Check Out Dan Navarro’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Navarro.

Hi Dan, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I moved to LA to go to UCLA and study music, and though there was no pop music or music business program, I decided life as a songwriter and singer was what I wanted most. I wrote constantly, trolled the LA folk clubs, and started making headway by my final year as Bruin. Two years later got my first breakthrough with songs recorded by Austin outlaw artist Rusty Weir and a model-turned-singer named Flower (now known as Brenda Saban, wife of the billionaire producer). Then, crickets, for seven years.

I killed time and learned some ropes working at a Tower Records store, as a singing waiter in West Hollywood (where I met long-term collaborator Eric Lowen), a spell in artist management in LA and London, and five years in advertising as a copywriter and art director. In the midst of resigning to a fate as a working stiff, albeit in creative fields, out of the blue Eric Lowen and I hit the dinger with “We Belong”, recorded into a smash hit by Pat Benatar.

Eric and I doubled down on becoming busy staff songwriters, working and struggling, and occasionally getting cuts by, among others, The Temptations, Dionne Warwick, Dave Edmunds, Nile Rodgers, The Four Tops, David Lee Roth, The Triplets, TKA, Marco Borsato (in Holland), Wink (in Japan) and, notably, several songs with The Bangles.

Performing was still in our blood, and we took our outdated old-school acoustic duo to a restaurant-bar in Mar Vista, CA and helped establish the burgeoning Nu-Folk scene in LA. After a two-year residency, we cut our first album “Walking on a Wire”, convinced it would simply come and go. But we actually made headway in several dozen markets in the then-new Triple A radio format. “Broken Moon”, “Pendulum” and “Scratch at the Door” followed.

We toured like crazy, built a resilient base and wafted through three ill-fated record companies in eight years, after which we went indy, started our own Red Hen Records label and carried on. We believed we were immortal when fate stepped in, and in 2004 Eric Lowen was diagnosed with the fatal neuromuscular disease ALS, aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Realizing Eric may not live more than a few months, we hit the road hard and recorded as much as we could. The end result was 250 shows and three albums over a four years period, after which Eric retired and I went solo. Eric died three years later.

The solo route was slow to build, sluggish to gather steam, but eventually became a self-sustaining flow that has carried on for 15 years, over 2000 performances and three solo albums released, most recently “Horizon Line” on August 2022.

Covid stopped me cold, but I kept going with nearly daily concert live streams, over 250 in 13 months, which grew my audience and broadened my perspective. When it was time to return to touring in April 2021, I bought a camper van I dubbed “Vanessa LeVan” and set out through 37 states, dozens of shows and over 60,000 miles from then to now.

The new album reflected the new ethos… point me to the next horizon line, so that I can live out my destiny in real-time. It still drives me, feeds me and fills me, and I won’t be slowing down any time soon.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
There have actually been multiple obstacles…initially, age…I was in my late 30s when I started recording and in my mid 50’s when I went solo.

Eric’s ALS diagnosis in 2004 threw up seemingly insurmountable roadblocks that we simply met, addressed and dealt with as they arose. Covid was yet another river to cross, but I somehow managed to make it work.

The change in monetization of the music industry has rendered making living a herculean task, but thankfully, the economics of live performance and value of old copyrights has left me in an envious position — I do indeed make a living, and it looks like it won’t be abating significantly while I remain active. Fingers tightly crossed.

Another challenge is the natural ebb that occurs as we age. When will I have to stop? Not yet. Hopefully, not soon. Ideally, not ever.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I consider myself an artist above all, a businessman secondarily, an advocate in my heart and soul, and a storyteller at the core. Whether it is through my songs, my voice works in films, mentoring or activism, my job is to remain focused, creative, perceptive and, ultimately, of value to a community.

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
There is no gain without risk. The “safe road” produces nothing of real value beyond immediate experience. I equate it to “brown food stuff”, life-sustaining, probably nourishing after a fashion, but hardly satisfying and ultimately disappointing. Put another way, I believe that nothing worth a shit ever came from a comfort zone. So I look for the edges of safety for the pith, even as I try to avoid true recklessness.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dannavarro.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dannavarromusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dannavarromusic/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/dannavarro
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/DanNavarroMusic
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/dannavarromusic

Image Credits
Photos by Jeff Fasano