is a Japanese composer and guitarist. He is a sound director for the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series by Sega and is also the songwriter of the rock duo Crush 40 which has contributed music to the series as well.
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. He began to teach himself to play the electric guitar at the age of 15, and made his first original band recording by the age of 17. After graduating from college with a degree in economics from Aoyama Gakuin University in 1993, Senoue sent demo tapes to Namco and Sega, the latter of whom hired him. His first project with the company was on Dark Wizard, where he arranged a medley of the game's music for its staff roll. In 1993, he wrote a few jingles and music tracks for the videogames Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, his first involvements in the Sonic series. 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.
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. In 2005, Senoue released an EP with Japanese voice actress Junko Noda, titled "Ready!". 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. In 2010, Senoue performed several gigs in Tokyo with former Magna-Fi guitarist, C.J. Szuter, in a band called Bubblicious Blvd.
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. 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.
Crush 40
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. 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. 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, and also performed 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 and at Summer of Sonic in London the following month. At the 2017 Comic-Con in July, Senoue performed various Sonic material with the Video Game Orchestra. Crush 40 also contributed to 2019's Team Sonic Racing, performing its main theme "Green Light Ride".
Works + Video gamesYearTitleRole(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 Music2001 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 ArrangementsSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate "Mega Man 4 Medley" 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 editing2020 Sonic at the Olympic Games - Tokyo 2020 Music with Hidekuni Horita, Kenichi Tokoi, and Tomoya Ohtani2021 Sonic Colors: Ultimate Arrangements with Tomoya Ohtani and Kenichi Tokoi2022Sonic Origins Sound director; Sonic 3 music adaptations Sonic Frontiers Recording coordination2023 Sonic Superstars Sound director; music2024 Shadow Generations Sound director2025 Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Music with several others + Other / Crush 40YearAlbumNotes2000 Thrill of the Feel With Crush 40 as "Sons of Angels"2003 Crush 40 With Crush 402005 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 Hardline2011 Rise Again EP, with Crush 402012 Live! Live album, with Crush 402015 2 Nights 2 Remember Live album, with Crush 402016 The Works II 2019 The Works III Driving Through Forever -The Ultimate Crush 40 Collection- Compilation, with Crush 40
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