Dark art-pop songstress Laura Hickli crafts dreamy, meticulously arranged soundscapes with exquisite vocals, evocative lyricism, and live performances that leave a lasting emotional mark.
Currently seeking further connections with:
International Booking Agents, Promoters across Canada, Artistic Directors for live tours and festival placements. LINKS TO PRESS | LINKTREE
Laura Hickli is a dark art-pop songstress from Mohkinstsis/Calgary, known for her dreamy, tightly woven soundscapes, exquisite vocals, and emotionally charged performances. A classically trained pianist and member of award-winning projects including 36?, Hickli crafts music that balances spectral intimacy with explosive power. Her latest record, dark secrets (Ba Da Bing Records), confronts trauma and PTSD following a life-threatening tour accident, turning fear and despair into hauntingly beautiful art. For Hickli, music is survival—a way to process, connect, and endure. Described as “indomitable,” she consistently defies expectations of the piano, the voice, and a life reshaped by resilience.
“HOPE, AS A FEELING” Live at Sled Island Music Festival 2025
Billed with:
Sierra Ferrell, SPELLLING, Reuben and the Dark, Chase Petra, Astral Swans, The Velveteins, Partner, Cartel Madras, Abigail Lapell, T. Buckley, 36?, Carla J. Easton, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Little Destroyer, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Helado Negro +
Notable Music Festivals played:
BreakOut West Music Festival
Calgary Folk Music Festival [2025]
Canadian Music Week
Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra
Treefort Music Festival (USA)
Sled Island Music Festival [2025]
Sound Off Summit [2024]
CFMF: Block Heater
Beakerhead
Celtic Connections (UK)
CCMA Off-Country Music Festival
Neu! Reekie! (UK)
Sounds like: Fiona Apple, Tori Amos, Kate Bush, Joanna Newsom, Caroline Polachek, Sufjan Stevens, Lana Del Ray, Regina Spektor, Bjork
Highlights
Named ‘Top 100 Artists on CBC Searchlight’
Internationally touring artist with 400+ live shows across Canada, USA, UK
Regular rotation on major radio stations including CBC, BBC + more
Glowing accolades, awards + press from The Big Takeover, Buzz Music, Cups N Cakes, Left of the Dial + more
Women in Music Canada 2024, Banff Centre for Arts + Creativity Alumni, National Music Centre Educator 2018
Funded by FACTOR, AB Music, Calgary Arts Development, Harvard Broadcasting, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, ATB Arts + Culture
‘dark secrets’ focuses on the trauma, fear and despair felt from PTSD after a life-threatening experience.
“I could still feel there was more. The world just kept spinning. We hit the ground again—I thought I had died. Everything went black for a second. And then, suddenly, the van stopped. The g-forces vanished, but inside me, the spinning didn’t. My body was still. But inside, I kept tumbling.”
These are not lyrics. They’re excerpts from Laura Hickli’s therapy sessions–transmissions from a fractured mind. Laura Hickli’s album dark secrets—the first of three releases—is rooted by a single traumatic moment that lasted just 24 seconds. In 2023, while touring the U.S., her van skidded off the road, spinning 180º into the opposing lane before flying backwards off the highway and rolling three times down a steep slope. As it tumbled down the hillside, she watched her belongings rise around her in slow motion, suspended in eerie stillness, time stretching in the space between life and death.
Nobody was seriously injured, but after the crash, her recovery was both physical and psychological. What began as a fear of getting into vehicles spiraled into something deeper: a confrontation with mortality, meaninglessness, and the body’s fragility. The songs that emerged aren’t pretty, polished reflections—they’re raw, unsettling, and painfully human. Feelings that are ugly. Scary. Relentless.
With each song on dark secrets covering a different topic, they unite: part confessional, part contemplation, and part acceptance. “I try to see the meaning in life,” she sings, “dark secrets I hold/Dark dark dark dark dark.” On “Wanting”, she crystallizes the conflicts of being alive: “What do I want / And what is the point of wanting / What do I feel / And what is the reason to feel things?” On “Little Girl”, she sings to her past, traumatized self; “Every sleepless night, every awful dream / Give them to me, for I am your company.”