LAURA HICKLI
Laura Hickli (Mohkínstsis/Calgary) is an internationally touring art pop songstress known for her tightly arranged dreamy soundscapes, exquisite vocals, evocative lyrics, and emotionally powerful performances. The classically trained pianist was homeschooled in a conspiracy-laden religious household where she honed her ability to reflect deeply felt emotions through dynamic, textured, and technical songwriting and production.
During the tour of her latest record ‘Both Feet In The World, At Least I Can Stand,' Laura and her band suffered a serious motor vehicle accident that left Laura with PTSD and a traumatic head injury. After nearly a year in recovery, she emerges with gripping and exceedingly personal new music on suffering, birthed during her chaotic grieving process.
Hickli has a knack for creating art out of life's ebbs and offering a small gift of resilience to the returning tides. A performer in several award-winning projects, Hickli’s personal works continue to receive radio play (CBC, BBC+), several Top Album of the Year awards, and glowing reviews from The Big Takeover, Cups N Cakes, and more. Recently diagnosed with autism, Hickli’s developing story offers a fresh and inviting look at what life can be, while carrying the foundations of her spellbindingly intimate, yet explosive brand of dark process-music.
I could still feel there was more. It just kept spinning….We hit the ground again, and I thought I had died or something. I just felt that I blacked out for a second. And then suddenly the van stopped, and the g forces that were pushing us just stopped. It still felt like I was spinning in my body but I know I wasn’t spinning in real life.
Laura Hickli’s new album is entirely based on 24 seconds. While touring the US in 2023, her van skidded off the road and flew off a cliff. Laura watched all her things flying around her in slow motion as they rolled down the hill. “I had no thoughts in my head as I floated through the air,” she says. “It was still. It felt like when you’re in an empty kitchen while the tap is dripping. No panic, no fear, just loneliness and knowing you’re going to die.“ Then, her head went through the window, and she blacked out.
The first paragraph atop this writeup is not lyrics from a song. It’s taken from her therapy sessions, fragments appearing of which appear on X between tracks. After the accident, she spent months in physical and mental recovery. Her initial immediate fear was going into a motor vehicle, but her mind developed stark, existential thoughts. That’s what these songs are based on:; feelings that can be ugly, scary, and relentless.
With each song covering a different topic, they unite: as part confessional, part contemplation, and part acceptance. “I try to see the meaning in life,” she sings on Dark Secrets, “Dark secrets I hold/Dark dark dark dark dark.” On Wanting, she crystalizes the conflicts of being alive: “What do I want / An d what is the point of wanting / What do I feel / And what is the reason to feel things?” Little Girl allows her to address her past, traumatized self, singing “Every sleepless night, every awful dream / Give them to me, for I am your company.”
It’s not like Laura hasn’t faced struggles before. She grewGrowing up in an extremelya severely religious household, one that continually switched churcheschruches. Her family wouldto join one more radically conservative than the last, leading her toshe learnlearned in adulthood how to separate the world she was aware of as a child from the grander one she now perceives. That was the subject of her last release, Both Feet In The World, At Least I Can Stand. “The ability to write these songs and perform them to others rescued me,” she says. “I had an outlet for the battles happening inside my head. She immersed herself in the lifestyle, touring heavily throughout North America. Until the accident.
Because of the strong value music holds for Laura what music means to her, she knew she had to push through get past her PTSD. Performance is a key part of her music;. oOn stage, she writhes and sways, curling up as if like she’s possessed. It’s how she connects with others, and she had to continue playing continue it. So, she underwent exposure therapy, a slow, deliberative process, and ultimately emerged with the ability to once again, get into a van and tour.
The completion of Dark Secrets, is her latest step towards reaching a peace from those 24 seconds. She won’t ever fully recover. But now that it can be shared with such power, Laura Hickli no longer feels as lonely.