dark secrets out October 3rd, 2025
A classically trained pianist with an elegant voice and deeply evocative lyrics, progressive dark art-pop artist Laura Hickli releases dark secrets, the first of three releases. She is known for balancing raw emotion with intricate detail. With every set, she draws listeners in and holds them there—spellbound by her fearless expression and magnetic presence. The newest release off Laura Hickli’s EP, dark secrets, is the title track, a revelatory glimpse into the accident that grounds the album, embarking on a nonlinear journey of grief, trauma, and recovery.
“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.”
dark secrets is rooted in a single traumatic moment that lasted just 24 seconds. In 2023, while touring the U.S., her van skidded off the road, spinning 180 degrees into the opposing lane before flying backward 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.
Fortunately, 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 fragility of the body. The songs that emerged aren’t pretty, polished reflections; they’re raw, unsettling, and painfully human. Feelings that are ugly. Scary. Relentless.
Photo by Sarah Kueler
Music has always held immense power for Laura; it’s how she processes, how she connects, how she survives. So even in the depths of PTSD, she knew she had to find her way back to it. Performance is visceral and transformative for her: on stage, she writhes and sways, folding into herself like she’s summoning something from deep within. It’s not only art: it’s communion. To return to that space, she began exposure therapy: a slow, grueling, and deeply personal process that eventually gave her the strength to get back in a van and tour again.
The completion of dark secrets marks Laura Hickli’s latest step towards making peace with those 24 seconds. Recovery is not linear, and it is never truly complete, but she has found a connection through the act of creation and the courage to share her story. And in that, she no longer feels quite so alone.