2026 is set to be a big year for Sons of Sevilla, the musical partnership of brothers Henry and Reuben Vaun Smith. The pair has a wealth of new material ready for release, starting with a stunning, standalone single that subtly expands on the siblings’ sun-soaked signature sound while emphasising the timeless warmth and colour that has long been inherent in their joint productions.
Born via an impromptu brotherly recording session in their original home of Featherstone, West Yorkshire – a former coal-mining village in the North of England – Sons of Sevilla have received plenty of plaudits since making their debut on Ubiquity Records in early 2024, a label that has also championed Reuben Vaun Smith’s similarly acclaimed solo work.
Named in honour of a city they visited many times on family holidays in their youth, Sons of Sevilla have been praised by music critics for the warm, thickset and lightly psychedelic nature of their nostalgic and vibrant trademark sound. To date, they have released two fine full-length excursions, 2024’s Lullabies For a Wildcat and last year’s speedy sequel, Street Light Moon, and extensively toured the UK, Europe and United States with their expanded band line-up.
To begin a new chapter in their ongoing musical story, the Smith brothers have served up a suitably strong double A-side single. Both were recorded with producer Max Shrager at his Studio Zoe space in New Jersey, following the culmination of the duo’s 2025 tour of the United States. Musically rich, sonically vivid and terrifically tactile, the two songs are as emotionally stirring as they are infectious and inspiring.
Lead cut ‘Forever Heaven’ was originally laid down in demo form in their studio in Leeds, before being re-made with Shrager last year. It sees the pair at their sweet and alluring best, with glassy-eyed, loved-up lead vocals, chiming melodies and dusty licks rising above rubbery bass guitar, warming electric piano motifs and a snare-heavy soul break. It’s a moon-lit masterpiece tailored made for humid evenings and sweltering summer nights.
This blue-eyed soul-meets-soft-rock feel is further explored on ‘Changing’, a track written in Los Angeles following a tour rehearsal session, and subsequently laid down in New Jersey. In it, the Smith brothers offer subtle nods to pedal steel-sporting Americana and late sixties psychedelic dream pop. More languid, gentle and musically detailed in tone, the song makes use of a similarly warm and organic sonic palette and classic instrumentation. It’s another timeless blast of wide-eyed, loved-up musical nostalgia that lingers long in the memory.
