Large-N matrix models coupled via multitrace operators are used to define, via appropriate double-scaling limits, solvable models of interacting multi-string theories. It is shown that although such theories are non-local at the world-sheet level they have a simple description of the spacetime physics. Such theories share the main characteristics of similarly coupled higher-dimensional CFTs. An interpretation has been given in the past of similar continuum limits in terms of Liouville interactions that violate the Seiberg bound. We provide a novel interpretation of this relation which agrees with the current understanding of Liouville theory and analogous observations in the AdS/CFT correspondence.