From playing small Wisconsin bar gigs to reaching No. 20 on the Billboard charts, the story of Jamie Fontaine and the Level has long felt like one waiting to be told in full. Now, that journey is being captured in a new book, Scars and Melodies, written by longtime band manager Chris Dobry.
The idea for the book didn’t start as a formal project, but as a moment of reflection. Dobry recalls reconnecting with Jamie Fontaine after seeing a nostalgic post about the band’s early days. That simple trigger reopened conversations with both Fontaine and the band’s bass player and quickly turned into something larger.
“Back in January I saw a post from Jamie Fontaine… he was reflecting on those times. It really pulled at my heart strings,” Dobry said, explaining how the book began to take shape.
Dobry is no outsider to the industry. He founded Stryker Records in 1997 and built a long career in the music business, later being ranked No. 4 entrepreneur in the US Reporter’s Top 20 Entrepreneurs of 2020. For him, the band’s story wasn’t just worth telling—it was already sitting in memory, waiting to be structured.
Once the idea was floated, he began writing immediately. What started as a loose attempt to document events quickly turned into a deep reconstruction of timelines, tours, signings, and milestones. “At first it was about documenting what happened,” he said. “I spent a good eight hours of research between the concerts we did and some of the major events like when we got signed and when we charted on radio.”
As the process unfolded, memory and research merged. Dobry worked through the band’s history from their 2017 signing to Jamie Fontaine’s departure in 2021, gradually rebuilding the narrative with input from multiple members. “I roughly knew the whole story, I just had to get the timeline down,” he explained. “After going through it two to three times I was remembering more and more details and was able to ask the band what they remembered.”
What emerged is not just a success story, but a portrait of life on the edge of it. Scars and Melodies explores the intensity of the modern rock lifestyle, including the excess, ego, and blurred boundaries that often come with sudden momentum.
Dobry doesn’t shy away from those moments. One anecdote from the book describes a chaotic night of post-show partying alongside members of Saving Abel, a night that spiralled into exhaustion, confusion, and a surreal morning after.
“There’s hardly anything being held back in this story. It’s a real rock’n’roll story through and through,” he said.
At its core, though, the book is intended as a warning as much as a recollection. Dobry is candid about the band’s trajectory, especially during their peak when they reached the Billboard Top 20 but were already struggling internally.
“If you’re in music or the music business, I hope it’s a guide of what not to do,” he said. “The singer got a big ego and the partying became so excessive that it destroyed what we were doing.”
He also acknowledges the wider context, including the disruption of COVID-era touring, but emphasises that lifestyle choices played a major role in the band’s decline. “We hit number 20 on Billboard and we were wasted,” he said.
Despite its reflective tone, the story hasn’t ended where it stopped. In a twist that edges into present-day continuation, Dobry reveals he has re-signed Jamie Fontaine & the Level—though only part of the original lineup.
“This may end up ruining the end of the book,” he said, “but I did end up resigning Jamie Fontaine and the Level.”
A new release is already scheduled for May 15, marking the band’s first music since 2021. The track, Hate, comes from the group’s final studio sessions and is being finished and polished for release.
“Jamie didn’t even do a scratch take on it, but it ended up being good enough to put out,” Dobry said, adding that additional unreleased material from those sessions is also being revisited with updated production and mastering.
Originally emerging from the Green Bay music scene, Jamie Fontaine & the Level built their reputation on emotionally direct rock songwriting and high-energy live performances. Their breakout single Save Your Life reached No. 20 on the Billboard charts and helped define their rise within the Midwest rock circuit.
After years of silence, the 2026 return with Hate signals not just a comeback, but a continuation of a story that never fully closed. That story now exists in two forms: the music itself, and Scars and Melodies, a book tracing the rise, collapse, and uneasy rebirth of a band that once burned bright enough to reach the charts—but not steady enough to hold the flame.
