Daniel Shirin was eight years old when he first picked up a guitar in his family’s home in Hod HaSharon, Israel. He had no language yet for what he wanted the instrument to do. What he had was a feeling, a particular kind of noise that got stuck in his head and would not leave.
That noise eventually revealed itself. It was Nirvana, raw and unpolished and urgent, and then the wider wash of 90s and early-2000s rock that followed. Foo Fighters. Green Day. Arctic Monkeys. Grunge carrying a hint of Brit-rock, the emotional weight of alternative radio, the idea that a song could be honest and massive and melodic all at once.
The Blueprint That Stuck
Daniel kept returning to that blueprint even as his own writing pulled toward indie pop and modern production. He treated the guitar seriously from the beginning, not as a hobby but as the medium for whatever he eventually had to say.
Years of practice became formal study in 2019, when he enrolled at Rimon School of Music in Ramat HaSharon. The program sharpened his ear and his technique. It also reframed songwriting for him as a craft with rules worth learning, rather than a pure impulse.
During those years he formed the band WHSPR and released the project “Begging You.” The release built an audience and pulled in tens of thousands of streams, enough momentum to confirm the direction he had chosen.
Crossing the Ocean
Education carried Daniel to the Musicians Institute in Hollywood. Los Angeles was more than a technical upgrade. It was the city that had produced so much of the music that shaped him, and studying inside it opened a door to an industry he had been imagining since childhood in Israel.
By his mid-twenties he had built himself into a genuine one-man operation. Singer. Songwriter. Producer. Session guitarist. He writes and records everything himself, bringing in collaborators of his own choosing when a song calls for it.
Building 14 Hours
All of that groundwork led to the record that defines this chapter. “14 Hours” is a nine-track indie pop-rock album, written, produced, and performed by Daniel alongside JEYEM and co-producer DOJO.
Nearly two decades separate that first afternoon with a guitar from this release. The album reads as a full body of work about coming of age, and it is finally ready to meet listeners.
The lead singles carry the emotional through-line of the record. “California” and “Virginia, Turn Around” sit with restlessness, distance, and the specific ache of chasing something across an ocean. Daniel wrote and produced both.
He brought the songs to a stage with a headline show at Levontin 7 in Tel Aviv and an appearance at Breaking Sounds Tel Aviv. He also took the work outward through his collaboration with LA-based artist JEYEM, writing and shaping JEYEM’s record “Fake Blonde + True Blue.” These were not isolated milestones. They were evidence of a foundation he had spent years assembling.
What Comes After the Release
Daniel now splits his attention between his life in Tel Aviv and the American music scene he studied inside of and refuses to treat as out of reach. He plans to grow “14 Hours” past its initial release, deepen his production work, and build out more collaborations with US-based artists and producers in the vein of his work with JEYEM.
Next on that list is a planned collaboration with producer and A&R executive Rich Fayden, another step toward tying his sound more closely to the American market he has been working toward for years. He posts updates on the album rollout through his Instagram page and shares shorter studio material on TikTok.
He keeps writing in the meantime, chasing new sounds and new imagery with the same instinct that pulled him toward a guitar at eight and toward Nirvana not long after. The belief underneath it has not changed. A song built on honesty and a strong hook can travel anywhere.
Whatever Daniel Shirin releases next will carry the signature that got him this far, the fuzz and melody of a kid from Israel who fell in love with 90s rock and decided, against the odds, to go make some of his own. His music and release schedule are available on the official Daniel Shirin website.
