Sleepwalking Maps the Five Stages of Grief Into a Singer-Songwriter EDM Hybrid

Somber vocals meet melodic drops, but the real architecture of the project is conceptual: each track aligns with the five stages of grief, in order, documenting the fallout of a relationship that leaves the narrator mourning what she is still struggling to let go of.

The result is more than a collection of songs. It is a timeline. Each track pushes the listener one step forward, from denial to acceptance, with the production doing as much storytelling as the lyrics, and the settings, especially New York City, functioning like emotional scenery rather than backdrop.

Track Notes: The Five Stages

1) “Sleepwalking” (Denial)

The EP opens in denial, where pain is acknowledged only in fragments and avoidance becomes a survival skill. Deraz’s narrator admits she is stepping over heartbreak she does not want to face, and the idea lands clearly: the only time she can accept what is happening is in sleep, when the subconscious pulls her toward escape. The track’s structure mirrors that split, with soft piano and broken phrasing giving way to a drop that feels like a confession she cannot say out loud.

2) “Watch You Leave” (Anger)

Anger arrives as distance - a lover leaving New York for another city, and the narrator left to process it in the place where everything is already too loud. The drop becomes the emotional mechanism here: a repeated refrain that borders on obsessive, like someone trying to convince themselves they are fine and realizing they are not. Small production details reinforce the setting and the sting, including the sense of the subway and passersby, pulling the listener into the city’s motion while she stands still.

3) “Stay” (Bargaining)

Bargaining shows up as conditional love and “if only” logic. Deraz asks for a version of intimacy that exists outside the darkness, questioning why love feels possible in private but not in daylight, and implying that if he could truly see her, they might stand a chance. The lyric turns into a negotiation with reality: if you loved me, you would say something, you would change, you would meet me in the light. The innocence in the melody heightens the ache, because the narrator is already aware this is probably not fixable.

4) “Forever Lost” (Depression)

Depression here is not dramatic. It is disorienting. Deraz places the narrator in a city full of unfamiliar faces while describing herself as the only one “out of place,” capturing the isolating truth of grief: you can be surrounded and still feel completely alone. The lyric focuses on emptiness and repetition, the fear that the feeling will never fade, and the production turns eerie and chilling to match.

5) “Alive” feat. Ambrose Henri (Acceptance)

The EP closes with acceptance, and the choice to include Ambrose Henri as a featured vocalist functions like a narrative turning point. It is not only closure, it is perspective. Deraz recognizes the reality of “picking up the pieces” and the discomfort of what used to feel right. The male verse reframes the relationship as something beautiful on the outside but unstable underneath, too focused on the “view” to acknowledge the “storm inside.” By letting that perspective into the record, the project signals that the narrator is finally ready to hear the truth she avoided, and to release what she kept trying to keep alive.

Why Sleepwalking POPS! 🍬

What makes Sleepwalking work is its clarity. The EP does not treat grief as a single emotion. It treats it as a progression, and it lets the listener feel the shift from track to track: the denial that protects you, the anger that burns, the bargaining that pleads, the depression that empties, and the acceptance that hurts but frees.

At its core, this is a breakup project that behaves like a document. It is the story of one relationship told through a psychological arc, and it asks the listener to do more than listen casually. It invites them to walk through it in order, to recognize their own stages in the sequence, and to leave the EP changed in the same way the narrator did.