Mala background music and AHK launched emulators

[LeeValley]

Hi
I have seen variations on this issue bounced around but no real solves for it.
I am running a mala multicab. I would like to run background music, but when I switch over from mame to demul in mala and launch a ROM with an AHK while background music is playing, mala won't focus on the game. Instead it chooses to run the game in the background and display the snap screen. and furthermore, it won't pause the background music, but instead plays continues to play it over top of the non mame emulator.
Is there a settings conflict I am missing? Is there a means of mapping a button to simply start and stop the background music? I've read about a plugin for this, but can't find it.

Thanks