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UPDATED: Oct. 27, 2020 at 12:14 p.m.

At 6 a.m. on Sept. 26, Syracuse University junior Lucas Dell’Abate transformed the amphitheater in Thornden Park into a techno music stage for 90 minutes. The last time Dell’Abate performed a sunrise DJ set was November 2018 at Schimanski nightclub in New York City, but he never actually saw the sun rise from his DJ booth. This time, the sun was a part of his performance.

“On a whim I was kind of like, ‘Oh, the sun is kind of cool,’” Dell’Abate said. “Almost like a timestamp, we see the sun going up and gradually getting lighter throughout the set.”

With help from his roommate and roommate’s girlfriend, Dell’Abate taped a sunrise set at Thornden Park for Cyber Jungle Live, an online platform for DJs to share their performances remotely. The set will be released on Cyber Jungle Live on Tuesday.

Dell’Abate’s performance comes after a long summer of producing new music under the stage name Heit Haus and experimenting with different techniques to explore his musical creativity. Dell’Abate produces techno music and has performed at events such as the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago.

CDell’Abate performed at Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago in 2019. Jessie Zhai | Staff Photographer

When COVID-19 stay-at-home orders began in March, Dell’Abate hunkered down in Greenwich, Connecticut, with his parents and older brother. He spent most of his spare time producing techno music in his bedroom.

While at home, Dell’Abate adopted the stage name Heit Haus, an ode to his great-grandparents’ German last name Heithaus. Dell’Abate had thought about making the change since fall 2019.

“I really wanted a clean reset of being like, this is a new project,” Dell’Abate said.

In the middle of April, a mutual friend introduced Dell’Abate to Michael Aidala, a DJ from Miami and the creator of Cyber Jungle Live, in a virtual meeting. While the two still have not met in person, they’re beginning to develop a professional relationship, Aidala said.

“He’s got that groove. He’s got like a nice soulful musical vibe to him, which is awesome because that’s in — that’s pretty big right now,” Aidala said.

Over Memorial Day weekend, Dell’Abate performed a live one-hour DJ set for Cyber Jungle Live using vinyl records he bought on eBay after Christmas last year. He had never performed with vinyl before and said it is “cool in theory, but not the most effective.”

Dell’Abate said making music all day does not feel like work because he enjoys what he is doing.

“You kind of just have to deal with something not being perfect and then fixing it as quick as possible,” he said.

Dell’Abate challenged himself this summer to release a new song per week. His most recent song, “Ich Heiße Heit Haus,” will be released on streaming platforms on Friday.

“He’s gonna come into his own soon when he gets more of the experience of playing out and hearing his music,” Aidala said.

In mid-September, Dell’Abate received a text from Aidala about filming another set while in Syracuse, which he agreed to do.

When Dell’Abate accepted the new gig, he wanted to tape his set at a venue that would be visually pleasing and transport the viewer somewhere unique, he said.

Dell’Abate’s roommate, Anish Ghosh, said that this summer Dell’Abate really enjoyed watching the YouTube channel Cercle which posts videos of DJs around the world performing from locations including inside a floating air balloon, near the edge of Argentinian waterfalls and on top of a snow-capped mountain in France.

One afternoon, the roommates went out for a walk after Dell’Abate had been cooped up in his room for hours producing music, Ghosh said. As they walked through Thornden Park, Ghosh remembers Dell’Abate stopped when they saw the amphitheater and said to Ghosh this would be the perfect place to tape a sunrise set.

During the set, Dell’Abate played the music out loud at a “moderate” level, Ghosh said, so that the small crowd of Ghosh and two other students could listen. And even though Ghosh said he is not an avid or huge techno music fan, he really enjoyed the 90-minute set.

“Just watching this man do his thing and be himself to his truest self,” Ghosh said. “It was just so great and also his song choices were very smart, especially for a sunrise set. It’s just like he eased everybody in pretty well (and) kept everybody going throughout it.”

CORRECTION: A previous version of this post misstated the name of Lucas Dell’Abate’s single that comes out on Friday. The single is titled “Ich Heiße Heit Haus.” The Daily Orange regrets this error. 

Published on October 26, 2020 at 10:59 pm

Contact Louis: louis@dailyorange.com | @JBL__98