by Jane Roser
Writer’s note: The title of this piece “A Man For All Seasons” was inspired by the play of the same name which portrays the main character as a man who remains true to himself and steadfast in his beliefs despite outside pressure to change these beliefs. After speaking to Dan Navarro for well over an hour, this was the best title I could think of to describe this extraordinary artist.
Photo by Jeff Fasano
Dan Navarro is probably best known as one half of the powerhouse folk-rock duo Lowen & Navarro, but beyond that he could have his own category on Jeopardy showcasing all of his mind-blowing accomplishments. In the past 30 years, Navarro has co-written Pat Benatar’s hit single “We Belong”, was a singer and voice actor in several motion pictures (The Lorax, Happy Feet, Ice Age), serves on the board of SAG-AFTRA and Folk Alliance (among countless others) and has fought passionately to secure performer’s rights on several issues. On top of all this, he’s a super cool dad with enough compassion, smarts and wit to give Washington a run for their money. He’s like a modern day Mr. Smith/Jimmy Stewart, but with better hair.
Growing up in Los Angeles, Navarro always knew he wanted to be a singer, but says he was “kind of a dorky kid, so none of the bands in high school would let me in.” (Music seems to run in his family; his first cousin is Dave Navarro of Jane’s Addiction and the Red Hot Chili Peppers). When he got to UCLA, Navarro was living in a fraternity-type house that was run by the UCLA band. One day a housemate was playing a familiar song on the piano and Navarro started singing. “The guy turned around and said ‘I didn’t know you could do that,'” recalls Navarro, “he encouraged me to audition for the men’s glee club, so I did and I got in. It was actually really cool and taught me everything there was to know about singing; it was the training and inspiration I needed.
Navarro and Lowen met in the 80s and worked together for several years before hitting a rough patch in their friendship. “In the midst of a bunch of personal turmoil we got together one evening just to hang out and write,” says Navarro, “our friendship had been severely tested and we hadn’t spoken in nearly two months. We wrote [“We Belong”] in about 90 minutes with no indication that it’d turn into anything. Eric sent it off to publishers and one of them called, so out of nowhere we got a hit song and everything changed; it was overwhelming, a dream come true and a big giant oh-shit moment.”
After that, they did a few other cuts together and Navarro tried his hand at playing with other bands, but after awhile he decided he was done. “Eric and I talked about why and we realized it was because I wasn’t performing [the way I wanted to], so we decided to do this acoustic duo thing we’d talked about for years and from that point on we started playing as Lowen & Navarro, initially as an unannounced side-line. We played once a week and slowly our audience started growing, then a guy came in about 18 months in and offered us a record deal.”
Lowen & Navarro released 12 albums and performed at some of the top venues in the country for 22 years before Lowen passed away from ALS in 2012. Navarro attempted to tour alone before Lowen retired from the road and calls his solo touring and upcoming album, Shed My Skin, an evolution of sorts.
“I felt I needed to prove something to myself [with this album] so I chose to write all my material completely alone so I could find my voice as a songwriter. It’s a little weird 20 years into your career to start discovering new aspects [of yourself], but I was kind of forced to re-orientate myself. Lowen & Navarro were the best of what we were in a collective sense, so for me to carry on in the Lowen & Navarro style would be accurate and consistant, but I also needed to evolve, so I’ve been trying to scare myself and face my fears so I could get to the next stage as a writer. The Lowen & Navarro legacy and energy is always there, but I’m not carrying ghosts around, I’m carrying wonderful memories of great times and great music and a great guy; he’s deeply infused in the music I’m making today and I’ve learned to let go of whatever was holding me back about the old days and hold onto parts that are really memorable and sweet and special.”
Navarro has spent countless sleepless hours in DC on issues dealing with artist’s intellectual property, copyright and performer’s rights, including testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Copyright Royalty Board on behalf of the Nashville Songwriters Association, AFTRA, NARAS, BMI, SoundExchange and the musicFirst Coalition and feels that along with the BMI consent decree, a revamping of copyright laws to make it equatable for everyone are issues that need immediate addressing.
“There are certain aspects to the way songwriters are paid that is archaic,” laments Navarro, “and something that is coming soon is a revival of the Performance Rights Act. In terrestrial radio, artists aren’t paid for their performances. When Pat Benatar’s record is played on regular (not Sirius or internet) radio I get paid and my publisher gets paid, but she doesn’t and the label doesn’t. The radio industry has been really adept at fighting that by calling it a tax instead of a royalty. They also like to use the term “job killer”, so basically they’ve gotten a free ride in the notion that it’s a promotional thing for the artist, and I think the promotional aspect is undeniable, but that is also reciprocal.”
There’s legislation before Congress now called the Local Radio Freedom Act. This act is basically attempting to pass a law that would prohibit the paying of royalties to artists and labels. “I’m not trying to put the genie back in the bottle in regards to technology, but the rights of creators needs to be protected and preserved, if it gets to a point where a working class songwriter or artist can’t make a living, all you’re going to have left are amateurs and that’s not good for music,” Navarro says.
Navarro informs me that there are only three countries in the world where artists are not paid for terrestrial radio and they are Iran, North Korea and the United States, so no A for effort there. With several more issues like these on that big marble table, Navarro has his hands full, but says “I’ll continue to keep trying because it’s overdue and the job’s never done, so we stay busy, plus [he jokes] I don’t like to have free time. At all.”
With an endlessly busy schedule, Navarro has several projects on his vast horizon, including finishing his upcoming album which may be completed by the end of April, but no release date has been set yet. Then on March 28th Navarro will be a keynote speaker and featured artist at the Singer-Songwriter Cape May Festival. “I’m incredibly honored and excited to be there,” he says, “our songwriter/touring brethren are some of the bravest people on the planet who put their lives behind their point of view and I love being a part of this community. There’s a term in England called “chuffed” which means being proud and humbled at the same time, so I’m feeling chuffed to be there.”
Navarro may have music on the mind around the clock, but he makes a point to sweetly mention that “nothing on the planet touches me more than the fact that I’m a father to a remarkable young man who’s in his first year at NYU; the simple fact is that out of all of the things I’ve been involved with and that’s made me happy, nothing touches me as much as that.”
Navarro’s passion for creating music and for protecting all artist’s right to make a living is incredibly inspiring. After all, these are the people whose music brings us joy while doing chores, keeps us singing along on a road trip or choking us up in a particularly melancholy moment. Without music, books, poetry, film or theater what will fill our souls? It’s disheartening that they don’t have the same right to earn a fair living as the clerk at your favorite clothing store or the plumber fixing your sink or the congressman in Washington whose job it is secure these rights in the first place.
As Jimmy Stewart’s character Jefferson Smith said: “I wouldn’t give you two cents for all your fancy rules, if behind them they didn’t have a little bit of plain, ordinary, everyday kindness and a little looking out for the other fella, too.”
