New York, NY (December 5, 2024)—Renault recently asked UK singer Sinéad Harnett to record inside its new 5 E-Tech electric vehicle for a promo video, and while the company mistakenly claims it’s the first track ever recorded in a car (not even close), it’s still a fun experiment.
The UK singer got behind the wheel to re-record some vocals from her single “Thinking Less,” providing the French auto manufacturer with an opportunity to show off the car’s quiet interior as well as its audio controls. The vehicle’s baguette holder (really) was used for mounting Harnett’s microphone, and the interior sound system was used for playback.
The video reveals that good gear was used for the project, too—the unnamed engineer in the passenger seat used Apple Logic Pro to record the proceedings and we spotted an AKG logo on the back of the microphone’s shock mount; given the silver band around the center, we’re guessing it was an AKG C214 large-diaphragm condenser.
In a press statement, Adam Wood, Managing Director, Renault UK, noted, “Sinéad’s world-first re-recording and mixing of her hit single is the perfect way to showcase its capabilities.”
Well, actually there’s a number of artists who have recorded in cars, but this was certainly the first time someone’s recorded in a 5 E-Tech—because the car doesn’t officially launch until Spring, 2025.
Cutting in a car is pretty well-documented, however—back in 2017, Rolls-Royce had UK grime superstar Skepta record in a sleek Phantom VIII as it wound through the Swiss Alps. The company pulled the video after social media wags noted Skepta hadn’t worn a seatbelt, but the clip still survives elsewhere online.
A few years earlier in 2014, Chevrolet invited Midwest rockers The Gentlemen Mutineers to record in a Chevy Impala (check our coverage here). For the clip, lead singer Frankie Turner belted into a Blue Microphones Snowball while Grammy award-winning engineer Mark Pastoria of Harmonie Park Studios captured the result on his laptop computer.
Still, they’re all pretenders to the throne compared to Ben Vaughn, who recorded his entire Lo-Fi 1997 album, Rambler ’65, inside the slowly rotting titular vehicle. This resulted in one of our funniest interviews ever—take a few minutes to check out the highly amusing story. While you’re there, you can watch the equally cut-rate mockumentary Vaughn made about recording garage rock on a driveway.
If all this has inspired you to drag some gear out to your car and start recording, check out a serious, real-world ‘how-to’ article by Mix contributor Frank Verderosa, which details how he used vehicles to record socially distanced voiceovers during the pandemic back in April, 2020.
If you’re going to try this, here’s one final pro tip: Do not record while driving! Sure, this sounds like common sense, but not everyone is that smart. Back on New Year’s Eve, 2019, Washington State Police pulled over a truck driver doing 87 in a 70 m.p.h. zone. When they looked in the truck cab, they discovered a whole recording setup, complete with mics dangling from the ceiling and a laptop running Cakewalk recording software—plus a lot of drug paraphernalia. While we joked in our coverage that the trucker’s favorite plug-in was iZotope De-Pothole, let’s reiterate: Cutting tracks while making tracks is a very bad idea.
