Jun Senoue - Biography

Biography

Jun started playing the piano at 3 while living in Japan. After moving to Panama, Jun became dedicated to rock music at the age of 12. He began to teach himself to play the electric guitar at 15, and made his first original band recording at the age of 17.

In 1993, after graduating from college with a degree in economics from Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan, he joined Sega as a video game composer, doing sound work for games such as Sonic the Hedgehog 3. He is most well known for his compositions and songs in Sonic Adventure.

Senoue moved to San Francisco and continued to compose in-game music and theme songs as sound director for Sonic Team USA games, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog, featuring music contributed by his band Crush 40. Senoue also composed a Reala theme, and programmed all sound effects for Sonic Team USA's last game, Nights: Journey of Dreams.

In 2007, Jun 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!". The songs are also available on the "Outrun 20th Anniversary" box CD set.

Jun is also one of 38 composers for the Wii game Super Smash Bros. Brawl, having contributed an arrangement of the Angel Island Zone theme from Sonic The Hedgehog 3, as well as the original versions of many Crush 40 songs such as "Live and Learn" and "Sonic Heroes".

Jun was also assigned as sound director for Sonic and the Black Knight and one of the composers for the games Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games and Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

In fall 2009, Jun announced to release a new album entitled "The Works", which is a compilation album of songs he has made throughout the years. Containing only 3 Sonic related songs, it mostly features works he has provided for other games. The album was released in Oct.21, 2009.

Jun also worked as the sound director and composer for the game Sonic the Hedgehog 4, released October 10, 2010. He also mixed some of the original tracks in the recently released game Sonic Generations.