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Jun Senoue

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Jun Senoue
瀬上 純
Senoue in 2011
Born (1970-08-02) August 2, 1970 (age 54)
Matsushima, Miyagi, Japan
Alma materAoyama Gakuin University
Occupations
  • Composer
  • guitarist
  • recording coordinator
Years active1993–present
EmployerSega
Musical career
Genres
Instruments
  • Guitar
  • keyboards
LabelsWave Master
Member ofCrush 40

Jun Senoue (瀬上 純, Senoue Jun, born August 2, 1970) is a Japanese composer and guitarist. He is a sound director for the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series by Sega and serves as the songwriter of the Japanese-American rock duo Crush 40, which he formed with Johnny Gioeli in 2000. The duo contributed songs to each of the series' major titles until 2010, after which Senoue remained involved in musical production for further Sonic games.

Biography

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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, the latter of whom hired 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] In 1993, he wrote a few jingles and music tracks for Sonic the Hedgehog 3, his first involvement in the Sonic series.[3] After doing multiple projects in the Sega Worldwide Soccer series in the mid-1990s and 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 him being promoted as series sound director.[1]

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 a Sonic festival at Joypolis in December 2015, Senoue announced a sequel to The Works, titled The Works II, which released two months later.[7]

Crush 40

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Main article: Crush 40
Senoue (center) performing as Crush 40, 2012

Crush 40 is a hard rock band originally formed by Senoue in 2000 to perform on 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. Crush 40 performed at the August 2010 Summer of Sonic convention in London, marking their first performance outside of Japan.[8] In 2012, the band performed at two conventions, at the Summer of Sonic in Brighton and at the Sonic Boom event at 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 the Video Game Orchestra.[13] Crush 40 also contributed to 2019's Team Sonic Racing, performing its main theme "Green Light Ride".[14]

Works

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Video games
Year Title Role(s)
1993 Dark Wizard Ending theme
1994 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Music with several others
Game no Kanzume Arrangements
Formula One World Championship: Beyond the Limit Music with several others
Sonic & Knuckles Music with several others
1995 Victory Goal Music
Metal Head Music with Teruhiko Nakagawa
Sega International Victory Goal Music
F1 Challenge Sound effects
In the Hunt Music with Masahiro Ito; Sega Saturn version
1996 J. League Victory Goal '96 Music
Sega Worldwide Soccer 97 Music with Seirou Okamoto
Sonic 3D Blast Music with Tatsuyuki Maeda; Sega Genesis version
Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition Music with Richard Jacques, Kenichi Tokoi, and Tomonori Sawada
1997 Sega Worldwide Soccer '98 Music with several others
1998 Sega Rally 2 "Soul on Desert"
Sonic Adventure Lead composer
2000 NASCAR Arcade Music
2001 Sonic Adventure 2 Lead composer
2003 Let's Make a Pro Baseball Team! 2 Music
Sonic Heroes Lead composer
2005 Let's Make a Pro Baseball Team! 3 Music
Shadow the Hedgehog Lead composer
2006 Sega Rally 2006 Music with several others
Sonic Rivals Sound supervision
Sonic the Hedgehog Vocal track production
2007 Let's Make a Pro Baseball Team! 5 Music
OutRun 2 SP Music with Mitsuharu Fukuyama
Burnout Running Guitars
Sonic Rivals 2 "Race to Win"; sound supervisor
Nights: Journey of Dreams "Nights and Reala: Theme of a Tragedic Revenge"
2008 Super Smash Bros. Brawl "Angel Island Zone"
Sonic Unleashed Vocal track coordination
2009 Sonic and the Black Knight Lead composer
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games Arrangements with Teruhiko Nakagawa; Wii version
2010 Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll Vocal track coordination
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I Music
Sonic Free Riders "Free"
Sonic Colors Vocal track coordination
2011 Sonic Generations Lead composer; arrangements with several others
Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games Music with several others
2012 Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II Music
2013 Let's Make a Soccer Team! Music; guitars and keyboards
Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games Arrangements with several others
2014 Uta Kumi 575 Sound; arranged "Spirited Away"
Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax Music with several others
2015 Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax Ignition Music with several others
2016 Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Music with several others
Yakyuu Tsuku!! Guitars
Maimai Pink Plus "Nitrous Fury"
Puyo Puyo Chronicle Arrangements with Naofumi Hataya, Kenichi Tokoi, and Tomonori Sawada
2017 Sonic Mania Audio engineering
Sonic Forces Guitars; recording coordination
2018 Puyo Puyo Champions Arrangements
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate "Mega Man 4 Medley"[15]
2019 Team Sonic Racing Lead composer
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - The Official Video Game Music with Kenichi Tokoi and Tomonori Sawada
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Sound editing
2020 Sonic at the Olympic Games - Tokyo 2020 Music with Hidekuni Horita, Kenichi Tokoi, and Tomoya Ohtani
2021 Sonic Colors: Ultimate Arrangements with Tomoya Ohtani and Kenichi Tokoi
2022 Sonic Origins Sound director; Sonic 3 music adaptations[16]
Sonic Frontiers Recording coordination
2023 Sonic Superstars Sound director; music[17]
2024 Shadow Generations Sound director
Other / Crush 40
Year Album Notes
2000 Thrill of the Feel With Crush 40 as "Sons of Angels"
2003 Crush 40 With Crush 40
2005 Ready! Music with Junko Noda
2009 Ted Poley's Greatestits Vol. 1 "Takoyaki Rock"
The Best of Crush 40: Super Sonic Songs Compilation, with Crush 40
The Works
Leaving the End Open Guitars on "Before This" by Hardline
2011 Rise Again EP, with Crush 40
2012 Live! Live album, with Crush 40
2015 2 Nights 2 Remember Live album, with Crush 40
2016 The Works II
2019 The Works III
Driving Through Forever Compilation, with Crush 40

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Greening, Chris (March 17, 2014). "Jun Senoue Profile". Video Game Music Online. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
  2. ^ a b Parminder Gill (April 10, 2005). "Jun Senoue's Biography". Archived from the original on April 8, 2008. Retrieved April 11, 2008.
  3. ^ a b c "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. Archived from the original on May 8, 2008. 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 (December 28, 2015). "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. Archived from the original on July 6, 2013. 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. July 14, 2016. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  13. ^ "Sonic the Hedgehog Takes Over San Diego Comic-Con 2017". Gamasutra. Retrieved July 22, 2017.
  14. ^ Wong, Alistair (December 29, 2018). "Team Sonic Racing Theme Song 'Green Light Ride' Short Ver. Now Available". Siliconera. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
  15. ^ Carter, Chris (July 11, 2018). "Oh man this Mega Man 4 medley from the new Smash Bros. by a Sonic composer is something else". Destructoid. Retrieved November 28, 2018.
  16. ^ Scullion, Chris (June 9, 2022). "Sonic 3 & Knuckles won't have its original soundtrack in Sonic Origins". Video Games Chronicle. Retrieved June 9, 2022.
  17. ^ Kuhnke, Oisin (June 11, 2023). "Balan Wonderworld studio Arzest is the lead developer on Sonic Superstars". VG247. Retrieved June 11, 2023.
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