The leader of Germany's house and techno scene since his beginning early in the 1980s, WestBam recorded several house/rave crossover hits during the late '80s and early '90s before exploring styles such as trance and electro. He is renowned for his founding of the Mayday Festival and the Love Parade, the latter of which routinely drew hundreds of thousands of clubgoers into the streets of Berlin on an annual basis. In addition to numerous releases under his own name as well as several pseudonyms, he has worked extensively with producer Klaus Jankuhn, most notably as Members of Mayday, which supplied the Mayday Festival with its anthem every year. Born in Münster, Maximilian Lenz began DJ'ing in 1983 and became known as WestBam as a shortened version of his original nickname, which he received in honor of his place of birth (Westphalia) and his biggest musical influence (Afrika Bambaataa).