Justin Bellinger may be a star infielder for the Blue Devils, but many of his hits come away from the diamond.
While many of his classmates and teammates choose to spend their free time on other extracurriculars or relaxing, Bellinger prefers to use down time pursuing another passion—making music. The junior from Weston, Mass., is a student-athlete and a DJ, with the latter being his preferred method of winding down at the end of a long week.
“I do most of my music stuff in my spare time, mostly just messing around,” Bellinger said.
But Bellinger’s efforts and productions appear to be more than just “messing around.”
The 6-foot-6 first baseman makes a wide range of music—including hip-hop, original material and electronic remixes and mashups—all of which he posts to his SoundCloud account using the moniker "DJ Collision".
“I’m not really set in one area—I like to move around,” Bellinger said. “I mix it up, do a couple of different genres, really just whatever I’m feeling at the moment.”
The effort Bellinger puts into making music has earned him numerous chances to show off his work, most notably a performance this year at Duke’s annual Phultra concert opening for Trademark.
But he says more of the motivation for his music comes from his teammates, who often ask him to play his music for them to unwind.
“[My teammates] love it. They’re totally into it.... I always come in playing something new and have them check it out,” Bellinger said. “We have some guys on the team that are really into some of the songs I make, like, ‘Put that one up on SoundCloud, come on,’ and I’m like, ‘It’s not done guys, it’s not done.’”
Although he mostly focuses on baseball, Bellinger is no rookie in terms of music production. He uses Ableton Live as his digital audio workstation (D.A.W.), a MIDI piano that he plugs into his computer and basic audio interfaces to connect microphones. In addition, he uses various plugins that act as virtual instruments, as well as Novation Launchpad, Nocturn and different synthesizers and controllers.
Bellinger is coming off of a strong sophomore campaign in which he led the team with a .336 batting average and .571 slugging percentage as Duke's best power hitter. The Blue Devils went 33-24 in Bellinger’s breakthrough season and made the NCAA tournament for the first time in 55 years, with the team going 23-9 after head coach Chris Pollard inserted Bellinger into the heart of his lineup.
Because of his value to the team, Bellinger mostly focuses on his music during the offseason.
“I’m focused the majority of the time on baseball, but if I get a couple of free hours on a Saturday or Sunday, I might pump out a song and have a couple of guys over to hang out and play some music,” Bellinger said. “But it’s really hard to find time to do that. During the season, it’s much harder, so coming into the spring I usually shut down the music almost completely.”
He also is not alone on the team in terms of his passion for music.
Junior reliever Luke Whitten is a talented pianist and singer and often collaborates with his friend and teammate.
“Sometimes I’ll have Luke come over and he’ll come in with an idea, like ‘Hey, we should do this,’” Bellinger said. “He’ll tell me to mash up these songs, check out this chord line…he gives me ideas that show we have some musically talented guys.”
As if making music were not enough, Bellinger’s creative abilities manifest themselves in other ways as well.
The junior is a visual arts major and enjoys the creativity that comes with his studies.
“I do a lot of graphic design for people on our team whenever we have a small project—like if we want to design a t-shirt for baseball, I’ll do the design,” Bellinger said. “My main focus is going to be baseball but my side projects are music and art.”
He cites these creative projects as avenues for release from a long and difficult daily schedule.
Even with baseball season fast approaching, Bellinger is not ready to put away the mixers just yet. Fans and followers should keep their ears peeled in the coming months for new music from DJ Collision, in addition to looking for the first baseman's extra-base hits when the season begins in mid-February.
“I’m going to keep posting songs whenever I can,” Bellinger said. “It might not be immediate but just be prepared, maybe in a couple of months there will be something up to check out.”
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