When we last spoke to Ciarán Fitz of the Dublin psych-punk band Dumb Posh Hippies after the release of their single, “Scrunched Up Fist,” in 2024, the band were riding high in the local punk scene. “2024 to 2025, that period, we were like [Makes an upward graph with his arm],” said Ciarán, when we spoke again this year.

“Everything was like, ‘Done! Done! Done!’ We had all the dates booked out. But things have become a bit scattered. But, it’s still there; everything’s still there, but life gets in the way sometimes, you know?”

What has endeared Dumb Posh Hippies to the punkers and psych heads alike is their versatile, experimental, and hard-hitting tracks, that are spacious, explorative, and hardcore as fuck, man. Chaos naturally follows them, but they have the ability to constantly roll with the punches, and that is guaranteed to be displayed whenever they’re on stage.

When we recorded our interview this year (which, at the request of Ciarán, we have not published as a podcast episode, and, as an editorial aside, I want to say that you’ve missed out on a great one!), the Gardaí came to Ciarán’s house to investigate a break-in, yet he was still able to continue the interview for two hours!

In March 2025, the band released the single “Parasitus Socialitus,” and the following month, they dropped the Mixed Up Scrunchie EP, which featured remixes of their “Scrunched Up Fist” track from artists like Dan Ryan, R.Kitt, Chasing Felix, Giles Armstrong, B-Origin, and Grimmix.

But, behind the scenes, Ciarán was dealing with some serious health concerns. “In, I think it was October…or just before Christmas, anyway, I started getting short of breath. I couldn’t breathe,” he explains. “I didn’t know what the fuck was going on, and it got to the point that I had to be rushed to the hospital, and I couldn’t breathe.

“It turned out I had Type 2 respiratory failure, which is up there with a fuckin’ heart attack. So, I learned that too late…like, well after the fact. So, I was in the hospital for a few days, and it was great. I literally came out of the hospital so good! ‘Oh, they fuckin’ fixed me! Back on the smokes!’

“So, I was sick for about a month after the hospital, and then went back on the cigarettes. I’m a postman, as I think you know. Throughout the whole Christmas period, which is, obviously, really busy, I was working ten-hour days, six days a week, and smoking twenty cigarettes a day, and then more on the weekend. And, at the end of the Christmas period, I just completely collapsed again.

“It wasn’t respiratory failure, but I knew the warning signs a little bit. ‘I fuckin’ need to go back to the hospital!’ The nurse there…I was just checking in, and she was looking at my chart, and she said to me – …and she wasn’t even doing this to scare me or anything, but it’s the thing that won’t leave my head – …she goes, ‘Oh, shit! You stayed here with us a couple of months ago. God, you don’t want to stay here for the rest of your life, do ya?’

“And just saying that casually…because, when I was in the hospital previously, for a week or something, the people there, in the respiratory section, are there all the time. There was this old man who could not sleep, was coughing all the time, and was puking up spew.

“Basically, I was diagnosed with asthma [due to] the cigarettes. I did, like, ten weeks off them, then I went to Vietnam with my girlfriend. I was five days off them there, and it was so hard to get off the smokes. It’s fuckin’ hot, and people are smoking everywhere! And I was like, ‘You know what? I can do a week! I can do a week!’

“Then we came back from Vietnam. We got engaged; I’m engaged to her now. Then, on the fifteen-hour flight back from Vietnam, I had been smoking for a week, and it dried up everything, and I was straight back [to the hospital] again. And it put the fear of God in me now, man!”

Now, thanks to the aid of nicotine pouches, Ciarán has managed to completely quit smoking and vaping. In their sabbatical, their bassist, James Hutcheon, has begun making music with his brother, and their drummer, Matthew Lynch, has joined the rising post-hardcore band Morbegs. Despite this, Dumb Posh Hippies were able to continue with easy continuity, and, before Ciarán’s health scare, had laid down two new tracks.

“We recorded it before Christmas,” Ciarán says of making their latest double-sided single. “We recorded it with Darragh Hansard of Unique Freaks, formerly known as Thee U.F.O.”

Released at the end of April, the two songs are “DOOMER” and “SCUMBO.” Speaking first on “DOOMER,” Ciarán says, “We’ve had that for two years. When we released ‘Ego Ripper’ and ‘Bellyache’ as our second release, we had just got that together. So, that’s two years ago, now.

“I think all I had was the main riff, the chorus, and the verse, you know? Very simple. And I brought it to the lads, and we were in between studios at the time, and it was just something that clicked on really quickly. Basically, it’s just one big riff, isn’t it? [Laughs] It’s just a load of riffs!

“The lyrics don’t mean fuckin’ anything! When I listen back to it, I’m like, ‘Do I fancy somebody?!’ Honesty, I don’t know! It’s just the lyrics that fit into the thing! […] Sometimes, you’ll try and write something, and sometimes lyrics will come easier. This was very much, like, music first.  

“I don’t know. It clicked really quickly. And, when I’m on my route, I’ll just listen to podcasts, and it’ll be dull podcasts when I come up with riffs. I’ll just be, like, humming riffs in my head over the podcasts, because it’s just, like, dead noise, and it helps. So, I started humming the breakdown! It kind of just came like that!

“I wrote the music for that one, but when Matthew comes in with the drums, it has a skip to it. It was not what I thought it was going to be. And, immediately when that happened, it was like, ‘Oh! It’s not a mosher! It’s a dancer!’ [Laughs] But it’s almost two years since we wrote that song, so it’s kind of hard to remember the actual facts, to be honest.

“But it became our favourite song to play live. When we got it right, it’s kind of Kyuss-esque. When I listen to it, I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s kind of like that!’ By no means was I trying to do that; it was just, ‘Put as many riffs as possible on it!’”

And, for the second track, Ciarán says, “‘SCUMBO’ is very new; like, within the last six months, maybe. Again, I thought of the riff while I was on the job. There’s these few notes that we work with a lot, and they’re actually in quite a lot of our tunes! Like, it’s all over ‘Scrunched Up Fist.’ They keep coming to me too much, and it’s just a rearranging thing, you know?

“That kind of came all at once; the music and the way the vocals go, you know? But the fuckin’ Wizard of Oz thing happened in the jam room. I dunno, again, it’s like this little thing that happens. This is just an average song unless there’s a thing. Like, what’s it building up to? Because there’s only one verse, and I repeat it.

“Then I think Jimmy started doing the Oh-Ee-Oh, and we went, Oooohh! [Laughs] We just got stuck on that! Then, Matthew has that big Black Sabbath drum fill. I think we sorted that in one jam; probably in less than an hour. I had the lyrics written already! I was just talking to myself! I was just talking about the worst part of myself in my twenties, just in case any of my mates are reading this! It wasn’t about you; it was about me! I’m the one sipping my latte! [Laughs]”

In addition to his work with Dumb Posh Hippies, Ciarán has been working with Darragh on some solo material, but he’s currently uncertain if this is something that will even be released. “It’s kind of just, like, I’ve had a few songs, and sometimes, you try and make it work with Hippies, and you’re like, ‘Ah, I don’t think it’s working, really!’,” he explains.

“Hansard lives around the corner from my job. I went over to him this week, and we were trying to work it out. Previously, I tried to record it with my mate Damo [Fegan] from Morda and Chasing Felix, just kind of demoing it out, you know?

“It’s more just for fun. It would definitely be over a longer period of time. There’s no rush on anything at all. Hippies is number one. It’s the thing that’s the most fun. You get to play with your mates. Megan, my fiancé, is like, ‘Where’s Ciarán gone? Oh, he’s gone playing with his pals!’ It’s like knocking on your mate’s door! ‘Can Matthew come out and play?’”

And the fun doesn’t stop, as Dumb Posh Hippies already have a lot lined up for the rest of the year. On top of the gigs they have planned, they’re also going back in the studio soon.

 “We’re hoping to get into the studio before the end of the summer,” Ciarán says. “[We’re going] to record ‘LEVITATE’/’HEADLESS,’ and this ten-minute psych song that we’ve been playing for longer than ‘DOOMER.’

“And they actually blend together; so, it’s this, like, sixteen-minute/seventeen-minute long song, basically. Two songs combined, with a little jam in between, and there’s a possibility of that going on a small D.I.Y label on record. But that’s not confirmed.”

Dumb Posh Hippies’ latest single, “DOOMER & SCUMBO,” is streaming now. You can follow the band on their Instagram.

This Saturday, they will support Outsound at Sin É, Dublin. Tickets are available here.

Aaron Kavanagh

Aaron Kavanagh is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Post-Burnout. His writing can also be found in the Irish Daily Star, Buzz.ie, Totally Dublin, The GOO, Headstuff, New Noise Magazine, XS Noize, DSCVRD and more.