Soundtrack Explainer

The story behind the music.

Throughout Grooters 1, a soundtrack of twenty-one songs runs quietly alongside the story — chosen scene by scene, in seven languages, pulled from a lifetime of listening.

This Explainer tells the story behind each choice.

Why a Serbian tango for a scene in Buenos Aires. Why an Oktoberfest classic for a Las Vegas chapter. Why a French song from the early 2000s raises the curtain on the whole adventure. And why the soundtrack closes with a song written one summer in Geneva by the author's uncle — released over thirty years later.

Along the way: Aboriginal Dreaming, the Portuguese origins of a Western Australian island group, a Māori alphabet invented in the 1980s, a Swiss German reflection on time, and quiet hints at what's coming in Books 2 and 3.

Read alongside the book, or before, or after.

The songs deepen the story. The story deepens the songs.

Format: PDF, 12 pages

Songs covered: 21 (in English, French, German, Swiss German, Swedish, Serbian, instrumental)

Price: free