Interview: Getting to Know No Murder No Moustache
Much-acclaimed Celtic punk artist No Murder No Moustache (Owen Crawford) returns with his most personal and powerful work yet. His new album, ‘As Everything Else Decays’, arrives Friday 27th February, led by the gripping new single and video, A Demon In The Dark, out now. In this interview we get to know him a little better.
1. Hello! Thank you for taking the time to chat to us. First things first, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started.
I’m Owen, but I perform as No Murder No Moustache. I’ve played in a range of bands over the years from indie to heavy metal, death metal to skate punk. In that time, I’ve played 100s of shows across the UK and Europe, ranging from tiny DIY venues, to touring as support to international touring bands, to performances at Bloodstock festival and everything in between.
In 2019 I was done with the classic local band meme stuff like struggling to organise practice around other people’s schedules and finding drummers so had been working up some tracks to play solo.
I also wanted to be able to move at my own pace, bringing new songs in, trying them out, making changes, and really double down on the authenticity of my performance too which is more difficult as a “democratic” band (maybe I have control issues). I put out a couple of early, rougher tracks that year to see how they went down.
2. Someone comes to you and asks you to sum up what kind of music you play – what do you tell them?
I call it Celtic Punk and describe it as having a blend of energetic rhythms, Celtic instrumentation and melodies, with a heartfelt punk vibe. Lyrically it’s mostly serious, but there’s a few less-serious drinking songs and downright absurd tracks in there too.
3. What’s currently keeping you busy? A new album/EP/single release? A new video? Playing live, or planning ahead?
My 2nd album “As Everything Else Decays” is coming out on Feb 27th 2026, and the first single “A Demon In the Dark” came out in December along with a video. I’m busy booking shows for the rest of the year and generally trying to get as many people to hear about the album as possible.
4. What is about this current period that is particularly exciting for you?
I’m really excited for people to hear the new songs. It’s been 2 and a half years since the first album and I’d been playing those songs live for years before that. It’s been brilliant to hear the response to the songs from the new album when I’ve played them live, but there’s still several that haven’t gone into the live set yet so the album will still have some surprises on it I’m sure.
5. Tell me about the work that has gone into making it a reality and what it means to you.
I’m a DIY musician and I love being one. I’ve written and recorded the songs, mixed the album, created the artwork, produced the videos, and everything else that goes with it. That’s the reason that it means a lot to me when people connect with one of my songs, or a theme that I’ve written about because it’s directly a connection with me as a person.
There’s no AI involved either, because AI sucks.
6. Making music and being creative can be a very positive experience and can be very good for the mind. In what way has making music had a positive impact on your mental health?
I’ve always had this constant need to do creative things, so being DIY is a really good way to satisfy that. I probably do an hour a day of either playing music, writing music, artwork, videos, making video games, or just learning something new and creative. I find it more relaxing than going on holiday, or other things that are supposed to be relaxing, and I’m not sure what I’d be like if I didn’t have that creative outlet, but I don’t want to find out.
7. It can also be incredibly challenging, more so in the modern times. What have been some challenging aspects of making music and how have you overcome them?
For me it’s the high level “safe-ness” and “same-ness” of the industry, both music and media in general.
Do we REALLY need any more films that open with Sympathy For The Devil, or fight scenes soundtracked by Immigrant Song? Nothing against these songs (they are amazing), but there’s so many millions of songs with similar vibes from lesser-known bands that could be used instead and grow their fanbase, but somewhere up the chain it’s all about same-ness. Children’s films are even worse for just using the same track, or cheap covers of them, over and over again.
I of course haven’t overcome this, but I have tried not to let it bother me as much as it used to, and I’ve changed my expectations about what will happen when I release a song, to put more emphasis on live performance.
8. How do you handle the online aspects of promoting your music? Having to put out content constantly, promoting across several different social media platforms, and having your success measured in likes and follows?
I don’t mind posting about things really, I like to try and keep it authentic rather than posed, so one day I’ll be in a massive warm hoody playing the accordion for some practice and I’ll post it because that’s what I’m doing, but other times it’ll be more focused like when I’ve got shows or music coming up.
It can be a bit soul crushing when you share something big and it just doesn’t get shown to people though.
9. How do you make this part of things enjoyable, and fulfilling, for yourself?
At least with creating content, there is (if you want there to be) a creative element which I don’t mind too much. If I think something might be interesting or good to post, I’ll try and create it in a way that is interesting for me. Not just following whatever trend or AI suggestions that the platform tries to get you to do.
To be honest, I find it much more frustrating booking shows as that feels like pure admin.
10. Speaking directly to listeners – what would you ask they do to help support you?
If you like my music, tell your friends about it. If you don’t, but you know someone who might, then tell them about it. I think there’s so many ways to discover new music now, that we don’t talk about it as much as we used to when we find a new band that we like.
Of course I have merch over at https://shop.nomurdernomo.co.uk but spreading the word, or listening any other way is all good with me.
11. Outside of music, what do you like to do to relax?
I like to play video games, do some cooking, and of course drink a few pints of Guinness.
12. Where can people find you?
https://www.nomurdernomo.co.uk is my proper website, or links to everything can be found on https://linktr.ee/nomurnomo.
Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | Bluesky
