Sting’s manager is the epitome of full-service when it comes to the music industry.
In addition to his executive duties, Martin Kierszenbaum, a Lansing native and University of Michigan graduate — where he was part of the rap duo Maroon — is a performer, musician, writer and Grammy Award-nominated producer whose credits include Lady Gaga’s debut album “Fame” and work with Madonna, Robyn, Keane, LMFAO, Feist, Ellie Goulding, Shaggy and Samantha Fish. He worked in the label world, as well, before starting his own Cherrytree Music Co. in 2005.
His association with Sting, meanwhile, dates back to early 1991, and Kierszenbaum took over managing him at the start of 2016. And that’s in addition to making his own music, some under the moniker Cherry Cherry Boom Boom (bestowed on him by Gaga) and also with a band dubbed Detroit Dreamers.
“I love making music. That’s my passion — and my vocation,” explains Kierszenbaum, who produced Sting’s 2015 album “57th & 9th,” executive produced 2018’s “44/876,” Sting’s Grammy Award-winning collaboration with Shaggy and also produced and played organ on his new single, “I Wrote Your Name.”
“I’m somehow immersed in music every minute of the day, either managing artists, putting out music on my label, collaborating in the studio, making my own music, producing other artists. … “When I’m not playing music, it extends to: ‘Can I help other musicians?’ ‘Can I talk about music?’ Can I promote music?’ I just live and breathe music.”
Kierszenbaum just released his first full Cherry Cherry Boom Boom album, a self-titled 10-song set on which he plays and sings almost everything (with covers of Magnetic Fields and Replacements songs). Some are revisions of older tunes, others brand new, but it offers a more holistic overview of his musical acumen.
“Before I would do more kind of alternative, guitar-rocky stuff under my own name, and do more of the pop/dance/electronic stuff under Cherry Cherry Boom Boom,” Kierszenbaum explains. “In my mind, I was delineating like that. But on this (album) I threw it all away and didn’t think about it. It didn’t have to be a certain kind of song because it was (Cherry Cherry Boom Boom). It’s just whatever I wanted. It’s all my music.”
Martin Kierszenbaum will speak at a Detroit Music Awards Foundation Master Class at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 16 at Wayne State University’s Schaver Music Recital Hall, 480 W. Hancock St., Detroit. detroitmusicawards.net for tickets.