You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. There she was preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly coping with breast cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was planning an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the stage in a musical (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
