Sound Signature at The Savoy the big Parrish Party! 

“I’M a Limerick man,” announces Cian Frawley in his laidback drawl, “but Cork is my spiritual home, I think. I feel a big connection to Cork. I always have.”

His church, as such, was Sir Henry’s, and although he confesses to getting through its hallowed doors to the legendary Sweat nights while he was still legally suspect, his musical education was nurtured there.

“I’m 6’6” since I was about 15,” he says by way of explanation, “so I got to go to Henry’s in ’97, and they kind of set it all in motion.”

Back in Limerick he started running partiesof his own when he was 17 when people wouldn’t book him, and he went on to achieve a long-running residency at Dolan’s Warehouse with the Backwards club night. Over the years he brought top DJs like Larry Heard, Joey Beltram, DJ Bone and Cajmere.

In the early 2000s he studied music production in Manchester, and he would go on to produce music with Myrtleville’s John Daly under the name 60 Miles. His life in music production and promotion put him in contact with numerous people, including West Cork’s Shane Breen, who used to DJ in Limerick when he was studying there in the 2000s.

That particular connection has a huge role to play in bringing revered Detroit DJ Theo Parrish and his Sound Signature label for a celebratory event at the Savoy this Saturday. Having returned home in 2024 after spending more than a decade in Vancouver, Breen got back in touch with Frawley and invited him down to DJ in the café he was running in Skibbereen, Ár n-Áit. There they hatched plans to run events together under the name Rory’s Birthday Party, a name chosen for it being equal part intriguing and equal part ridiculous. The whimsical nature of the name belied their grand ambitions. The first Rory’s Birthday Party event was a three-day festival last November in Goleen, which featured Chicago house DJ Specter, Turin’s Andrea Passenger and London house and soul DJ The Mighty Zaf.

The next event was at the Kino in March featuring Berlin Panorama Bar residents Tama Sumo & Lakuti and the live debut of a new project called East West Assembly, a disco project that was the brainchild of Frawley. The core group comprised Frawley, Kilkenny sound engineer Shane Tobler and multi-instrumentalist Sean Montgomery-Dietz. The group was completed by Monica Blaire, a Detroit vocalist who has worked with the likes of Roy Ayers, Amp Fiddler, Common, Moodymann and is affiliated to Theo Parish’s Sound Signature label.

Frawley explains: “We had the demo tracks and we tried a few vocalists, but we just weren’t feeling it. I was aware of Monica a long time. It’s her versatility really. When you want someone to be able to bust it on a big record, but also able to bring it in. And I knew her repertoire with the likes of Theo Parrish, Roy Ayeres, and all these people. So, I just basically said will you listen to these to see if you can feel them and you think you can elevate them will we do something, and thankfully she said yeah.”

Blaire flew over to Ireland for three separate recording sessions, the first in the summer of 2022, the next the following summer, and again in October 2024, when Theo Parrish was over for the Jazz Festival.

While Frawley was shopping a four-track demo around to potential interested labels, Blaire played the tracks to Parrish. Not only was he interested, he wanted another five or six songs to make an album. Which makes East West Assembly the first Irish act on his label

And so, when Breen and Frawley wanted to do their next event it made sense to brand it a Sound Signature party.

Joining Parrish are fellow Motor City DJs and producers Whodat? and Meftah. The latter will be performing live with vocalist Ideeyah. The pair having collaborated on the acclaimed soul jazz vibes of the 2025 Sound Signature release Sweet Chariot. Representing the home side are East West Assembly as well as vocalist Abbie Lee who is currently recording tracks with Shane Breen. 

Anyone who witnessed the last edition of Rory’s Birthday Party will know that the live performance of East West Assembly is definitely not to be missed. Although a quartet, they expand to a 14-piece thanks to the addition of a group of Congolese musicians as well as a few more Irish ones.

“We’re trying our best to pay homage to the disco era,” says Frawley. “So, it’s 14 of us onstage and off we go — full pelt.”

When I ask why he thinks Parrish, one of the more uncompromising and visionary DJs and label owners, might have taken a punt on East West Assembly Frawley has this to say:

“We’re doing our best with trying to be original in a world where everything has been done or recycled. We’re just trying to stay true to it. It was all live recorded. No tracking or anything, just all live. The rawness of it, and I suppose the fact Monica’s voice is over it. It just clicked with it. I don’t think when she was playing it for him she had said anything. I think he said, ‘What the f**k is this!’ The ultimate compliment, basically.”

When Parrish was last in Cork for the 2024 Jazz Festival he played a lengthy set at Cyprus Avenue and participated in the We Almost Lost Detroit show at the Opera House, which featured Gil Scott-Heron collaborator Brian Jackson, Moodymann and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble.

Frawley believes the Sound Signature Party this Saturday will emulate that,

“It’s going to be exactly like that, and in my mind even bigger. But with dancing,” he enthuses.

They are taking the unusual step of opening the event at 5pm with Theo Parrish in order to ensure the audience get the fullest experience possible.

“We’re hoping people will just let go and twirl around and get down to the music. You know Theo, we’re privileged to have him open it up. He’ll be playing for the first four hours, which is very unusual. So, he’ll already bring everyone up, down, inside out – you’ll have every emotion under the sun.”

• Sound Signature Party featuring Theo Parrish (extended opening set), East West Assembly featuring Monica Blaire, Ideeyah Supreme & Meftah, Whodat? Frawl, Pablo Fatty Fatty, Shane Breen & Abbie Lee at the Savoy Theatre, on Saturday, May 9. Doors from 5pm.