Meet the Atlanta musician and DJ fusing electro-pop with her operatic and musical theater training

For Sudie, being a multi-hyphenate isn’t just about creative expression. It’s about sustaining it.

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When it comes to Sudie, “aria” and “anthem” aren’t so sonically far apart.

A musician and DJ trained in classical, jazz and musical theater, Sudie Abernathy (or, simply, Sudie) fuses traditional and contemporary disciplines to create soundscapes that reference Sade as much as Sondheim. Unbound by major-label expectations and unbacked by major-label budgets, she moves fluidly between disparate worlds. For Sudie, high drama isn’t just a stylistic choice — it’s second nature.

Released in 2024, Sudie’s sophomore record, Doldrums End, makes such fusions appear effortless. On its surface, it’s a record of slick, electro-R&B. Low-riding bass pops with drum-machined beats for a club-ready sound that sits comfortably alongside artists like Eartheater or BANKS. Although best enjoyed in something skintight, it’s the Broadway buffs who may be first to catch the record’s richest allusions.

Layered vocals act as a Greek chorus, coaxing our protagonist away from toxic crushes. Expertly controlled vibrato tumbles into winding melismas, climbing as high as the Ford De Luxe in which she imagines her lover jetting off into the sunset, Grease-style. On “Maria,” she pays homage to West Side Story and the titular character that cemented her musical trajectory.

Florida-born and Atlanta-based by way of Dallas and Dubai, Sudie’s upbringing was shaped as much by constant movement as by music. Coming from a lineage of jazz musicians, she began studying voice and piano around the age of 5. When her family relocated to Dubai during her sophomore year of high school, she found herself in an unfamiliar place. That year, the school musical was West Side Story, and music quickly became a bridge.

“It was the first or second week of school, and I didn’t know anybody,” she recalls. “I ended up getting Maria, which I think was a little bit taboo, that a younger student got the lead.”

By senior year, the musical was The Sound of Music, and Sudie once again stepped into the role of Maria. 

For theater kids nearing graduation, auditioning in front of prospective schools at the annual International Thespian Festival is a highly competitive rite of passage. Vying for a musical theater scholarship seemed like the natural next step. Sudie caught the attention of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, which lacked a formal musical theater program but offered operatic studies. It was a slight change in course, but Sudie felt unintimidated.

In Dallas, the grandiosity of the stage and the pulse of the club begin to narrow into a singular vision. Having acquired a MacBook equipped with GarageBand — a powerful yet crucially accessible music software for budding producers — and a hand-me-down MIDI keyboard, Sudie’s world was liberated. This chapter would also mark a newfound era of geographical stability. 

“I had never lived in a place for longer than three years. By the time I graduated from SMU, I had been in Dallas for four. I initially thought I wanted to move to LA, but I had made friends and connections in Dallas that I never had an opportunity to make growing up.”

One of those friends was fellow theater kid and electronic musician Sammy ‘Rat’ Rios, whose DIY approach to production inspired Sudie. “She was already doing it, producing music in GarageBand. I thought she was so cool. I have to give Sammy total credit because I don’t know if I would be doing what I’m doing if I hadn’t seen her being so cool.”

Thanks to her formative Dallas community, Sudie’s toolkit now includes a host of various synths and sequencers. Despite these technological proficiencies and longtime piano studies, she is quick to point out that voice was her first instrument. That insistence carries memories of the CDs that shaped her earliest musical instincts — ABBA, Toni Braxton, The Prince of Egypt soundtrack — and, later, a burned mix of Nirvana and Deftones, courtesy of her older sister. Then there were the Björk and Ella Fitzgerald CDs.

“When I first listened to Björk, I immediately thought of Ella Fitzgerald,” says Sudie. 

On the surface, Fitzgerald’s jazz club balladry and Björk’s spiky etherdom seem at odds. Yet, their juxtaposition as a prelude to Sudie’s own vocal versatility is a natural throughline.   

“They’re completely opposite, but they’re doing the same thing in terms of how they’re using their voice. That expression of their voice as an instrument is so stunning and very influential to me.”

Next steps

Currently, her studio (where she also conducts vocal lessons) occupies a room in her parents’ North Atlanta home. Recording gear sits in a corner parallel with racks of clothing, beneath blue mood lights and posters of past gigs. Her dog, Gansito, scurries between the legs of double-tiered synth stands, occasionally nudging us for attention on the daybed where we sit. Sudie’s favorite instrument parts the setup like a fault line: her computer.

 “The computer is such an underrated and kind of hated-on instrument,” she says, noting that equipment is expensive and musicians get little pay. “There’s a lot of judgment [around digital tools] that doesn’t need to be there.”

The computer is also vital to Sudie’s DJ work. Whether she’s spinning for Yves Saint Laurent or curating sets at Pisces on Edgewood, DJing is a natural extension of her electronic world building. Yet, even after nearly a decade behind the decks, it still manages to surprise her.

“I learn something new every single time I DJ. I’m obsessed with the music that I play at Pisces. I’m discovering a lot of ways to interpret music, and that has directly inspired a lot of the new music that I’ve been making,” she says.

DJing also offers a flexible stream of alternative income, another avenue through which she navigates the freedoms and limited accessibility of independent artistry. 

“I like being independent because I can just put out a dance record if I want,” she says. 

Still, the hustle culture of supporting those endeavors is a weighted calculation, and it’s one that Sudie is careful to not romanticize. Having lived abroad, she feels that weight especially now, amid the rising cost of living in the United States.

“I don’t really find the workaholic aspect of what I do as rewarding if I’m not getting paid for the work that I do. Sure, I am getting paid but not enough to make a living. So I have to choose between working an unfulfilling job just to make money and barely do art. I don’t want to do that for the rest of my life.”

So what’s next for the multi-hyphenate? A new single, a mini-tour in France, scoring and acting in the forthcoming experimental short, A Tale of Gothica (directed by Maya Pegues), and, if all goes according to plan — another move. 

Lately, Sudie’s been eyeing an escape from the American grind, drawn instead to the work-life balance and thriving club culture of Spain, where she hopes to move in with a friend. Her passage there might just be more clear-cut than a Greased Lightning convertible cruising off into the sunset.

“One of the jobs you can apply for a work visa for now is DJing!” 

Where & When

Sudie performs at 9 p.m. May 22 at Eddie’s Attic, 515-B North McDonough St., Decatur. eddiesattic.com.

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Lindsay Thomaston is a photographer and culture writer with a background in media and politics. Her work has also appeared in Paste Magazine, Rolling Stone, i-D, Dazed, Fashionista and Immersive Atlanta, among others.