"Sleepwalking" by The Chain Gang of 1974 is one of those tracks that became permanently fused with the identity of a game, the kind of song that you cannot hear without seeing Los Santos in your head. It played in an official Grand Theft Auto V trailer, Radio Mirror Park in-game, and also during one of the game's three endings, the one where Michael De Santa dies.
Since then, the song has surpassed 100 million global streams, and its creator, Kamtin Mohager, has openly acknowledged that being part of Grand Theft Auto is the reason most people know who he is.
This week, Mohager shared the full story of how "Sleepwalking" ended up in GTA V through The Chain Gang of 1974's Instagram channel, and it turns out the whole thing started with a chance encounter at a party in 2011.
The story begins in August 2011 at Lollapalooza. The Chain Gang of 1974 were scheduled to perform at the festival, and on the night before their set, the band attended a party for their booking agent.
During the event, someone tapped Mohager on the shoulder and asked if he was in the Chain Gang. The man told Mohager that he worked at Rockstar and that people at the company were fans of the band's music. He mentioned that they were working on something they could not discuss yet and handed Mohager a business card, thinking little of it at the time, before passing it along to his manager.
A few months later, Mohager would get a call, which led to a "super chill" meeting at the Roosevelt Hotel, and eventually, a pitch to include the band and their song in GTA V. Mohager played the Rockstar team some of the demos he had for the album, including "Sleepwalking" and another track called "Lola Suzanne." Interestingly, Rockstar was initially more drawn to "Lola Suzanne."
However, after more time passed, Mohager recalls that the band was in the middle of changing tires on their tour van when his manager called. The message was that Rockstar was testing "Sleepwalking" for the GTA V advertisement, but at the same time, the manager cautioned them not to get their hopes too high in case Rockstar changed their mind.
Three days later, on August 26, Mohager was told Rockstar had chosen "Sleepwalking" for the adverts and for the in-game radio station and one of the ending songs.
On August 29, the Grand Theft Auto V: Official Trailer dropped with "Sleepwalking" as its centerpiece, and everything changed for the band overnight.
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With Grand Theft Auto 6 set to launch on November 19, 2026, and Rockstar's marketing push confirmed for this summer, the soundtrack question looms large. Rockstar has revealed almost nothing about GTA 6's radio stations, licensed tracks, or original score. All the information we have comes from unverified sources that claim that certain rappers like Drake, DJ Khaled, T-Pain, and Travis Scott, among others, are in the game.
However, if there's one thing we've learned from the story of how "Sleepwalking" became the defining song of GTA V, it's possible that its GTA 6 equivalent is something that we have never heard before, born out of a chance meeting that started with a tap on the shoulder at a party somewhere.
