You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while still secretly living with the disease. Subsequently she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have indicated malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
