Annandale producer’s Pay It Forward grants help struggling musicians

Annandale-based music producer Dave Mallen turned a major setback into something good. After his studio equipment was stolen, he decided to step up his support for the local music scene by awarding “Pay It Forward” grants to struggling musicians.

Mallen runs Innovation Station Music from his home near Little River Turnpike, where he helps performing artists develop their vision, records their music, and works with musicians on postproduction and marketing.

Innovation Station Music won Wammie awards for “best music studio” in the Washington, D.C., area in 2019, 2020, and 2022.

A break-in

One night in September 2020, while Mallen and his family were sleeping upstairs, someone broke into the studio at 4:30 a.m. and stole all his gear.

“We didn’t hear anything, because it was a sound-proof studio,” he says. The thief covered a security camera, and because the lock on the thousand-pound door wasn’t working properly, they walked right in.

Mallen had hosted a big recording session with about 10 people a couple of weeks before. It was the first time he had held such a large gathering since the pandemic started. He believes someone who might have been connected with that event tipped off the thieves.

The police found some people trying to pawn his gear at a guitar store in Maryland and a mask at the studio with DNA on it. But because the DNA was from multiple people, it couldn’t be used as evidence.

Mallen went to court nine times in Virginia and Maryland, but nothing came of it and the case was dropped. He calls it “just another failure of the justice system and court system.”  

Pandemic hurt the music scene

Thanks to a good insurance policy, his losses were covered, and he decided to sell the equipment that was recovered and get all new gear. “I actually got a little extra cash from the insurance company and decided to put that into a fund to do something positive,” he says.

In the early days of the pandemic, Mallen co-founded the DMV Music Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to providing networking and financial resources to artists and industry professionals in the DC region.

The music scene was severely impacted by the pandemic, as venues shut down and people shied away from attending live shows. 

After the break-in, Mallen wanted to do more to “serve the music community through this difficult time.”

Before the break in “I was trying to support and float other people really struggling, then someone took everything from me,” he says. “I decided to flip the script and do something good.”

Grants awarded

After rejecting the idea of setting up a nonprofit, he decided to use his own personal funds, augmented by donations from the community, to create Pay It Forward program to provide need-based grants to local musicians who write their own songs.

The first two Pay It Forward grants – $2,000 each – were awarded in 2021.

One grant recipient is Joe Downer, a musician from Woodbridge, whose music Mallen describes as “Americana with a country tinge.” He plays at breweries and wineries throughout the area. A music video for his song, “Honey,” is on YouTube.

The other grantee is songwriter and guitarist Susan Rowe, who is based in Takoma Park, Md. “Her songs are incredible,” Mallen says.

As a trans woman, she has a very deep voice, so people don’t recognize her as a woman, he says. While she performs her own songs live, she has other people sing them on recordings.

Mallen says both Downer and Rowe will put out albums and singles in 2023.

He acknowledges that $2,000 doesn’t go very far in producing an album, but his prominent place in the industry helped the grantees get attention and draw other musicians who wanted to help them.

He anticipates awarding a Pay It Forward grant every year. The application for the next round will be posted on his website within the next few months.