Jeremiah Zimmerman On Building the Unlikely World of Noah C. Lekas’ Flowers of Perennial Dissent

When Noah C. Lekas began transforming the writings from his psychedelic therapy sessions into Flowers of Perennial Dissent, he deliberately opened the door to interpretation. Rather than simply composing music around poetry, Lekas gave a group of musicians, including Luther Dickinson, Charlie Parr, Anthony Pirog, Ethan Miller, and James Toth, the freedom to create their own sound around his words. The result is a spoken-word record that moves through mysticism, illness, identity, uncertainty, and reconstruction. 

Holding those disparate worlds together was producer and musician Jeremiah Zimmerman, a longtime collaborator and friend of Lekas. Zimmerman initially joined the project to help assemble and finish the record, but his role grew as the album took shape: “At first, I came on just to do what I’d call the housekeeping: putting all the pieces together, doing some mixing, and getting the record ready to master. As it evolved, I ended up playing, writing, and arranging on the last track as well.”

For Zimmerman, the project was also the continuation of a creative relationship that stretches back years. He and Lekas have toured together, played blues and jazz gigs, and collaborated on recordings. That history gave Zimmerman a unique perspective on the deeply personal material at the center of Flowers of Perennial Dissent. “This album is really an extension of a long creative friendship,” he concludes. 

That personal connection became even more significant as Zimmerman encountered Lekas’ writing: “I’d gone through a similar period of deconstructing my own past, getting into therapy, and really taking my mental health seriously. That overlap made Noah’s poems hit me a lot harder than I expected.”

And that experience changed his idea of what a spoken-word record could be: “If you’d told me I would be deeply moved by a spoken word poetry record, I wouldn’t have believed you—but at this point in my life, it turned out to be exactly what I needed.”

However, the album presented Zimmerman with an unusual production challenge. Its musical palette stretches dramatically from track to track: hammered dulcimer, atonal guitars, synthesizers, and textures similar to those of field recordings. “I was terrified it would feel like a bunch of one-offs,” he says. “But the spoken word ended up being the thread that stitched it all together.”

Zimmerman also stresses the importance of not trying to make every track sound similar and cohesive, but instead have each piece feel like part of a larger work. “The hardest part was making all these disparate sounds live in the same universe without distracting from the vocal, and making sure every contributor felt properly showcased,” he explains. 

Interestingly enough, Zimmerman describes the technical work as the easiest part. “Once the balance between the vocal and the track was in the right zone, it became less about technical work and more about taste and creativity.”

Creative freedom is central to what makes Flowers of Perennial Dissent so unusual, and  Zimmerman and Lekas seem to embrace all the eccentricities. “When you get a group of creative people doing something purely for the sake of creativity, it’s amazing how the pieces start lining up on their own,” he says. 

And when Lekas began wondering whether the record might be too strange for listeners, Zimmerman encouraged him not to compromise: “Throughout the process, Noah kept asking, ‘Is this too weird? Is anyone going to like this?’ My answer was always, ‘If you mean it, who cares if anyone likes it?’”

Flowers of Perennial Dissent is not designed to offer easy answers—nor is it the kind of easy music to put on in the background. Across the six poems, Lekas explores what happens when previously held beliefs no longer provide the stable framework they once did, and his lyricism demonstrates his attempt to make meaning from those experiences.

Zimmerman views that uncertainty not as a weakness, but as one of the record’s central strengths. “There’s so much easy, three-chord pop in the world. This record is challenging, but challenging in a good way. Some people will hate it, but the ones who love it will really, deeply relate to it—and that’s worth alienating a few people.”

Underneath the album’s varying sounds and subject matter, Zimmerman believes the emotional core is much simpler: “What I hope people hear isn’t just how ‘weird’ it is, but the vulnerability underneath—the open-ended questions about how you rebuild your life after everything you were raised to believe falls apart.”

That process is something Zimmerman sees as universal; a natural part of just being alive. “We all go through that deconstruction at some point—asking what from our upbringing is worth keeping and what has actually hurt us. This record lives in that space and suggests that the rebuilding can actually be better.”

Ultimately, Flowers of Perennial Dissent proves that the uncertainty itself can be productive—and can even give birth to art, healing, and connection. “It’s not bad to sit with deep questions and uncertainty,” says Zimmerman. “The doubt can be a gift. Certainty is where you get stuck and start making your worst mistakes.”

Flowers of Perennial Dissent will be available on vinyl, CD, streaming platforms, and as a limited-edition chapbook on October 23, 2026. You can listen to Lekas’ single “A Revolution In Just Existing (feat. Charlie Parr)” on all major streaming platforms today. 

Click HERE to pre-order the album!