WEBVTT - A Conversation With ASMR Artist Heather Feather 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:07.640 Get in touch with technology with tex Stuff from Hastro 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:15.240 dot com. Welcome to tex Stuff. I'm your host Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:19.520 Today I wanted to explore a special kind of YouTube experience. 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:30.720 It's something that's been growing steadily in popularity for a 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:33.519 couple of years now. In fact, you could call it 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:44.640 a legitimate phenomenon. It's a genre that defies easy description, 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:47.760 though all of them have a shared goal to create 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:52.159 a tingling sensation in the viewer. It's called a s 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:55.600 m R. I spoke with the popular a s MR artist, 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:59.080 Heather Feather, who helped me understand what this is all about. 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:03.960 As OUR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response, and that 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:06.800 doesn't really mean anything. It's just a fancy way of 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:10.920 describing a sensation that some people get when they're exposed 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:15.640 to auditory or visual stimuli. And this kind of it's 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:19.200 called triggers when you hear the or see these things, 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:22.759 and people can get triggered by tons of different things, 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:25.680 and the triggers are very subjective. So some people are 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:29.520 triggered by hair brushing or a soft voice or a whisper, 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:33.959 or writing with chalk on a chalkboard, or watching someone 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:37.320 do a task in a very meticulous and focused way. 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:40.080 So what does that actually feel like? What is it 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:44.480 like to experience a s MR Those really good chills 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:48.400 you get when you get a haircut or someone traces 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:52.400 your back with their finger, and a SMAR feels like 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:55.760 that awesome feeling that that gives you. And it just 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:58.800 happens when people hear something or see something in a 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:01.920 certain way. It's really cool. I've watched a lot of 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:04.720 a s MR videos and I'm led to the conclusion 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.760 that I no longer experienced this particular phenomenon, but I 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:11.960 do have distinct memories of feeling something similar when I 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:15.280 was a kid, particularly after listening to a certain piece 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:18.720 of music. I recall one section from Paul Dukas's The 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:23.120 Sorcerer's Apprentice. It never failed to give me chills. But 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:26.120 I didn't have a word for this sensation. It turns 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:28.640 out I wasn't the only one struggling to put words 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:31.600 to the feeling. Heather explains what it was like when 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:35.440 she found out the tingles she felt weren't necessarily something 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:38.880 other people felt. I had SMR in my whole life, 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:42.240 and when I was little, very very little, I used 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:44.400 to call it shocks, and I used to tell my 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:46.400 mom I had shocks, and she didn't know what that meant. 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:49.800 And I didn't know what that meant. When I got older, 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:52.440 and I would go out with friends to a restaurant, 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:55.320 let's say, and a waitress would have a really nice 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:58.040 soft voice and say, hey, guys, what can I get you? 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:01.240 I would say, my gosh, I love her voice. And 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:03.320 my friends would go, oh, my gosh, you're so weird. 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:07.240 And I realized that people didn't have it it was, 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:09.520 but I wasn't ashamed of it. I just thought it 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:12.040 was a quirk that I had. Like I like to 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:14.320 eatch other cheese crewtons and dark chocolate. No one else 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:16.440 likes to do that. It is something I like, So 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:20.399 I figured it was something weird about me. Finding these 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:24.079 sounds or sites these triggers can be exhausting. You might 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:27.679 encounter something that sets you off purely by accident. There 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:30.799 wasn't really a place to go to initiate the sensation. 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:34.680 And then came YouTube and a whole new world opened 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:37.920 up for people like Heather, though people who experienced the 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:42.760 sensation weren't necessarily being catered to explicitly. In Heather's case, 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:46.680 she found very different videos that set off her triggers. 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:51.640 I used to search videos for these triggers, and a 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:55.760 lot of the times they would be makeup tutorials, but 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:59.800 they would also be fetish videos, because there's a fetish 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:02.280 for everything, and there is a hair fetish and a 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:05.560 nail fetish. So I would go onto these fetish videos 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:09.560 and watch people tap their nails or brush their hair. 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:12.440 And I was like, yeah, this is great, but I 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:15.760 didn't love going to these videos because they had other 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:18.479 things in them that I wasn't into. And then Heather 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:23.240 made a discovery that literally changed her life. I found 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:26.880 a nurse role play by gentle Whispering and I clicked 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:31.359 it and I was gobsmacked because everything this woman was 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:33.920 doing was triggering me. And I was like, oh, this 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:38.440 is great. So I read her infobox on YouTube and 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:40.839 she mentioned a SMR and I googled it and I 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:43.279 was in it in a room with one of my 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:48.119 friends and I yelled, this is me. And my friend 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:50.200 was like, I don't understand why you're even saying like 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:52.600 they did not. They did not understand at all. But 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:55.400 I felt like I was like I found my people. 0:04:56.400 --> 0:05:00.640 It sounds dramatic, but it really was a euphoric moment. 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:05.040 This odd but pleasant sensation might be caused by anything. 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:08.520 For some people, it's a particular type of sound. For others, 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.480 it's the sensation that a person is moving around you 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:14.520 in real space while talking to you. It could be 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:17.240 the way a person moves their hands as they speak. 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:21.719 One trigger that seems particularly effective involves a close connection 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:25.799 between the a s MR artist and the audience. Personal 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:27.880 attention is a big trigger for a lot of people, 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:31.440 myself included, And even though you're the person is not 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:34.320 actually touching you or in front of you, it sort 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:37.800 of feels like they are and that I don't know 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:40.360 if it calls back to when you were a kid 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:43.640 and you were getting attention from someone or not, or 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:47.200 if it pulls on some nostalgic heartstring, but it really 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:51.240 works for thousands and thousands of people, and even for 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:54.640 people who don't experience a s MR like me, these 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:57.520 videos have their uses. It turns out I'm not the 0:05:57.560 --> 0:05:59.480 only person who likes to watch a s m R 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.200 video in order to unwind. I get a lot of 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:04.640 messages and I think a lot of other ASIMER content 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:07.440 creators do as well. From people who don't have a 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:10.400 sm R whatsoever, but they like to play the videos 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:13.279 to help them relax. Some of them play it to 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:16.840 help them work. They play it as background noise, and 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:20.480 a lot of gamers play as MR videos while they game, 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:24.000 which I think is really interesting. For some reason, they 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:26.120 say that it helps them focus on what they need 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.640 to do. While I can't imagine wiping out the covenant 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:32.920 in Halo or planning strategy in League of Legends while 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:35.120 playing an a s m R video in the background, 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:38.240 I do see how it helps players reach a zen 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:43.200 like state. The videos tend towards the soothing, comforting spectrum. 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:46.000 While some videos may get a little more surreal or 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:49.120 abstract than others, they don't tend to be fast paced, 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:53.520 action pack narratives. There are actually lots of different styles 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:57.039 of videos. In some an artists might simply experiment with 0:06:57.120 --> 0:07:00.799 different sound and visual triggers with no narrative structure linking 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:04.400 them together. Other videos will focus on a specific trigger 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:07.440 and go for a marathon session. Each type of video 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:10.720 requires a different approach when I film. If I'm doing 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:13.120 a sound assortment, I'll just gather the props that I 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:15.000 want to use and I'll sit in front of the camera. No, 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:17.160 I'll just explore them and hang out with the viewer. 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:19.320 But if I'm doing a role play, I'll think of 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:21.320 the triggers that I want to incorporate, and then I 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:24.960 build a story around it, and then I hunt for 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:29.120 anything that I could enhance the story with. So I 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:32.160 never just do the triggers that I want to incorporate. 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:35.840 I'm always throwing in an extra voice someplace, or extra 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:39.720 sound effects someplace and complicating my life. But I think 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:44.600 that it helps the viewer become more immersed. Immersions really 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:49.880 really important to me. UM. It's also why I'm starting 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:53.880 to venture into virtual reality I SMAR. This quest for 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:57.800 immersion has opened up some interesting opportunities, such as pairing 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:00.280 the A S m R approach with devices like the 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:04.520 Oculus Rift. It's another journey through tech for us. We're 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:09.000 dabbling with a lot of new technology, UM, including spherical 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:14.600 video sixty degree spherical video, and that's video that captures 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:20.160 sixty degrees horizontally and vertically, and then putting it into 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:23.640 a gaming engine like Unreal or Unity and trying to 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:27.000 format it for use in a head mounted display like 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:29.640 Oculus Rift or any of the other ones that might 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:32.840 be coming out. My personal favorite a s MR videos 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:35.199 are role plays. A role play is just what it 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:38.240 sounds like. The artist takes on a role with you, 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:41.680 the audience becoming part of a scene. Role Plays come 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:45.280 in all sorts of flavors. I think haircuts are very popular, 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:47.319 and I think that's because a lot of people can 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:50.720 enjoy them even if they don't have a SMR. Their 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:54.520 doctor role plays are very popular, and that might sound 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:56.840 weird because no one likes to go to the doctor. 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:00.679 But the doctor role plays how a lot of different 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:03.240 triggers in them. There's a lot of personal tension. There's 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:06.000 pointing to a chart, there's following a light. There's a 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:08.160 lot of different things involved with them, and I think 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:13.360 it makes them a versatile roleplay for people who have 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:16.480 different triggers. It's one thing to imagine what a role 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:19.000 play like this would be like and another thing to 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:22.400 experience it. Heather is a generous artist and offered us 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:25.800 some examples. This one is from her video titled a 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:30.360 s MR Binaral Medical role Play A Snake Oil Salesman 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:33.960 for Relaxation, and which Heather is playing a charlatan who 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:37.520 makes some grandiose claims not to mention a geeky reference 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:41.480 before I begin you treatment. I want to open up 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:46.880 your energy using a therapeutic course technique from a spiritual 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:54.960 mentor in Tagaba. So relax, okay, all you have to 0:09:55.000 --> 0:10:02.200 do he should stilly And while a simple role play 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:05.079 might cover a visit to the barbershop or perhaps an 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:08.400 eye exam, a few of them can get pretty complicated. 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:12.080 Heather is known for pushing herself by incorporating multiple characters 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:14.720 in a role play. She plays all of them, often 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:20.559 appearing as two characters on screen simultaneously. It's not necessarily easy, 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:24.880 and if you hit the camera it ruins everything and 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:28.599 you have to redo it and it's terrible. Here's a 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:32.040 quick excerpt from a barbershop roleplay featuring Heather as both 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:36.640 herself and her goofy goth alter ego sister, dubbed Dark 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:42.319 Feather by her fans. Nice thing about this is there. 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:47.079 It's a cold daily because I went shopping for some 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:52.240 striped sweaters. I love striped sweaters. The best time to 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:57.040 wear striped sweaters all the time. One was the collar turtleneck. 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:01.640 That's the kind because when wearing that one special so 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:06.679 that's enough small talk. But how much work can an 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:09.600 a SMR video really be? Well, it turns out, if 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:11.640 you want to do it right, it can take a 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:15.920 long time. For a sound slice, which is just usually audio, 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:20.160 and it's a much shorter audio clip, that'll take a 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:24.840 couple of hours, maybe five or six, maybe a little 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:27.280 bit more, depending on what I'm doing. If I'm doing 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:33.000 on a sound assortment, that would take probably around ten hours, 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:35.840 maybe depending how many takes I have to do, and 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:41.080 then a role play at least twenty hours, at least 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:44.960 twenty hours, but sometimes they'll take weeks or even months 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:48.880 to complete. Putting in that time requires a lot of dedication, 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:51.559 and artists like Heather will often publish more than one 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:55.520 video per week. Any setback could require several hours of 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:58.640 work to set things right. So what sort of technology 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:01.680 did Heather have when she decided to make our own videos? 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:05.880 I was using a very old point and shoot camera 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:08.560 that had a ton of white noise, and I was 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:11.360 using seven cans of cat food to balance it on. 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:13.920 I didn't have a tripod and that was it, and 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:16.360 I used UM I think I was using a super 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:20.560 old software from Adobe, but it was like seven point 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:24.720 oh for Premiere, it was very old software to edit with, 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:28.640 and I got a lot of feedback from people saying 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:31.240 that they liked the videos, but the white noise was 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:33.640 too much for them. So then I started exploring other 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:38.600 audio options. While technique is at least as important as 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:41.559 technology when trying to trigger an A S m R response, 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:45.000 it certainly helps to have better gear. Here's what Heather 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:49.280 uses to make videos today. Today, I'm using a three 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:53.840 D O free Space Pro and a Zoom H four 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:57.360 and as my recorder for that microphone, and I'm using 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:03.440 the JVC a Ario HD camera um. I also sometimes, 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:06.560 depending on the audio that I'm going for, we'll use 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:10.079 an in ear binoral mic in addition to the three 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:12.800 D O and sometimes I'll use the yetti that I'm 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:15.960 talking to you on now. It just depends on the 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:19.600 field that I'm going for with the audio. Those binaral 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:23.160 mics play a big part in current A S MR productions. 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:26.360 The binarial microphone is meant to mimic the way sound 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:30.000 enters our ears. Ideally, listening to a recording made on 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:32.800 a binaral mic makes it seem like you are actually 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:35.600 in the same space as the A S mr Artist, 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:38.240 and the mic comes with other benefits to the artist 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:42.040 as well. It's opened up a lot of possibilities, especially 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:45.640 with role playing in storytelling, because I can use this 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:49.040 sound to create an atmosphere to immerse my viewer in, 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:53.000 and it's it's really interesting. I can incorporate a ton 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:56.200 of different sounds. And I can also use the mic 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:59.360 itself as a prop to make sounds because the microphone 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:03.040 that I use as ears, and I can use the 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:05.760 ears and manipulate them to create sounds and it really 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:09.840 sounds like I'm touching your ears, or I can breathe 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:12.440 into them and it'll sound like I'm breathing right into 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:15.319 your ears. And it's really cool, and it's a really 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:20.400 neat kind of way to touch someone that I'm never 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:25.200 actually touching. The traditional binaral microphones don't look like your 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:29.840 average condenser or dynamic mike. They look well, they look 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:32.800 like a mannequin head. You can even take the do 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:36.880 it yourself approach. But neural mikes they typically used to 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:39.880 have a dummy head that they would be placed in 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:44.320 or built into, and that was too make it so 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:47.760 that the sound sounded like it was traveling across you. 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:51.560 Across your heads, called head shadowing. So if it would 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:53.560 sound would go into one ear, you would also hear 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:55.600 in your other ear a little bit, but it would 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:59.800 be diminished and different. And using a dummy head is 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:04.320 really hard to do, especially if you are a novice 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:06.920 like me and you're making your own out of starro 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:10.720 foam and stuffing it with things, and and you can't 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:12.280 just use a star foam head. You have to give 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:15.880 it weight because the human head has weight and thickness 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:20.440 that sound moves past, so it travels through. So the 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:23.120 microphone that I use doesn't have a dummy head, which 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:26.320 is weird, and I think that people who have experienced 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:29.960 with by neural microphones um sometimes question, well, hey, that 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:32.040 can't be a real by neural microphone because it doesn't 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:35.080 have a head. But the way that the three do 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:39.440 is made is there's discs in it that position the 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:42.040 mics so that they're like your ears, and then the 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:45.960 ears themselves helped create that shape and give it that 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:49.120 head shadowing without actually having to have the head there. 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:54.840 It's really neat. As for editing, Heather's upgraded that as well. 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:58.600 Now I'm using the Creative Cloud, the Adobe Creative Cloud 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:01.160 and that has everything that has premiere pro and as 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:04.320 after effects, so I incorporate both of those regularly into 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:07.000 the videos, and there's humor is one of the qualities 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:10.200 I find most appealing with a s MR videos. Since 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:14.080 I don't personally experience this tingling sensation, I tend to 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:16.480 focus more on the content of a video than the 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:20.120 individual sounds. And let's face it, a role play video 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:23.760 in which you're playing an important but ultimately passive art 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:27.560 can feel a little silly, but some as MR artists 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:31.000 embrace that and make it part of their presentation. That 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:33.960 became clear when I asked Heather which videos she was 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:36.440 most proud of. The ones that I'm most proud of 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:39.600 are the ones that I've been most afraid to put out, 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:43.920 like Candy Queen, which would probably not be a great 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:48.240 introductory video, but um, I was very nervous about putting 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:53.320 that out, and um the Sleep Police, the brain pause 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:58.320 away after the battle, Uh, it's dangerous to go alone, 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:01.720 the Video Game one. And I think the one that 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:05.159 I'm most most proud of is the one that wasn't. 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:08.240 It's not my most popular video whatsoever. It doesn't have 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:10.919 the most views, but it was a story that I 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:15.560 wrote specifically for my channel and drew little pictures too 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:19.400 and created sound effects for and that one. Um, it's 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:21.760 very dear to my heart, and it's actually we're working 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:25.080 on making it into a children's book now, which is 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:28.680 really cool that parents might one day be reading something 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:31.199 that came from an Asmar channel to their children to 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:34.159 help them sleep. Here's a quick listen to part of 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:37.879 Heather's Sleep Police episode, in which he plays a helpful 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:40.520 officer who assists you as you try to drift off 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:45.800 into deep sleep. I've been doing this job for a 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:54.520 long time, thousands of years, and sitting at a desk 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:59.920 and filling at all those papers, huh, ten tho years 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:02.359 of that will give you such a drank in the fact, 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:08.159 have you been having a rough time too? That short 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:11.119 excerpt is another example of how Heather likes to incorporate 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:13.919 Easter eggs and her videos by mentioning or quoting the 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:16.920 stuff she loves. If you listen to her videos carefully, 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:21.840 you'll hear references to Disney films, science fiction, fantasy, song lyrics, 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:24.800 and more. I don't think if any people get to 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:27.440 interact with people and and just share things that they 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:30.280 love all the time, and a summer videos let me 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:33.000 do that. So I hide some lyrics that I like 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:34.919 or shows that I loved when I was a kid, 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:38.280 or like now in my videos, and when people catch 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:41.320 those Easter eggs, it's kind of like, ah, I see 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.280 you moment. You know, I get you, and I get 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:47.600 to share that with people, and it's very important to 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:49.720 me and it's very special to me. This brings us 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:52.439 to another interesting fact about the a s MR movement. 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:56.439 It's a real community. Artists collaborate with one another and 0:18:56.480 --> 0:19:00.159 interact with their fans. Fans spend time watching videos and 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:04.159 making recommendations and requests. It's a community that's been growing 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:07.639 steadily and yet is really close knit, even though there 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:10.359 are thousands and thousands and hundreds of thousands of people 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:15.320 in it now who are consumers and content creators. Everyone's 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:19.879 very mostly everyone's very friendly and understanding and sympathetic with 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:22.639 each other. And I think it's because every single person 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:25.840 has felt like they were the only one who had 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:27.840 a sm R at one point, and then you find 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:31.159 this community who's making this stuff to make you feel 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:35.480 that way, and it's kind of it's just an awesome feeling, engaging, 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:38.440 in a creative activity can be really rewarding, but it 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:40.560 also requires a lot of effort on the part of 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:43.320 the artist. So I asked Heather where she finds the 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:46.840 inspiration to make her videos. At this point, there is 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:51.000 very little that doesn't inspire me. I'm inspired by a box, 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:54.880 it can be agreekly bag. I'm inspired by other as 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:59.720 artists all the time because they're always producing creative content 0:19:59.840 --> 0:20:04.520 and trying new things. Um, I'm inspired by television shows 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:10.000 and commercial I'm inspired by commercials that make me mad. Um. 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:14.080 I was um my snake my snake oil salesman roleplay 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:17.960 that I did. I was inspired by eyelashed commercials, my 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:20.919 scare commercials because I didn't like that they use policies 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:25.879 and to see people in their commercials all the time. So, Um, 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:29.480 Candy Queen came from just looking at candy and thinking 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:31.800 I wanted to use candy in a video, and then 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:35.520 I made a whole story around candy. Ask for which 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:38.399 artists she finds inspiring. It might have been easier for 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:41.000 her to name the ones who don't. It would certainly 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:44.120 be a shorter list. Heather's not just a content creator, 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:47.040 She's an avid consumer. If you want to check out 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:48.840 the work of other people in a s m R. 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:52.119 She's got some suggestions for you. They're all different and 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:55.200 they all have something unique to offer. UM. Some people 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:58.480 that I regularly go to it would be just a 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:05.199 whispering guy a SMR requests Kiwi whispers are Daniela. I'm 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:07.520 trying to keep it even with men and women. Uh 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:13.240 A massage as Mr Gentle whispering, a mall visual sounds, 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:17.080 calming escape I could. I think I'm subscribed to over 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:21.480 four hundred a sm artists and that's for I didn't 0:21:21.520 --> 0:21:24.000 just subscribe to them to subscribe. I subscribe to them 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:28.280 each for their own reason. And there's people of all 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:30.800 ages from all over the world making these videos. If 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:33.399 you like accents, you can find someone with an accent 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:36.360 you like. UM, if you're more comfortable with someone older. 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:38.280 There are lots of older people making videos and young 0:21:38.320 --> 0:21:42.240 people making videos, and it's really diverse and versatile, and 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:45.800 it's I think that's part of what makes some of 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:48.879 the sm R community kind of beautiful, because there's a 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:52.480 whole bunch of people who are so different trying to 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:55.720 do the same thing. And a s MR artists work 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:59.639 relies heavily on creating interesting sounds, which prompted me to 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:02.240 ask other if that meant she explored the world of 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:06.120 sound and unusual ways. Does she test pretty much everything 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:08.400 she comes into contact with to find out what kinds 0:22:08.400 --> 0:22:11.040 of sounds that might make That is my life now? 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:16.520 That not even joking. Everywhere I go, I if i'm 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:19.200 especially even a store, I'm picking up everything and holding 0:22:19.200 --> 0:22:21.560 it next to my ear. And a lot of times 0:22:21.560 --> 0:22:23.840 people will say, hey, I think I saw you, and 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:26.640 they didn't see me. And but if you do see 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:28.720 a girl that looks like me holding something next to 0:22:28.760 --> 0:22:31.080 her ear and tapping it in a store, that's probably me. 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:35.680 It mortifies my family when we're out in public, especially 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:39.320 my sister. She's seven years younger than me. I like 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:42.840 to go shopping with her, um, and we've been in 0:22:43.920 --> 0:22:45.919 stories before when I picked stuff up and she'll just 0:22:45.960 --> 0:22:48.440 walk away from me, or yell at me or say 0:22:48.600 --> 0:22:51.240 something like wait till I'm out of the aisle before 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:52.680 you do that, because I don't want to be seen 0:22:52.720 --> 0:22:57.000 with you. Um. One time, I was looking for teapots 0:22:57.160 --> 0:22:59.439 for an upcoming role play that I'm doing, and I 0:22:59.480 --> 0:23:03.439 wanted when musicle looking teapots, so I had her helping 0:23:03.480 --> 0:23:06.879 me and she was yelling across aisles is this whimsical 0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:10.399 enough for you? And it was. It's just so funny 0:23:10.440 --> 0:23:12.959 because she doesn't have it and she doesn't really understand it, 0:23:12.960 --> 0:23:15.359 but she tries to. And then when she tries to, 0:23:15.520 --> 0:23:18.000 she gets embarrassed by me and ends up leaving or 0:23:18.080 --> 0:23:21.040 yelling at me. And which of Heather's video should you 0:23:21.040 --> 0:23:23.800 watch first? If they were coming for the first time, 0:23:23.840 --> 0:23:27.080 I would suggest the cranial r of examination because that 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:30.080 has a ton of different triggers in it, or any 0:23:30.119 --> 0:23:33.639 of the medical role plays, or just some sound assortments 0:23:33.680 --> 0:23:36.239