Chris Stussy Rebrands as Chris Stassy, First Single Under New Name Due August 28

Chris Stussy is now Chris Stassy, and no, that's not a typo. The Amsterdam house favorite (real name Niels Christian Steenbergen) hopped on Instagram on Tuesday, August 18 to announce he's swapping exactly one letter in his stage name, and he summed the whole thing up better than we ever could: “One letter, same mind, same music, same vibe.”

So why the change? That's the part he's keeping to himself. He didn't give a reason in the post, and when fans floated other options like “Chris Stuss” in the comments, he hinted those weren't happening. What he did make clear is that basically nothing else changes — same pronunciation, same shows, same music. His Up The Stuss label and USS parties are keeping their names too. As of this week his streaming profiles and website hadn't caught up with the new spelling yet, so expect that to roll out over the next few days.

The new name already comes with homework, by the way. According to Mixmag, the first single as Chris Stassy is “U Know Me” with vocalist Marz Fay, dropping August 28 on Up The Stuss. And in a nice bit of timing, release day lands right on Creamfields weekend, where he's on the bill.

He's not exactly easing into the rebrand, either. The first show under the Stassy name goes down this weekend at Pukkelpop in Belgium, then it's a N.A.M.E. celebration in Birmingham on August 22, Creamfields in the UK, and Touquet Music Beach Festival in France — funny enough, the same late-August festival stretch that John Summit just backed out of to get ready for his arena tour. After that, he's still got Ibiza dates with Circoloco, Music On, and Metamorfosi, plus a Chicago stop at ARC Music Festival over Labor Day weekend.

If the whole thing feels a little random, the timing at least makes sense. Steenbergen is riding the biggest year of his career — his three-part debut album Lost, Found & Forgotten… dropped back in April, and tracks like “Desire” helped carry him from Amsterdam's minimal and deep house circuit all the way to festival main stages. A one-letter tweak isn't slowing any of that down. As he put it himself: thank “U” for everything, “A” new chapter.

Whatever the real story behind the swap turns out to be, the plan is clearly business as usual — same sound, same label, and new music landing next Friday.