Meet the DJ who has gone from making music in his north Belfast bedroom to landing a record deal with Sony and playing to thousands in just three years.
Daire McGuigan, aka DAIRE, will perform his biggest show on home soil on Saturday night when he takes to the stage at the SSE Arena.
It is the latest milestone on a rapid journey that has taken even him by surprise.
The 25-year-old told the Belfast Telegraph: “It’s nuts, isn’t it? It’s been kind of crazy.
“I first got decks when I was about eight years of age. I just had a passion for music as a kid.
“I was always downloading music, I was on YouTube watching all the stuff, and then just as I got older I actually started doing live shows.
“I was always doing house parties and whatnot, but I started doing live gigs and got my first one about three years ago.
“I realised: ‘You’re never going to leave Belfast by just being a DJ’. Gone are the days of just being a DJ, so I quickly learned how to make music and got picked up by Sony, signed with Sony, and it’s kind of taken off from there.
“I have an Ibiza Rocks residency, I’m doing Telegraph Building sell-outs, and now I’m doing the SSE Arena. It’s kind of gone crazy in such a short space of time.”
He is the latest local breakthrough dance music star, following in the footsteps of “hero” Fergie.
Daire McGuigan always believed he’d make it, it’s only the speed of events that have surprised him
He added: “DJing-wise, I’m definitely self-taught.
“On the production side of things, there’s a guy from Belfast called Shugz, he’s a massive DJ too, I always looked up to him growing up.
“He brought me into the studio and showed me a couple of bits here and there and now he’s always there for advice.
“But, mostly, just YouTube has taught me. You can learn to build a plane off YouTube, for God’s sake!
“The scene in Ireland at the minute… is huge.
“Whenever you’re over in London working with these labels, they’re all saying the same thing, the music at the minute is the best coming out of here.
“You’ve got superstar producers, DJs, the whole way through the country, so I don’t know what it is — there must be something in the Guinness over here.
“They stick behind you over here, definitely, for anything — whether it be sport or the music industry.”
Daire McGuigan on stage in front of thousands
Some people might be overwhelmed by quickly shifting from house parties to playing huge crowds, but Daire has taken it in his stride.
He explained: “It sounds a bit arrogant, but I always believed it as a kid. It doesn’t seem like it’s anything new to me.
“Now, the speed at which it happened — no one can anticipate that, that’s phenomenal stuff.
“The fact that I am playing in front of 20,000 and doing these sell-out shows, I mean, I’ve just always dreamt about it as a kid, I’ve manifested it, I’ve wanted this life for so long, so now it’s kind of like: ‘Yeah, what’s next?’”
In the summer he closed the indoor main stage at the mega Creamfields dance festival in front of 30,000, his reputation growing so fast that he was above Tiesto on the bill.
He has also racked up more than 20 million streams on SoundCloud alone.
But he is not content to rest on his laurels and has even bigger ambitions for next year and beyond.
He said: “Croke Park? I would love to do something like that, definitely.
“Whenever you can get to a stage where you’re constantly doing stadiums, that’s the level you want to be at, isn’t it?
“So, we’ll dream big — I’ll be the first DJ to play in space! Literally, that’s my mindset all the time, to do something different and thinking outside the box, because I’m the first guy from Belfast ever to do the SSE Arena, no one from here has done it before.
“I’m signed with Sony, so the plan is to get some big tunes out with them through the course of next year, and we can see next summer what festivals we can put on, maybe even a big one in Belfast.
“I’m actually going to Australia next month to do my first headline shows there and I would love to play America next year.
“That’s definitely on the bucket list, and again to continue to go around Europe the way I did last summer.
“Doing bigger shows, bigger capacities and just keep growing…
“It’s all about building your name and getting as much hype around your name as possible.”
DAIRE: Nothing But Trouble is at the SSE Arena, Belfast, on Saturday. Visit Ticketmaster for remaining ticket details.