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 54) 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 (born August 2, 1970) is a talented Japanese composer and guitarist. He is known for his amazing music in the Sonic the Hedgehog video games by Sega. Jun Senoue is also the songwriter for the rock band Crush 40, which he started with Johnny Gioeli in 2000. Crush 40 made many popular songs for the Sonic games for about ten years. After that, Jun Senoue continued to create music for new Sonic games on his own.

Biography

Jun Senoue was born on August 2, 1970, in Matsushima, Miyagi, Japan. He started playing the piano when he was only three years old! When he was 12, he moved to Panama. There, he discovered MTV and fell in love with rock music.

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

After college, where he studied economics at Aoyama Gakuin University, Jun Senoue sent his music demos to game companies. Sega hired him in 1993. His first job was arranging music for the game Dark Wizard. Later that year, he wrote some jingles and music for Sonic the Hedgehog 3. This was his first time working on a Sonic game!

He worked on many other games in the mid-1990s, like the Sega Worldwide Soccer series. He also worked on the Sega Genesis version of Sonic 3D Blast. In 1998, he became the main composer and sound director for Sonic Adventure. This game was a big hit, and because of its success, he was promoted to be the sound director for the entire Sonic series.

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

In 2005, he released an album called "Ready!" with Japanese voice actress Junko Noda. This project was called JxJ and was only sold in Japan. In 2007, Jun Senoue created three new music arrangements for the game OutRun 2 SP. He also arranged and performed "Angel Island Zone" from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for Super Smash Bros. Brawl in 2007. In 2010, he played several shows in Tokyo with a band called Bubblicious Blvd.

In 2009, Jun Senoue announced a music collection called The Works. It mostly featured music he made for games other than Sonic. This album came out on October 21, 2009. At a Sonic event in 2015, he announced a second collection, The Works II, which was released two months later.

Crush 40

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 includes Jun Senoue on guitars, Johnny Gioeli singing, Toru Kawamura on drums, and Takeshi Taneda on bass.

Since they started, Crush 40 has created many famous theme songs for the Sonic the Hedgehog games. 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 on YouTube.

In 2009, a new Crush 40 album was released. It was called The Best of Crush 40: Super Sonic Songs. This album had most of their Sonic songs, plus older songs from NASCAR Arcade and some brand new ones. Crush 40 performed in London in 2010, which 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 at the San Diego House of Blues during Comic-Con in July 2016. They also played at Summer of Sonic in London the next month. In July 2017, Jun Senoue performed various Sonic songs with the Video Game Orchestra at Comic-Con. Crush 40 also made the main theme song, "Green Light Ride", for the 2019 game Team Sonic Racing.

Works

See also

In Spanish: Jun Senoue para niños