大象传媒

By Ashley Dick // 大象传媒 The Social contributor // 18 February 2022

From a town on the Isle of Lewis with a population of 30, The Hebridean Baker is reaching millions of people around the world. Inspired by family recipes and traditional Scottish bakes, Coinneach decided to share his life on TikTok, and reached a very engaged ASMR audience almost overnight.

“I’ve got a real passion for the islands that I’m from and I’ve always wanted to try and find a mechanism to promote the islands, and I just thought baking was a really good conduit to make that happen. And so the ASMR part of my content was very much secondary for me, it wasn’t in any way intentional. But the more people talked about it the more I realised that it was a tool.

I’m from a village of 30 people in the Isle of Lewis and I’ve had 14 million people watch my videos over the past 12 months. I think the great thing is they watch them for so many different reasons. Lots of people get something different out of them which I absolutely love.”

Coinneach posts baking recipes, simple Gaelic lessons, and snapshots of cosy Scottish island life, each with a voice-over that has resonated with millions.

“The thing for me that’s been the most fascinating and interesting is just the amount of people that talk about my voice and my accent. Every country's got a country bumpkin accent that people make fun of, and the Hebridean accent was sort of like that. It wasn’t seen as an accent of confidence or one that people kind of had trust in. So it seems now that the Hebridean accent is being celebrated and for me, that feels so so special.

85% of my followers are in North America and they noticed that I sort of sounded Scottish but they could sort of sense there was something else in my accent: Iceland or Wales or Norway or Ireland. And I was like, no, this is what a Hebridean man is supposed to sound like. They just became fascinated with hearing an accent for the first time were like ‘Where? Where on earth are you from? You sound like you are some kind of mystical person.’ I think my favourite thing is the number of people that say ‘are you related to Mrs Doubtfire?’ And I love Robin Williams so that’s amazing.”

It’s not just his accent that gives people the ASMR sensation. Often repetition or watching tasks being executed well can trigger the euphoric feeling from ASMR. And even if you don’t experience the intensity of the body’s response, the snapshots of Coinneach’s life feel like checking in with an old friend.

“You know, obviously over the last couple of years you weren’t going to friends' houses with cakes you were baking for yourself. So it is intentional that my content was about something you would do in your own home in your own time. And that resonated with the ASMR kind of perspective.

“If you remember a couple of years ago there was the Danish trend of hygge, which was all about that kind of contentment of life, slowing down a wee bit and enjoying the simple things in life. When I was writing the Hebridean Baker cookbook, somebody asked me the question, is there a Gaelic version of hygge? It kind of made me think, and I chose the word blàths. Blàths in Gaelic means warmth and contentment, just like a nice feeling. And there's a beautiful saying in Gaelic, beiridh blàths air luaths, which means, there’s a time for everything. And I just love that, that you just slow down, enjoy the things that you like doing, and give yourself a wee bit of time to do them.”

The use of Gaelic language in his channel definitely adds to the mysticism of the Hebridean culture, but it’s also a useful tool in the growing interest in learning Gaelic. The language is featured on the popular daily language lesson app Duolingo and the Scottish Government launched last year to encourage Scots to learn.

“I’m so proud of the Gaelic Language, it’s a real identity and not just for people in the Hebrides. There are only 60,000 people in the world that speak the language and for all of us that speak it, it’s our job, it’s our task to make sure that it is still seen in a positive way, it has an identity.

I do very simple Gaelic lessons on TikTok, just things like counting to ten, names of countries or how to say hello. And it's more than anything else just to get people interested in the language. It's been amazing the amount of people that have contacted me to say that they’ve decided to take up learning Gaelic just because of my short videos, so that’s made me feel amazing.”

For so many, ASMR is such a positive experience, and it’s wonderful to think of all the people who feel joy from Coinneach and the Hebridean culture. ASMR is a tool we can use to understand ourselves better and improve our enjoyment of life, and it’s encouraging to see Scotland at the centre of that.