Max HeyraudMultunes Live is a new project from Stack City Raves boss Multunes, presenting his quintessential trance sound in an all-new live format that blends live strings, iconic 90s synths, and big, thundering rooms for ravers to experience his music in a completely new way.
Multunes has become one of Ireland’s most exciting electronic music exports, building a reputation for an uncompromising, high-voltage approach to DJing. Closely associated with the rise of Stack City Raves, the Irish DJ and producer has spent recent years selling out venues across the country, from The Telegraph Building and The Metro to Bunt Music. Multunes’ rise has been hard to overlook, with tracks like “Panic At The Disco” becoming contemporary Irish anthems and major shows selling out through late 2025 and early 2026.
Now, with the launch of Multunes Live, he’s pushing things even further, reimagining trance through live instruments.
Where did the idea to incorporate classical instruments, like the violin, into your set’s come from?
I have always been really into early 90s dance music, particularly old school trance and happy hardcore. Strings are really common in trance and happy hardcore tunes, which are always laced with catchy piano riffs. I always wanted to incorporate these into my music. One day, I found out that these sounds that I loved from the early 90s were almost exclusively being made using one synth – the Korg M1, an old sample-based synthesiser from the late 80s. I bought the M1 plugin, and as soon as I got it going, straight away, I found the exact sounds I had spent years looking for. Since then, the M1 has been the backbone of all my music.
About 6 months ago, I thought to myself, since I’m always using sounds from real instruments in my productions, why not perform my music live? Straight away, I booked in and announced the first-ever Multunes Live show in the Telegraph Building, Belfast. At this stage, I couldn’t even play piano, but the vision was there. The months that followed consisted of writing loads of new music and travelling back and forth from London to rehearse with my three string players, who are all London-based.
How did it feel performing it live?
It was an unbelievable experience. It has been such a journey, from coming up with the idea, announcing the show, and then having to teach myself piano and rehearse my own music with these three musical geniuses in London. Then seeing it all come to life in front of 2000 people in one of the best venues in Europe. It’s something I will never forget. Looking back, I still kind of can’t believe it actually happened. For months, it was just all talk, but now it’s a real thing, and I know that Multunes Live is going to be a huge, central part of my career and life. It really showed me that anything is possible if you believe in it.
What was the crowd’s reaction during the performance?
They loved it. I was really nervous before we took to the stage. The set opened with a long string intro, with the musicians playing the melody of my new track “Vibrations”. I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think there’s ever been an orchestral intro to a rave in the Telegraph building before, and I was nervous everyone would be like WTF even is this. But everyone was really invested in it, and then after the intro, I started playing the track on the decks – same melody as the intro – and everyone erupted. It was full-on rave mode then.
All in all, it was a great success and has left me absolutely buzzing to do more live shows.
What’s next for Multunes Live?
On Monday, I am announcing my first Multunes Live show in Glasgow. I have done Glasgow loads already, but this is my first live performance. It’s also the biggest Glasgow show I have done to date.
Importantly, I know that it works now, so now I just want to build on it. The cool thing about it is, it’s still 100% rave. It’s not like going to an orchestra; it’s still 140+BPM pumping dance music blasting out a big sound system with all the strobes and lasers you would expect at a good party, it’s just executed in a slightly different way. Eventually I want to turn Multunes Live into a full-scale rave orchestra, with a bigger string section, brass & percussion sections and singers, all playing my music live.
What gives me confidence in it is that while it is something totally unique, it’s still the same music that I have always played, just done with a bit of extra flavour. I don’t think anyone is doing it in this way, so I’m very excited to see what the future holds for Multunes Live. And even if nothing else happened, I’m just glad that I stepped out of my comfort zone and tried something new.
