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
Occupation(s)
  • Composer
  • guitarist
Instruments
Years active1993–present
LabelsWave Master
Associated acts

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
1993Dark Wizardending theme arrangement
1994Sonic the Hedgehog 3with various others
Game no Kanzumearrangements
Formula One World Championship: Beyond the Limitwith various others
Sonic & Knuckles
1995J. League Victory Goal
Metal Headwith Teruhiko Nakagawa
Sega International Victory Goal
F1 Challengesound effects
In the Huntwith Masahiro Ito (Sega Saturn version)
1996J. League Victory Goal '96
Sega Worldwide Soccer 97with Seirou Okamoto
Sonic 3D Blastwith Tatsuyuki Maeda (Sega Genesis version)
Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Editionwith Richard Jacques, Kenichi Tokoi, and Tomonori Sawada
1997J. League Victory Goal '97
Sega Worldwide Soccer 98
1998Sega Rally 2composed "Soul on Desert"
Sonic Adventurewith Fumie Kumatani, Kenichi Tokoi, and Masaru Setsumaru
2000NASCAR Arcade
2001Sonic Adventure 2with Tomoya Ohtani, Fumie Kumatani, and Kenichi Tokoi
Sonic Adventure 2 Battle
2003Pro Yakyuu Team o Tsukuro! 2
Sonic Heroeswith various others
2005Pro Yakyuu Team o Tsukuro! 3
Shadow the Hedgehogwith Yutaka Minobe, Mariko Nanba, and Tomoya Ohtani
2006Sega Rally 2006with various others
Sonic Rivalssound supervisor
2007J. League Pro Soccer Club o Tsukurou! 5
OutRun 2 SPwith Mitsuharu Fukuyama
Burnout Runningplayed guitars
Sonic Rivals 2sound supervisor
Nights: Journey of Dreamssound effects
2008Super Smash Bros. Brawl"Angel Island Zone" arrangement
Sonic Unleashedvocal track coordinator
2009Sonic and the Black Knightvarious others
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Gamesarrangements with Teruhiko Nakagawa (Wii version)
2010Super Monkey Ball: Step & Rollvocal track coordinator
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I
Sonic Free Riderscomposed "Free"
2011Sonic Generationswith various others
Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games
2012Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II
2013Soccer Tsuku: Pro Soccer Club o Tsukurou!
Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Gamesarrangements with various others
2014Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climaxwith various others
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii Usupervisor
2015Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax Ignitionwith various others
2016Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games
Yakyuu Tsuku!!guitars
2017Sonic Maniaaudio engineer
Sonic Forcesrecording coordinator and guitars
2018Puyo Puyo Championsarrangements
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate"Mega Man 4 Medley" arrangement[15]
2019Team Sonic Racingwith Tomoya Ohtani, Tee Lopes, and Hidekuni Horita
Solo albums/other
Year Album Notes
2000Thrill of the Feelas Sons of Angels
2005Ready!with Junko Noda
2009Ted Poley's Greatestits Vol. 1"Takoyaki Rock"
The Works
2016The Works II
2019The Works III
gollark: You can cover most things with these compile targets:- Webassembly- brain[REDACTED]- VHDL- CSS/HTML
gollark: PHP and VHDL.
gollark: Compile it to PHP.
gollark: Are you actually planning to ★compile★ this?
gollark: I like the idea of ACIDIC, which would be weirder BASIC in some way. But how?

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.
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