Westbam
WestBam is the stage name of Maximilian Lenz, a Münster-born DJ who has worked within German electronic music since 1983 and helped establish the country's techno scene from its earliest days. He founded the Low Spirit label, which became a central platform for German techno and dance releases, and co-founded the Mayday festival, one of the country's longest-running electronic music events.
Lenz was also a driving force behind the Loveparade, the Berlin street parade that grew from a small techno gathering into one of the largest dance music events in the world during the 1990s, cementing his role in that scene's growth. His DJ sets have run continuously since the early 1980s, moving from initial punk-influenced beginnings, playing bass in a punk band, into a full-time techno DJ and producer career under the WestBam name, derived from a reference to Afrika Bambaataa.
Decades into his career, Lenz has continued producing, remixing and touring, maintaining Low Spirit's output alongside his own DJ bookings across German and international club and festival dates. WestBam remains closely associated with techno's institutional history in Germany through his roles founding both a label and two of the genre's most significant events.