Damian Israel Shiner’s musical journey began with a cardboard guitar, lip-synching Beatles songs for his neighborhood as a kid. By his twenties, this passion became an obsession, leading him to teach himself guitar and dive headfirst into songwriting. In the mid-’90s, he jumped into the Boston singer-songwriter scene, performing originals and covers of The Cure, U2, and other influences. He spent eight years with folk-rock act shiner.jones, gaining regional recognition through Emerson College’s broad-reaching radio station WERS (88.9FM). In 2006, he launched the displayers, a rotating collective of musicians performing on both U.S. coasts.