Jess Cornelius Body Memory – 7th Level Music

Today, Los Angeles-based musician Jess Cornelius presents “Body Memory” (Peach Fuzz Version), with an accompanying video. It’s an alternative version of the original that appeared on Distance, her album released last year on Loantaka Records (which will see its UK release on May 14, 2021), and follows her recent cover of the Eagles’ “I Can’t Tell You Why.” While the original track is driven by a catchy electro-rhythm, the Peach Fuzz version is gorgeously stripped down. Cornelius’ voice is poignant over reverberating electric guitar, as she sings of the lasting emotions that stem from a miscarriage. Peels of guitar and muted percussion gently filter in as the song continues.

“I’d started playing the song for myself in a totally different way – on echoey guitar instead of keys, with a dreamy, melancholic mood, and wanted to record it as a sort of ‘part two’. It’s like a new cover of my own song, I guess. When I started recording the demo I ended up capturing all these distant sounds that got all distorted in the process: a nail gun, a baby, police sirens, which I kept in for the final recording. I added harpsichord, synth and drums, and Jarvis Taveniere added bass during the mixing. The rolling toms and shaker in the outro added this new little groove and moved the mood again. To me this almost feels like a new song; ‘I was my own woman once’ is now less defiant and more reflective, maybe even yearning.”

Cornelius and her partner filmed the video in the Sequoia National Forest in Northern California. “I had the idea for the visual for a while – this hyper-artificial neon outfit against a lush forest backdrop. I made the dress the night before the shoot, using some high-visibility fabric I’d been given years ago. But when we got out to the forest, about half of the trees were dead – killed off by drought and bark beetles exacerbated by rising temperatures. The video inadvertently became a sort of environmental lament – about a different kind of loss and love.”
Watch Jess Cornelius’ Video for “Body Memory” (Peach Fuzz Version)

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Los Angeles-based musician Jess Cornelius releases a new single/video, “Body Memory,” from her debut album, Distance, out July 24th on Loantaka Records. It follows the Roy Orbison tinged rave-up, “Kitchen Floor.” On “Body Memory,” the last song she wrote for the record, Cornelius intones over a calming electro-rhythm “When we met I used to make you laugh/then we lost the baby and it broke my heart,” adding later: “My body has a memory and it won’t forget.” Its accompanying video, the second she’s made since the start of the pandemic lockdown, was created by Cornelius and her partner and filmed on an iPhone at Lake Isabella, California. Cornelius elaborates on the video:

“Originally I had a much more elaborate, narrative-based concept, where I was this woman running away from a cult, (hence the tracksuit and Nikes), to be filmed in Oildale and Posey where my partner, Joe, is fixing up an old cabin. At the last minute, we decided to drive to Lake Isabella because of supposed good visuals there. I was grumbling all the way there about how the location wouldn’t fit with my shot list, but when we got there and I started dancing on rocks, we just threw away the shot list and made it up as we went along. The editing was fun because I’m teaching myself Premiere Pro (thanks YouTube tutorials) and I got to throw every hilarious video effect at it. We were also heavily influenced by Laraaji’s videos, obviously.”
Watch Jess Cornelius’ Video for “Body Memory”

Cornelius first began writing the songs that would comprise Distance after moving from Melbourne, Australia to Los Angeles. At the time, she was excited to start fresh after several years as the primary songwriter in the band Teeth and Tongue. But the distance she addresses over the album is hardly a geographical one. The journey over Distance is a celebration of newness. New beginnings and new perspectives on endings. From the chaos of a vagabond lifestyle to expecting a child just weeks before the albums’ release and researching how to tour as a mother in the coming years.

While the sonic tones and textures on the album evoke certain classic staples of Americana, soul and rock and roll, Cornelius’ lyrics anchor the songs to a deeply personal place. She sings of a miscarriage, a messy romantic affair, and the frustrations that come with having a partner. Distance finds a deft songwriter analyzing the space between society’s expectations for her and her own dreams, the illusion of love and the reality of disappointment, and a past she is ready to let go of and a future she could have hardly imagined.

Watch Jess Cornelius’ “Kitchen Floor” Video

Watch “No Difference” Video

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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Tag: Jess Cornelius Body Memory

Jess Cornelius releases haunting Peach Fuzz version of “Body Memory.”

Jess Cornelius’ “Body Memory” is a lovely ode to heartbreak.