Zane Smith and Faith Winkler have spent their whole lives creating music. Smith is an audio engineer and Winkler is a vocalist. They both got their start as band members at Caleb Chapman’s Soundhouse, a youth music program in American Fork. In 2025, Smith and Winkler decided to officially start releasing music as a duo under the name “Tempting.” They released their debut album, “Drunk Driving,” this year on Jan. 30. 

About the album

“Drunk Driving” explores themes of sensuality, ecstasy and suspenseful, sensual longing through Smith’s breath-of-fresh-air production and Winkler’s versatile vocals. The genre-bending project is dramatic party music with hyperpop beats and jazzy vocals. It rides the line between poignant and carefree, with expressive lyrics and refreshing production on each track. 

Smith said the album doesn’t have a genre; he describes it as a mixtape. 

“We think more of genre as a tool for expression, which I think is the general consensus now around young people making music,” he said. “You don’t have to fit into a mold, and whatever narrative it is, you should use whatever tools you can to best fit the narrative. There can be an overarching theme, but no genre.” 

Building music through trust 

Smith said he was inspired to up the ante in his collaboration with Winkler after attending Kilby Block Party in 2025. 

“I remember seeing Justice at Kilby Block Party, and they’re a duo, and they’re so good. So I asked Faith if she wants to make this an official duo band thing,” he said. 

Smith and Winkler’s professional relationship as creators made a considerable impact on the contents of their debut album. Winkler said that being able to put trust in Smith gave her room to truly express herself. 

“The more that I got to trust Zane, not only as my producer, but as a friend and as my person. Getting to get deeper vocally and lyrically. I think it really shows throughout the album,” she said. “The thing that’s really nice about working with Zane is that he doesn’t let me ruminate on stuff. He lets me do a solid three takes or something and lets go.” 

The production process 

Winkler said the vocal recording process involved a lot of trial-and-error. “As far as vocal recording, I guess when we sit down to do sessions, he kind of just lets me melody vomit for a good 30 minutes,” she said. “I think the easiest part was melody building with him, and then going back home, and thinking about the actual building of a story.”

Smith perfected the production process for Winkler’s voice with a DIY setup featuring many borrowed components from friends and family. 

“We ended up playing with a lot of hardware because my dad was just calling all his friends, being like, ‘Hey, can I use your pre-amp? Can I use your compressor?” said Smith. “As we were writing the album, I got more familiar with how to work with Faith’s voice with the EQ compressor, and I got a good template down.”  

According to Smith, the key to creating a unique sound while producing can sometimes be found in broken equipment. 

“We used a FocusRite Compressor. It was kind of broken. So there was a bit of dirtiness to the vocals, which we ended up rocking with because it added a nice texture to it,” he said. “But that made less work for me on that session because there was already a compressor on it.” 

Winkler and Smith’s songwriting process was spontaneous and passion-driven. 

Winkler said, “Zane and I both had songs that we kept throwing in each other’s faces and being like, this is something, like, please just make us something.” 

Winkler said that their song “Impatient” came together while she was in the shower. 

“I wouldn’t let it go. I randomly texted him. I was mid-shower, and I had to turn off the water because we weren’t that close yet. I was standing there freezing, and I sang the chorus to impatient and I was like, ‘This is the chorus,’ and he actually liked it, thank God,” she said. 

Music videos  

Tempting is currently focusing on making a music video for each of the 12 songs on their album. In January, they released their first video for “Truth of Dare,” which was followed by a video for the album’s lead single, “Drunk Driving.”

“Being able to create visuals for that is a really fun way to connect with the audience,” said Winkler. “We didn’t originally start this project as a drunk driving project, but looking back, we’re honestly kind of able to make a universe. Kind of recon the universe.” 

The video for “Truth or Dare” features wild party scenes, including strip poker and drinking games. It was filmed over the span of a weekend in Park City. 

The “Drunk Driving” music video was filmed over four nights on the side of a road with a borrowed Cadillac. 

“Drunk Driving was hard because we had to be on a crunch. My grandfather drove from California in his red Cadillac to give us the Cadillac for this video,” said Winkler. “We had a total of four days of freezing cold nights outside. We worked from like 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. every single night, and I was working full-time during this, so there was like no break. It was crazy. I mean, it was like an amazing whirlwind. I loved every moment, but it was crazy.” 

Alex Killian, Smith’s boyfriend, is the producer and creative director of all their photoshoots and upcoming music videos. For the past two months, the team has been working on a music video for what Winkler calls “the gemstone of the album, “Sinners.” 

“It’s a religious-esque take on how far would you go for fame. It has choir and church themes on top of it. It’s about how I would literally sell my soul for this to work out, because I’ve given up on a lot of dreams for this to work out,” said Winkler. “I quit school, I quit a lot of things I’ve invested in for Tempting to work.” 

Scenes that “Tempting” is working on for the “Sinners” music video include Winkler walking into a frozen lake while wearing a wedding dress and being buried alive. 

Future Goals 

Smith and Winkler have big dreams for the future of “Tempting”, including a second full audio-visual concept album and a world tour. 

“We’re hoping this album gives us the momentum to sign to an indie label that could help us make bigger and better music videos and fund our next project of a full audio/visual concept album,” said Smith. 

Smith said live performances are more important now than ever before. “We want to support our work live, especially as recorded music is getting easier to reproduce through AI,” he said. 

Readers can watch the “Sinner’s” music video out next month on YouTube.