Jun Senoue

Jun Senoue (瀬上 純, Senoue Jun, born August 2, 1970 in Matsushima, Miyagi) is a Japanese video game composer and musician who works for Sega, known for his various contributions in the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. He is also the songwriter and lead guitarist for the band Crush 40, which has also contributed to many Sonic games.

Jun Senoue 瀬上 純
Senoue (left) performing with Johnny Gioeli in London in 2010
Background information
Born	(1970-08-02) August 2, 1970 Matsushima, Miyagi, Japan
Genres	Video game music hard rock electronic rock
Occupation(s)	Composer guitarist
Instruments	Electric guitar keyboards
Years active	1993–present
Labels	Wave Master
Associated acts	Johnny Gioeli (Crush 40) Tomoya Ohtani

Biography

Senoue was born on August 2, 1970 in Matsushima, Miyagi, Japan, and started playing the piano at the age of three. After moving to Panama at the age of 12, he became dedicated to rock music after being exposed to MTV.[1][2] He began to teach himself to play the electric guitar at the age of 15,[3] and made his first original band recording by the age of 17.[3]

After graduating from college with a degree in economics from Aoyama Gakuin University in 1993,[2] Senoue sent demo tapes to Namco and Sega, with the latter hiring him.[1] His first project with the company was on Dark Wizard, where he arranged a medley of the game's music for its staff roll.[4] After that, he wrote a few pieces of music and jingles for Sonic the Hedgehog 3, his first involvement in the Sonic series.[3] After doing multiple projects in the Worldwide Soccer series in the mid 1990s, among other games such as the Sega Genesis version of Sonic 3D Blast, Senoue was selected to be the lead composer and sound director of Sonic Adventure in 1998. The game's success led to his name becoming known worldwide, as well as him being promoted to the sound director of the series.[1]

After the completion of Sonic Adventure, Senoue moved to San Francisco in 1999 and began to work on Sonic Team USA games such as NASCAR Arcade, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, and Shadow the Hedgehog.[1] In 2005, Senoue released an EP with Japanese voice actress Junko Noda, titled "Ready!".[5] The project went under the name JxJ, and was only available to purchase in Japan. In 2007, Senoue provided three new arrangements for the Japanese console release of OutRun 2 SP, including covers of existing series tracks "Splash Wave" and "Rush a Difficulty", and an original track titled "Lift You Up!". Also in 2007, Senoue arranged and performed "Angel Island Zone" from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for Super Smash Bros. Brawl.[6] In 2010, Senoue performed several gigs in Tokyo with former Magna-Fi guitarist, C.J. Szuter, in a band called Bubblicious Blvd.[1]

In 2009, Senoue announced a compilation album titled The Works. Containing only three Sonic related songs, it mostly features more obscure works he provided for other games. The album was released on October 21, 2009. More recently, Senoue worked as the sound director, composer, and arranger for Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I, Episode II, and Sonic Generations.[1] At the Sonic Appreciation festival at Joypolis in December 2015, Senoue announced a sequel to The Works, titled The Works II. The album was released on February 24, 2016.[7]

Crush 40

Senoue (center) performing with Crush 40 in Tokyo in 2012

Crush 40 is a hard rock band originally founded by Senoue in 2000 to write music for NASCAR Arcade. It consists of Senoue on guitars, Johnny Gioeli on vocals, Toru Kawamura on drums, and Takeshi Taneda on bass. Since its inception, the band has created several theme songs for the Sonic the Hedgehog series.[1] In October 2008, Crush 40 took the stage at the Tokyo Game Show to perform some of their most popular Sonic based songs in front of a live audience for the first time. Gioeli and Senoue have since created a YouTube account and uploaded video footage of the event. In 2009, a new Crush 40 album was released titled The Best of Crush 40: Super Sonic Songs. The compilation contained most of the band's Sonic releases, as well as a mixture of old tracks from NASCAR Arcade and brand new songs. In August 2010, Crush 40 performed at the "Summer of Sonic" convention in London, marking their first full-length performance and first performance outside Japan.[8] In 2012, the band performed at two conventions, at the Summer of Sonic in Brighton and at the Sonic Boom event during the San Diego Comic-Con.

The band released their first live album in October 2012, titled Live!, which featured songs from their concerts in Tokyo. In August 2013, the band performed in St. Louis for the Sonic Boom 2013 event,[9] and also performed at the 2015 Youmacon in Detroit.[10] For the 25th anniversary of the Sonic series, Crush 40 performed at the San Diego House of Blues during Comic-Con in July 2016, and at Summer of Sonic in London the following month.[11][12] At the 2017 Comic-Con in July, Senoue performed various Sonic material with Shota Nakama of the Video Game Orchestra.[13] Crush 40 also contributed to 2019's Team Sonic Racing, performing its main theme "Green Light Ride".[14]

Works

All works listed below were composed by Senoue unless otherwise noted.

Video games

Year	Game	Notes
1993	Dark Wizard	ending theme arrangement
1994	Sonic the Hedgehog 3	with various others
	Game no Kanzume	arrangements
	Formula One World Championship: Beyond the Limit	with various others
	Sonic & Knuckles
1995	J. League Victory Goal
	Metal Head	with Teruhiko Nakagawa
	Sega International Victory Goal
	F1 Challenge	sound effects
	In the Hunt	with Masahiro Ito (Sega Saturn version)
1996	J. League Victory Goal '96
	Sega Worldwide Soccer 97	with Seirou Okamoto
	Sonic 3D Blast	with Tatsuyuki Maeda (Sega Genesis version)
	Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition	with Richard Jacques, Kenichi Tokoi, and Tomonori Sawada
1997	J. League Victory Goal '97
	Sega Worldwide Soccer 98
1998	Sega Rally 2	composed "Soul on Desert"
	Sonic Adventure	with Fumie Kumatani, Kenichi Tokoi, and Masaru Setsumaru
2000	NASCAR Arcade
2001	Sonic Adventure 2	with Tomoya Ohtani, Fumie Kumatani, and Kenichi Tokoi
	Sonic Adventure 2 Battle
2003	Pro Yakyuu Team o Tsukuro! 2
	Sonic Heroes	with various others
2005	Pro Yakyuu Team o Tsukuro! 3
	Shadow the Hedgehog	with Yutaka Minobe, Mariko Nanba, and Tomoya Ohtani
2006	Sega Rally 2006	with various others
	Sonic Rivals	sound supervisor
2007	J. League Pro Soccer Club o Tsukurou! 5
	OutRun 2 SP	with Mitsuharu Fukuyama
	Burnout Running	played guitars
	Sonic Rivals 2	sound supervisor
	Nights: Journey of Dreams	sound effects
2008	Super Smash Bros. Brawl	"Angel Island Zone" arrangement
	Sonic Unleashed	vocal track coordinator
2009	Sonic and the Black Knight	various others
	Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games	arrangements with Teruhiko Nakagawa (Wii version)
2010	Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll	vocal track coordinator
	Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I
	Sonic Free Riders	composed "Free"
2011	Sonic Generations	with various others
	Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games
2012	Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II
2013	Soccer Tsuku: Pro Soccer Club o Tsukurou!
	Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games	arrangements with various others
2014	Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax	with various others
	Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U	supervisor
2015	Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax Ignition	with various others
2016	Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games
	Yakyuu Tsuku!!	guitars
2017	Sonic Mania	audio engineer
	Sonic Forces	recording coordinator and guitars
2018	Puyo Puyo Champions	arrangements
	Super Smash Bros. Ultimate	"Mega Man 4 Medley" arrangement[15]
2019	Team Sonic Racing	with Tomoya Ohtani, Tee Lopes, and Hidekuni Horita

Solo albums/other

Year	Album	Notes
2000	Thrill of the Feel	as Sons of Angels
2005	Ready!	with Junko Noda
2009	Ted Poley's Greatestits Vol. 1	"Takoyaki Rock"
	The Works
2016	The Works II
2019	The Works III

References

1. Greening, Chris. "Jun Senoue Profile". Video Game Music Online. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
2. Parminder Gill (April 10, 2005). "Jun Senoue's Biography". Archived from the original on April 8, 2008. Retrieved April 11, 2008.
3. "Style Factory interview with Jun Senoue". Archived from the original on January 3, 2008. Retrieved January 27, 2008.
4. Senoue, Jun (February 9, 2016). "I didn't compose any. I made a "medley" for its end roll, that was all I did for that". Retrieved February 9, 2016.
5. "Wave Master Entertainment entry for JxJ: Ready!". March 24, 2005. Retrieved April 11, 2008.
6. "Smash Bros. Dojo Music Update 19". December 25, 2007. Archived from the original on January 16, 2008. Retrieved January 22, 2008.
7. Greening, Chris. "New albums and concerts announced during Sonic fan event". Video Game Music Online. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
8. "Summer of Sonic '10: Special Guests Johnny Gioeli & Jun Senoue". Summer of Sonic 10. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
9. Oliver, Tristan. "Crush 40 Confirmed for Sonic Boom 2013". TSSZ News. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
10. McGonigal, Mike. "Event preview: A look at some of the music on hand at Youmacon". Detroit Metro Times. Retrieved May 22, 2016.
11. Makuch, Eddie. "Sonic 25th Anniversary Fan Event Coming in July, Sonic Boom 3DS Release Date Announced". GameSpot. Retrieved March 27, 2016.
12. "Event Announcement: Crush 40 Performance & History of SoS Panel – Summer of Sonic". 2016.summerofsonic.com. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
13. "Sonic the Hedgehog Takes Over San Diego Comic-Con 2017". Gamasutra. Retrieved July 22, 2017.
14. Wong, Alistair. "Team Sonic Racing Theme Song 'Green Light Ride' Short Ver. Now Available". Siliconera. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
15. Carter, Chris. "Oh man this Mega Man 4 medley from the new Smash Bros. by a Sonic composer is something else". Destructoid. Retrieved November 28, 2018.

External links

• Jun Senoue discography at MusicBrainz