Dan Navarro and Eric Lowen were singing waiters at an entertainment restaurant. Like other co-workers, their relationship was often based on competition rather than team work.

“We started out sick of each of other,” Lowen said. “We didn’t really hit it off for a while. It was a pretty acrimonious relationship at first.”

Then something magical happened between the two of them. A musical bond was found that more than a decade later holds the two together. “We realized that we enjoyed singing together, and from there we’ve made it work.”

Lowen and Navarro have done a lot more than just make it work. The duo began writing songs together while other musicians began to notice Lowen and Navarro’s talents. The duo went on to write songs for The Bangles, David Lee Roth, Dave Edmunds, The Temptations and the Four Tops.

Pat Benatar’s “We Belong,” a tune the duo wrote in less than an hour and a half, became a top five hit. Soon after, Lowen and Navarro formed the band 20 Times, named from a lyric in the Benatar song.

By 1988, Navarro and Lowen became a weekly mainstay at the Breakaway in Venice. The acoustic combination they created that year became the focus of their entry into the recording industry.

“The first record (Walking On A Wire) had an optimistic feel, almost naive,” Navarro explained.”Broken Moon (Released in 1993), is more brooding and has a much darker feel.”

“On Pendulum, we had both gone through a lot of changes in our personal lives the year before,” he said. “We had wives and children and I lost my mother, and we brought all of it into our writing. The theme of the songs we were writing was this sort of duality between good and bad.”

The result, according to Navarro, was an album that combined the feeling of the first two. “Good and bad often happen both at once and Pendulum is simply expressing that thought.”

Another development on Pendulum was the addition of legendary bass player Hutch Hutchinson (Bonnie Raitt) to the line-up of Richard Dodd on cello, Tad Wadhams on upright bass and Jonathan Norton on percussion.

“His presence kind of upped the ante on what I would call our best album ever,” Navarro said. Lowen and Navarro are currently touring without the band, adding more to their folk image.

“The folk tag is a little limiting,” Navarro said. “We write pop-rock songs and play them on folk instruments. There are a lot soul and R & B progressions in our music as well. Folk fans call us rock, rock fans call us folk, pop fans call us country and country fans call us pop. It gets really confusing.”

According to Lowen, their influences range from legendary soul artists Sam and Dave and Ray Charles to famous duos Simon and Garfunkel and The Everly Brothers. Navarro’s cousin Dave, now with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and his original band Jane’s Addiction have also been influences.

“We draw little bits and pieces from across the board,” he said. “It’s safe to say the Chili Peppers aren’t an influence but Jane’s really served as inspiration. Dave has been a great supporter, and we’re trying to follow in their trail and not let anyone else tell us how to write music.”

Lowen and Navarro’s future plans include further developing their Web site and releasing a live album the duo recorded in 1988.

“The album’s always been a favorite of ours to pull out at parties and stuff, so it will be interesting to see how it does,” Navarro said. “I’m a computer nerd. I hate the word cyberspace though. I don’t know what a cyber is; I know what space is. I’ve seen space, but not cyber.”

“The Web is a great way to pass by some of the media’s limitations,” he explained. “I’ve discovered some great bands from the Web.”

Lowen and Navarro will return to Peoples next Monday evening for a special KFMG listener appreciation night. Tickets are only $1.03 for the 9:30 show.