He looked for artists with a point of view, a distinctive voice and an “extraordinary repertoire.” After releasing Feist’s Let It Die, he signed German outfit Tokio Hotel, the best new artist winner at MTV’s 2008 Video Music Awards. and the community and culture of early Motown Records. He admired the way that Stiff Records in the United Kingdom “fiercely defends” its acts, as well as how Sire Records worked within Warner Bros. Kierszenbaum says he took his cues from other famous labels. When T.a.t.u’s single “All the Things She Said” went top 20 on the Hot 100, selling 415,000 copies in the United States alone (according to Nielsen Music), Iovine showed he had enough faith in Kierszenbaum’s taste to help him launch Cherrytree through Interscope. The executive - who played in a bilingual rap act while majoring in music at the University of Michigan - stepped up to teach the pair English.

Through releases by Gaga, LMFAO, Feist, Ellie Goulding, Calvin Harris and others, the label has 15 top 10 hits on the Hot 100 to its credit, five of them chart-toppers.Ĭherrytree’s eclectic roster arguably began with the Russian female duo T.a.t.u., who had been signed in 2002 to Interscope by Kierszenbaum. At Cherrytree now, he says, “we’re nimble enough to work with artists that might need some more incubation or protection, but we have access to the sales team of a very powerful entity.”

“It took me 20 years to get to this situation,” says Kierszenbaum. At Webster Hall, he played bass with Ivy Levan, a rising Cherrytree artist.)Ĭherrytree occupies a unique niche as an -independent-minded label, management company (started in 2007) and publisher (launched with Kobalt Music in 2013) with a family-size staff and major-label backing. (He co-wrote four songs, including the title track, on Lady Gaga’s 2008 debut, The Fame, which was released on Streamline/KonLive/Cherrytree/Interscope. Kierszenbaum brought to Cherrytree a reputation for nurturing artists and an ear for talent, proven through a decade as a senior A&R executive at Interscope and a lifetime of making music. His unwavering support and dedication, along with his ability to foster creativity, are unrivaled.” “It’s the best of both worlds.” Adds Sting: “I’ve enjoyed taking risks in my career, and Martin has always encouraged me to do so. “We have one foot in indie-land and one foot in major-land,” says Kierszenbaum. The album went on to sell 268,000 copies, according to Nielsen Music. To sell what some might have seen as a niche album at best, Kierszenbaum struck a deal with Universal Music Classics, which helped market the disc, Songs from the Labyrinth, released on Cherrytree and Deutsche Grammophon. And in the end, he usually turns out right.” “With Sting,” he recalls, “you can suggest things, but he’s going to follow his own internal compass. In 2006, Sting told the executive that he wanted to make an album based on 17th-century lute songs by Renaissance troubadour John Dowland. This taste-fueled approach has worked well for Kierszenbaum. “‘I love that! I’ll sign,’ ” he recalls Feist as saying. “I was trying to explain, and the best was, ‘artists that are progressive musically yet still traditional pop, but it’s inclusive.’ And she says, ‘I get it: Cherrytree is a mom-and-pop shop in a department store.’ I go, ‘Do you like that?’ “The task was to convince Feist to sign to a label that had no roster,” recalls Kierszenbaum, 47. The singer appeared much the same way when Kierszenbaum first saw her in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, in 2005, the year after Jimmy Iovine, then-chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M, gave him the go-ahead to launch Cherrytree as a joint venture with Interscope. Regardless of the missing star, the crowd was still buzzing with anticipation, going quiet as singer-songwriter Feist took the stage with just an electric guitar on her shoulder and effects pedals at her feet, her signature voice floating out above the reverent silence. Billboard Women in Music Legend Loretta Lynn: 'Call Me Your No.

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