Mallow Hill

$8 cover ~

Don’t miss this first time performance on our stage!

Mallow Hill isn’t just the street in Baltimore, MD where founder, songwriter, guitarist Danny Gwinn grew up dreaming of leading his own band, it’s now the name of his band, Mallow Hill, marking the beginning of that dream coming true. With a fusion of rock, soul, funk, blues, and classic rock feel, the band is gearing up to release their debut album Love Me Good later this year.

“Having a band named Mallow Hill was always the dream,” says Gwinn. “I grew up on that street and learned to play guitar there.” Mallow Hill has been a long time in the making for Gwinn since he started playing guitar at 11 years old with his good friend Spencer Mills. “He turned me on to the greats like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix,” the now 26-year-old Gwinn says. “We spent years self-teaching each other to play.” Even though they came close to starting a band together, along with now Mallow Hill members bassist Travis Earley (whom he met through Mills) and keyboardist Mac Dignam (whom he met through mutual friends), it wasn’t meant to be. Their paths lead them in separate directions when they attended different universities.

Gwinn majored in entrepreneurship but when he left college in 2015, he enrolled in an audio engineering program at Omega Studios in Rockville, MD studying with well-known industry professionals including three-time Grammy-Award winner Pete Novak, Jim Curtis (Radiohead, Lou Reed, Third Eye Blind), Bill Mueller (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Coldplay), and Scotty O’Toole ( Aretha Franklin, O.A.R, Fall Out Boy). There he threw himself into learning the studio side of the business. “I got pretty good at the buttons and working the technology but soon realized I lacked the musical knowledge to really excel.” So, he decided to learn more about music theory, studying classical and jazz guitar. “I took that time to really develop my style and guitar playing.” When Covid hit, he began doing less in the studio, and felt that now was his time to get a band together.

He met back up with Mills, called up Dignam and Earley, then brought on drummer John Menefee, but they needed a stellar vocalist. Enter Mikayla Joseph. Once they met her Gwinn knew she was the one and that day they officially became Mallow Hill. “I remember her just walking into the room and knowing this was going to work really well,” says Gwinn. “We were all very impressed with her raw talent and voice but also with how laid back she was.” One year later, in May 2021, they recorded and released their first EP. Shortly after, Mills left the band to focus on a different career path but now the quintet has an album’s worth of songs in hand.
Recorded at The Moose House in Baltimore, album stand outs include the soulful title track “Love Me Good,” a classic young love story about a mismatched couple who always fight and make up but ultimately break up. It showcases Joseph’s sultry vocals to match the hypnotic rhythm. “One More Time” with its hard stops and pauses mimics the songs meaning about the nuances of flirting with someone for the first time.  It was one of the first songs that Mikayla wrote to one of Gwinn’s guitar parts.  “Keep Me Up,” a crowd favorite about keeping the party going, has a gritty classic rock vibe with a guitar solo to boot. “The Jam” is a funky track named after a club Joseph and her coworkers would visit to let off some steam and listen to live music while working at a weed farm called “Murder Mountain” in Humboldt County, CA.

Covid allowed the band the opportunity to really bond and get their sound just right. “While the world stood still, being together helped solidify the relationship we have with each other both on and off the stage,” says Gwinn. And it shows. With their new music in hand, Mallow Hill is looking ahead, hoping to play these songs to as people as they can all while having a good time along the way. “We’re just excited to keep this going and having our music connect with as many people as possible.” Music is their passion and if that can translate to the listeners and their audience, that that will keep them very happy for a long time.