Lowen & Navarro, Live in Studio 4A
Songwriting Team Harmonizes but Doesn't Always Get Along

Listen to Bob Edwards' interview.

Hear Lowen & Navarro's Performance in NPR's Studio 4A.

Eric Lowen and Dan Navarro. Photo: Markus Cuff

Hear songs from Lowen & Navarro's performance in Studio 4A "What I Make Myself Believe" "Pendulum" "Constant as the Night" "Rapt in You" Hear the duo's version of the hit they wrote for Pat Benatar "We Belong" (from Walking on a Wire, 1990)

Eric Lowen, left, and Dan Navarro perform in NPR's Studio 4A. Photo: Mike Gormley View enlargement

July 23, 2002 -- "We Belong" -- their most famous song, which became a huge hit for Pat Benatar in 1984 -- proclaims: "For worse or for better, we belong, we belong, we belong together." But songwriters Eric Lowen and Dan Navarro say that when they first met, they couldn't stand each other.

They were working a late-night party at -- no kidding -- a restaurant that featured singing waiters and waitresses. "We... took an immediate dislike to each other," Lowen tells Morning Edition host Bob Edwards. "Instant," Navarro quickly agrees.

"We just felt there was a jealousy and a kind of bitterness between us from the very moment that we met," Lowen explains. Navarro remembers his first reaction to Lowen: "Who does he think he is?"

But they did learn to work together -- if not to always get along. "We've forced ourselves to be polite, to work out problems, to bring things to the forefront and it works great," Navarro says.

After teaming up in the early 1980s, Lowen and Navarro made a name for themselves writing for other singers, including Benatar, the Bangles, the Four Tops, the Temptations and Dave Edmunds. But a few years later, they began to perform their own songs. Their blend of acoustic guitars with stunning vocal harmonies was discovered by a record label executive. They've released seven albums, starting with 1990's Walking on a Wire. Their latest CD is Live Radio, a compilation of performances originally broadcast on the public radio program, FolkScene.

Lowen & Navarro recently visited NPR to talk about their singing and songwriting and to perform some of the songs from Live Radio.

As with most artists, fans often project their own meanings on the duo's songs. Like the time a motorcycle mechanic came up to them and claimed that the lyrics to "We Belong" -- "We belong to the thunder... We've both fallen under" -- were satanic.

Lowen & Navarro say they usually don't mind that their listeners put their own spin on their songs. As Lowen puts it: "Could there be anything more flattering to a songwriter... than to create something that's open to people's own interpretations? Because that really is exactly what you want. You want people to attach their own meanings to a song... It feels good to us to have that happen."

Related NPR Stories

 More Artists, Live in Studio 4A

Web Resources

• Learn more about Lowen & Navarro at their official Web site.

• Read a 2000 interview with the duo.

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