMR is very specific to TikTok headphone use right now. Do you ever think that you could see your work translated into like a live in-person performance setting?
Amy: Yeah, I think possibly, although, the way my “Lives” go, I like the feeling to be kind of one-to-one, so it's just myself and the viewer most of the time. To do this, I use lots of eye contact, and the way that I speak, I'm addressing the viewer rather than a large audience, although occasionally I will involve the whole audience. So, it would have to be done in such a way where everyone was in their own kind of pod with a pair of headphones looking at me, but not so aware that they're in a room of others, maybe.
ABC: So your audience on TikTok really participates and honestly, like pushes you as an audio performer.
Amy: Definitely, and I have a WhatsApp group with my moderators, they are the people on TikTok who I have chosen. So they're supportive viewers who I've noticed, who actually can remove people from the chat or give them a warning, or also just share helpful information during my live streams, so I'm able to also go back to them, for another opinion, or they'll sometimes say, “oh, Amy, I really particularly enjoyed that.” So yeah, feedback is incredibly important to me, especially as I very rarely get what some people get as the tingles. Some people call the tingles where you might get like a goosebumpy feeling - it can be anywhere, it usually starts at the back of the neck and goes down the body. I occasionally get it in the side of my head with foam [sounds]. But again, it's fairly rare. For me to listen to the viewer, and if they say that something is particularly tingly, which obviously depends on the person because it's different for everyone: it's really important for me to include some of those tingle-inducing sounds. So yeah, so it's always been about listening to my audience and seeing what they enjoy, as well as obviously what I enjoy as well.
ABC: What are your favorite sounds, in general?
Amy: It's really hard to specifically name one sound, because there's so many I enjoy doing and if I only made one sound, I'd get bored! I think when I did the hair washing, [or] the slime on the microphone, sort of feeling like you're underwater. I think that particularly resonates with me as I enjoy swimming so much. It gives that real closed-sound feeling. I know there's a name for that, but I can't think of what it is. And the rain again, the rain sounding like it's on a tent overhead, that’s a really comforting sound. For me, I think sounds that bring me back to my childhood really resonate with me, and sometimes that's the same for the viewer. A time when, you know, life was simple. Mostly, not for everyone, but mostly good times. Sounds that give them comfort. And I guess that's the same for me really - safe sounding sounds.
