Native Wyomingite, Lane Terzieff, could best be described as a spontaneous world traveler, seeking to broaden his reach by making friends and manifesting a message of love and acceptance for all people. He is inarguably an impulsive individual, with nothing but goodness and empathy for humanity to share. Lane, also known by his entertainer handle “Lancifer,” documents his life’s work from across the globe. Currently from “somewhere in Asia,” he reports to his steadfast followers by shooting off-the-wall (and sometimes slightly dangerous) videos for Social Media. Sharing his collaboration with international musicians, he’s creating music and rap numbers that heave his message across cultures, stopping here and there to invest in humanitarian causes, and helping people in need as he encounters them.
Raised in Sheridan by creative parents and having cultivated a strong bond to his church youth group, life began to take shape for Lane when he dropped out of Sheridan High School. After his junior year, he got his GED, packed his bags, and moved to Nashville to try out for a band with no more than $60 in his pocket. With the era of social media upon us, and digital communication around the globe steadily improving, Lane has not only maintained close relationships with his friends and mentors here in Wyoming, but he has also grown a strong following along the way. Backed by strong support, Lane lives his life by following both a wild heart and a compassionate conscience.
Originally this piece was not intended to be a transcribed interview, but as I read Lane’s responses to my initial questions, prodded him for more about life in the shoes of “Lancifer,” watched and read more of his YouTube and Facebook content, I realized I lacked the voice and tone to appropriately recount the character before me. I tried to write about him cohesively, but as it turns out, lack of adherence to the conventional is just a trait that has manifested within Lane. In the choices he’s made and paths he’s taken, in his personal life and in regard to his career, it’s just as well—Lane Terzieff unconventionally lives for the better, in faithful service to the greater-good of humanity.
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Please introduce yourself in a couple sentences.
Hey! Good to meet you! I’m Lancifer. My Social Security number is ***-**-***. (He actually wrote his SSN. I couldn’t morally publish this.)
You’re from Sheridan, Wyoming? Where did you go to school? High School & College?
I went to Sheridan High School. I played drums in jazz band, wore a chicken suit to the football game, went to St. Peter’s Church and Cornerstone Church.
I dropped out after my junior year, got my GED, and went to Nashville with 60 bucks and a backpack to try out for a spot in a band. The experiences that followed would bring me to music and business educations and connections that were monumental.
What do you “do,” now?
I’ve have been traveling the world for the last 5 years, making friends, shooting crazy videos, making beats with refugee kids, and trying my best not to get kicked out of music venues whilst also doing slightly dangerous things to facilitate a good time.
Describe the talents you claim.
I’m someone who was so bad at everything I did for so long, that after about 10 years of 19-hour work days, weekendless weeks, no sleep and no money… I started getting pretty good at just about every single aspect of entertainment that any record label would spend a million dollars on.
How were you introduced to them?
My dad played the jazz saxophone, my mom sold clothes from South America, my brother is a Stunt Coordinator, and my sister started a school for refugees in Southeast Asia… I was a skater punk with ADHD, living in small-town Wyoming. Everything just kind of happened.
How were you first introduced to music? Do you play any instruments? Have you had vocal training?
I actually played drums for a screamo band in high school. I found a synthesizer, started making beats and rapping as a joke. Then I just did what I enjoyed, which was rap, singy-pop, and hard beats.
Funny, it all ended up becoming part of my mission in life, I guess!
What are your proudest accomplishments, records, concerts, publications?
Playing internationally has been the best. I think I’ve played in around 25 countries now, more or less. I have had so much fun.
Some other great things I’m proud of are winning an MTV show, playing for an arena of 20,000, and getting involved with the humanitarian missions I’ve come across in the areas I’ve travelled. It’s all been amazing.
Who are your greatest and closest supporters?
Honestly, Asia just gets me… For every American Producer or Executive that has said “this is too crazy, people won’t understand it” or, “you’re overdoing it,” there has been someone in Asia saying, “why not put in a dubstep breakdown with metal guitars after that piano ballad chorus and add a kazoo solo. If that’s what you want to do, then do it.”
And you can’t beat the fact that the fans are so die-hard supportive and have great energy live.
What do you want people to derive from your art and your talents? What do you hope people take with them?
My mission in all of this is solely focused on God, Jesus Christ, and loving every single freaking person on the planet. Part of that is by reinventing what is “cool.”
I’m showing people that some mumble-rapper whose messages are to get into hard drugs and glorify themselves, are really massively misleading, losing ones. I am here to say “Hey! I just downed 2 bottles of chocolate milk, I’m on the roof of the club, about to front-flip into the swimming pool of the hotel next door as I rap words of compassion for my brothers.” Why not mumble that, Fetty Wap?!
Can you pinpoint the moment in your life when you decided to pursue “Music, film, travel, and pure craziness?”
Honestly, God has been so insanely instrumental and focused in putting the pieces of my life together; by aligning certain things that would be unrealistic without him. It has all just been very “on purpose,” …to say the least.
Describe your humanitarian causes:
My sister brought me to Thailand to work with Burmese migrant kids about 5 years ago. Seeing the realities that people across the world deal with, in comparison to our own comfort, changed my life. I’ve been returning there a few times a year, since.
I’ve also been traveling to North Korea, Costa Rica & Haiti with the extreme sports non-profit, Ride Nature, and aiding in Nepal after the earthquake in 2015. There are a few others.
“Don’t pray for something you’re not willing to be the answer to.” What does this bring to mind?
Nepal, 2015.
Standing on a rock face in the Himalayas. Not being able to stand up as the entire mountain shook. Watching people’s homes go up in dust like something dropped from a bomber plane in a war movie. Hearing echoes of people screaming throughout the valley below.
Rushing to physically help—Not just pray about it.
What kinds of negative kickback have you had to diffuse? How do you handle folks that want to “slow your roll,” in work and life?
The haters can’t see me.
Describe “leadership.”
Lead by treating people the best you can, and work hard. Look out for everyone, not just some.
Move fast. GO! You’re going to make mistakes either way… Charge! This is Sparta!
What drives the results you want in your industry?
In an industry controlled by getting people on both ends to buy into everything, it’s tough. My advice is to find a loophole, keep going when others give up. Learn to do every single facet of what you have to do, yourself.
My wife, Cary (Entertainer “OhFrikk”), and I just finished a music video for the song Miracle, which got 1.5 Million views in a week! Between the two of us, we wrote, produced and mixed the song. Then, we designed costume, built the walls and sets for the music video, choreographed, directed, produced it—including all the filming and edits, like color correcting. We even marketed and distributed it— All of it. The days of “being discovered” are long gone.
What are your goals for the next year? How do you plan to achieve them?
Currently, we’re planning on spending more time working in Asia. We love it here, and the fans are amazing. We will keep working here quite a bit.
What has been your favorite project? Your most rewarding project?
They keep getting better and better. Working on Miracle has been amazing, and my media contacts here in Asia have said it’s release has “shaken” the entire Myanmar entertainment industry.
Other rewarding projects have just sprung up on our tours, like the one I talk about in my This is Lancifer video (you can find this on Lancifer’s YouTube Channel): Experiencing a military coup in Thailand, a hurricane, and then protests, in Hong Kong… Performing amidst a war in Ukraine, Ramadan in Turkey. Seeing the pope in Rome, and playing for arenas in Germany, London, Sweden, etc.
Oh, and then, after hitch-hiking to Austria, sneaking into the set of Mission Impossible to be a background actor in it was pretty awesome… ha, ha.
All of that was in the period of a month.
Describe your greatest strength & greatest weakness.
My greatest strengths are perseverance and purpose. My greatest weaknesses are time and money… And mosquitos.
What do you miss most about Wyoming?
Kendrick Park… Andy… skateboarding… the community… drifting in the high school parking lot … snow-hiking up Steamboat Rock with my wife.
Making paper towel forts in Wal-Mart… You know, Wyoming stuff.
What is on your bucket list?
Seeing the 195 countries of the world. Riding a giraffe. Redefining “cool,” back to what’s actually cool.
Showing real love for people— all people. Every single one of them.
Where will you be in five years? What does your life look like?
I hope that [Cary and I] are just doing something that changes the world for other people. It sounds cliché, but none of this stuff matters if we aren’t purposefully making things better, especially when others are trying to break it down.
I also hope that pizza is involved. And maybe a run for president ‘cuz… YOLO.
When you think of Wyoming, is it a place you believe you’ll return to?
I always come back, on and off. I have a great team of collaborators, friends, and mentors there.
I’m always doing cool projects and videos with the guys at Flood Marketing, writing songs with some of the amazing musicians around Sheridan… Jamming some jazz with Tom Saur… making beats with Shawn Day.
My closest friends who I grew up alongside and caused trouble with in Church Youth Group are there. My closest friends are the ones I’ve spent hours every week playing no touch the ground tag with, as both a kid and full-grown adult.
I’ve got a lot more hiking in the Big Horn mountains to do as well.
Also, if Sheridan gets a Panda Express, I will definitely spend more time there.
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Lancifer released his fifth album titled Foreign in March 2018, from which came his top hit and recently released music video, titled Miracle. The video was shared 6.1K times and viewed 1.5M times within days of its debut.
You can find out more about Lancifer on Facebook and Instagram @lancifermusic, or on his YouTube Channel Youtube.com/Lancifer. He can be reached via his booking agent and press contact via email at lterzieff@lancifer.net.
By Polly Burge
polly@floodsocial.com
April 2018
