Cornish heavy metal band Moosehead has become more popular in the USA than at home in Cornwall thanks to its new album – and it’s only been out for a month.
It has been a good year for lead singer Dunk Jewitt, guitarist Jan Trefusis, drummer Ross Morris and bass player Joe Hugh.
They played bigger venues upcountry and even had a 10/10 glowing review of their first album Carved in Stone by metal scene legend Chris Sutton, the biographer of Black Sabbath, in a the March/April 2025 issue of national rock and metal magazine Powerplay.
The band’s name was just the first name they came up with that nobody hated and happens to share a namesake with Canadian beer.
It is also reference to the grunge music scene that has influenced them all, which mostly came out of Seattle near the Canadian border. They also started working on their second album and have been releasing singles on streaming platforms like Spotify as each song came out.
“The younger generation don’t tend to listen to albums in the same way as we did when we were younger, when we bought cd’s and vinyls and listened to the whole album, due to the format of music platforms and the way it steers you into listening to single tracks,” Dunk told us as we caught up with Moosehead at his house in St Eval.
“They’ll listen to a couple of tracks then jump onto a different band. So it was easier to bring out eight songs as singles one at a time. It’s the best way to get your name out these days. But now all the singles are out we put them together into an album. It flows quite well.”
Carved in Stone, the band’s first album, was released in 2023. Herd, Moosehead’s second album, came out on March 13 this year and has been streamed or downloaded as a full album more than 28,000 times already, with most of the listeners being in America.
Cabin Fever, the band’s latest single, continues to do the rounds on commercial radios all over the USA, perhaps because of its Lynyrd Skynyrd southern rock vibe – while it is also popular in Sweden and Brazil.
Cornwall metal band Moosehead released their second album Herd in March 2026(Image: Moosehead)
“There is this small maple whisky distillery called Cabin Fever in Connecticut,” Dunk said. “We got in contact with them and they loved the song. We’re trying to work something up with them. They said they’d host us next time we’re in America.”
While their growing fan base may live across the Pond, performing live on stages across America remains a distant aspiration for Moosehead as cost of both travelling, booking venues which all operate a ‘pay to play’ system, and the time involved is too taxing for them all at present.
While not having a change of musical direction with Herd, Moosehead produced a couple of ballads for their second album which are mellower than their other work, at least musically, if not thematically.
Dunk explained: “Blood is a ballad about a vampire stuck on a planet who feeds on the astronauts Earth keeps sending out when the crews never come back.”
Other themes on the album, with songs like Snake Eye, touch on people’s personal demons and vices, from drink and drugs to gambling or paranoia and psychosis.
Herd – a play on word on ‘herds of moose’ and ‘heard’ – was again recorded at Cube studio in Silverwell, near Perranporth, which is known as one of the best studios outside London.
“We got over the whole, ‘we’re going to make it as rock stars’,” Dunk said. “It’d be nice, of course, to earn a living from our music and do bigger stages, but now it’s more about enjoying the journey.
“So many bands would have given up by now but we do it for the love of it.
“The last year has been our best year when we opened to Brant Bjork the drummer of Kyuss in Southampton.”
Moosehead also headlined the tattoo convention at the Royal Cornwall Showground last August, which Dunk and Jan said was totally their crowd. “Gen X metal heads covered in tattoos,” Dunk said. “Totally our crowd.”
They also headlined the 2025 Indian Motorcycle UK National Rally at Harbour Brewing in Bodmin – which they will do again this year – and will be supporting Norwegian metal band Masheena when they play at the Gryphon in Bristol later this month.
Moosehead draws its influence from punk to heavy metal bands such as Black Sabbath, Metallica, Motorhead, Kiss and Led Zeppellin.
“We tried to battle our two albums against each other,” Jan said. “I think Herd is more diverse but generally heavier and more metal than Carved in Stone. We had people in America say they could hear some early Mötley Crüe and Skid Row in it. Perhaps it’s because they think we’re an American band.”
Dunk said he usually writes down bits of lyrics when they pop into his head and tries to work them into songs with Jan and Dunk composing most of the music to go with them.
On Herd, Joe has also come up with riffs of his own which have made it into some of the songs.
Kelly French Jewitt, of KFJ Music Management, Dunk’s wife and Moosehead’s manager, said Moosehead may never fill Wembley or the O2 Arena like Metallica but the aim remains to hit the bigger festivals and stages in the UK.
She said 2026 will be about pushing Moosehead’s music farther and wider by putting the new songs out on as many radio stations around the world as possible as well as with TV commercials agencies and TV streamers like Netflix in the bid of a breakthrough.
Dunk and Jan agree the Cornwall festival scene remains a tough nut to crack especially when so many organisers prefer to book easy listening cover bands rather than take a punt on original new bands.
“We said we didn’t want to do just pubs so we can concentrate on the bigger events in the UK,” Dunk said. “But we’ll definitely go back to the Old Ale House in Truro. It was such a good night. It’s a great venue with a crowd in our age group, and a great acoustic.”
Moosehead will also play at the Dead Famous bar in Newquay on Friday May 29.
“This year will be about getting the right song in front of the right person at the right time,” Jan said. “We love what we do. We’re just waiting to be discovered.”
Check out Moosehead at https://moosehead.band/home.
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