Jun Senoue facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jun Senoue
瀬上 純
Senoue in 2011
Born	(1970-08-02) August 2, 1970 (age 55) Matsushima, Miyagi, Japan
Alma mater	Aoyama Gakuin University
Occupation	Composer guitarist recording coordinator
Years active	1993–present
Employer	Sega
Musical career
Genres	Video game music hard rock electronic rock
Instruments	Guitar keyboards
Labels	Wave Master

Jun Senoue (瀬上 純, Senoue Jun, born August 2, 1970) is a talented Japanese musician. He writes music and plays the guitar. He is the sound director for the famous Sonic the Hedgehog video games by Sega. He also writes songs for the rock band Crush 40, which he started with Johnny Gioeli in 2000. Crush 40 made many songs for Sonic games until 2010. After that, Jun Senoue kept working on music for new Sonic games.

Early Life and Music Journey

Jun Senoue was born in Matsushima, Miyagi, Japan, on August 2, 1970. He started playing the piano when he was just three years old. When he was 12, he moved to Panama. There, he discovered rock music by watching MTV. This made him want to play rock music.

He began teaching himself to play the electric guitar at age 15. By the time he was 17, he had already made his first original band recording.

Starting at Sega

After finishing college in 1993, Jun Senoue sent his music demos to game companies. Sega hired him, and his first project was Dark Wizard. He helped arrange the game's ending music.

In 1993, he wrote some short music pieces and songs for Sonic the Hedgehog 3. This was his first time working on a Sonic game. He then worked on other games like the Sega Worldwide Soccer series. He also worked on the Sega Genesis version of Sonic 3D Blast.

In 1998, Jun Senoue became the main composer and sound director for Sonic Adventure. This game was very successful. Because of its success, he was promoted to be the sound director for the entire Sonic series.

Moving to San Francisco

In 1999, Jun Senoue moved to San Francisco. He started working on games for Sonic Team USA. These games included NASCAR Arcade, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, and Shadow the Hedgehog.

In 2005, he released a music album called "Ready!". He made this with Japanese voice actress Junko Noda. This project was called JxJ and was only sold in Japan.

In 2007, Jun Senoue created new music for the Japanese release of OutRun 2 SP. He also arranged a song called "Angel Island Zone" for Super Smash Bros. Brawl in 2007. In 2010, he played several shows in Tokyo with a band called Bubblicious Blvd.

Music Albums

In 2009, Jun Senoue announced a collection of his music called The Works. This album mostly featured music he made for games other than Sonic. It was released on October 21, 2009.

At a Sonic event in December 2015, he announced a second album, The Works II. This album came out two months later. In 2019, he released The Works III.

Crush 40 Band

Senoue (center) performing as Crush 40, 2012

Crush 40 is a hard rock band that Jun Senoue started in 2000. They first made music for the game NASCAR Arcade. The band members are Jun Senoue on guitars, Johnny Gioeli singing, Toru Kawamura on drums, and Takeshi Taneda on bass.

Since they started, Crush 40 has made many theme songs for the Sonic the Hedgehog series. In October 2008, Crush 40 played their popular Sonic songs live for the first time at the Tokyo Game Show. Johnny Gioeli and Jun Senoue later shared videos of this event online.

In 2009, Crush 40 released an album called The Best of Crush 40: Super Sonic Songs. This album included most of their Sonic songs. It also had older songs from NASCAR Arcade and some brand new ones.

Crush 40 performed in London in August 2010. This was their first show outside of Japan. In 2012, they played at two more events: Summer of Sonic in Brighton and Sonic Boom at San Diego Comic-Con.

The band released their first live album, Live!, in October 2012. It featured songs from their concerts in Tokyo. In August 2013, the band performed in St. Louis for the Sonic Boom 2013 event. They also played at the 2015 Youmacon in Detroit.

For the 25th anniversary of the Sonic series, Crush 40 performed in July 2016. They played at the San Diego House of Blues during Comic-Con. They also performed at Summer of Sonic in London the next month. In July 2017, Jun Senoue played various Sonic music with the Video Game Orchestra. Crush 40 also made the main theme song, "Green Light Ride," for Team Sonic Racing in 2019.

Video Game Music

Jun Senoue has worked on many video games. Here are some of them:

Other Music Projects

Jun Senoue has also worked on other music albums and projects, often with his band Crush 40.

See also

In Spanish: Jun Senoue para niños