About the Band

Posted by on May 19, 2014

NICOLE VOLK-HOEM Vocalist

Nicole (Niki) Volk Hoem was born in Cheyenne, WY, and grew up in Denver, CO.  Raised in a family of talented musicians, vocalists and dancers, she followed tradition and started piano lessons at 6 years old, also starting dance lessons and singing solos in elite choir, musical theater and church performances at an early age.  She was raised listening to classical and jazz music, classic rock bands the Beatles, CCR, and Led Zeppelin.  Her first female vocal influences were her Mother who sang opera and played piano, and her Grandmother Betty, who sang and played organ.  Rounding out Niki’s female vocal powerhouse influences are divas spanning various genres and decades: Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, Carole King, Barbara Streisand, Linda Ronstadt, Donna Summer, Pat Benatar, Heart, Bonnie Raitt and Susan Tedeschi.

In junior high, Niki focused on her vocal range and control, when she started classical voice lessons under her Mother’s opera coach Nicholas Laurenti, Director of Denver Opera. In high school she was in the select traveling high school choir, and also joined local rock bands for battle of the bands contests.

At the last minute on Niki’s 18th birthday, she headed to Denver with the choir pianist to attend a vocal competition hosted by a newly-formed record label.  After her performance, she faced her first standing ovation.  Niki had won the competition in a field of 400 vocalists, the music directors named her to be their new rock/pop vocalist.  She ended her senior year of high school with a solo debut concert at the Botanical Gardens.

While recording opportunities were presented to her, Niki chose to attend college.  At University of San Diego, she studied advanced music theory and learned jazz piano from studio artists, often performing at weddings and private parties.  She missed the Rockies and transferred to Colorado State University in Fort Collins after two years.  Soon after the move, Niki married Gary and they started a family.  While her focus turned to being a mom, she continued to perform for weddings and parties, occasionally with Gary playing acoustic guitar.  Their two sons have been raised with music, and are trained on piano, guitar, trumpet and drums – a full family band!

In the early 2000’s she sang the national anthem for CSU Ram games in Moby Gym.  This performance kicked off a decade of performing the national anthem, culminating in 2010, when she sang the national anthem to her largest audience ever at the world famous Cheyenne Frontier Days.

In 2005, Niki asked to sing with the Black and White Blues band at the family company holiday party.  A successful surprise for family matriarch Grandmother Betty, this experience introduced Niki to the band scene in Cheyenne.

After that experience, Niki and Gary started to play with the regions’ top musicians.  In 2008, she started singing some songs with Another Fine Mess (now Another Perfect Circus), and lead vocals with Gary’s classic 80’s band Triton.  Then in 2010, Niki met future bandmate Bob Pollock when she joined Moe Diggin as vocalist and keyboardist.  As Another Perfect Circus started to evolve and travel, she has focused her music career with the group.

Niki’s goals are to surprise you with a wide powerful vocal range, and to leaving you to want to hear more.  She started out on the piano as a soloist, which she still does today, but she has the addition of being the front woman of an incredible band!

BOB POLLOCK Guitarist

Growing up in a family with two older brothers who played guitar and a third who played the radio created the environment, then being given a handed-down guitar at age ten began Bob’s lifelong journey as a musician. Hearing Heartbreaker from Led Zeppelin II was the moment his passion became a done deal. The tremendous local live music scene surrounding The University of Illinois in the late sixties and early seventies was the final piece of inspiration he needed to pursue the guitar with passion.

Beginning with lessons from , then playing with various bands through Jr High and High School, then landing a job as a ‘roadie,’ working for artists ranging from the infamous , the multitude of influences began to form, and inform Bob the guitarist. His biggest influences are Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Keith Richards, George Harrison from England, The Allman Brothers Band, B.B. King, ZZ Top, and especially local guitarists Gary Richrath and Keith ‘Slink’ Rand.

After taking a break from live music in the 80’s to raise children, Bob dusted off his guitar in the early 90’s with an R&B band in Houston, Texas, before moving to the Front Range region, eventually settling in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He first joined Spontanious Combustion in the late 90’s, then formed the short lived – but well received – Step On It. That band led to the formation of Nasty Habits in 2000, a group which worked tirelessly throughout the region for the next five years. Habits developed a large following, highlighted by shows during Bike Week in Sturgis, and opening for Molly Hatchet. The next three years were spent with , and then a couple of years in longtime regional favorites Black, White, Rhythm & Blues.In 2010 Bob formed, and still appears with the classic rock band Moe Diggin. Most recently Bob replaced his good friend Brian Leneschmidt in the regional blues powerhouse Another Perfect Circus.

GARY HOEM Bassist

Gary Scott Hoem was born in the tiny village of Shefford England, to an English mother and an American Air Force father.  For most of his early childhood, they moved frequently between bases in England and the U.S. When he was in 5th grade the family moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming, which wound up being their last stop.

In 5th grade Gary took up the trombone, playing all through High School, and writing several original pieces for the instrument.   Learning and playing bass clef instruments became a theme for Gary’s musical path.

In 1980 while still in High School, his good friend and musician Dan Hesson convinced him to learn to play the bass. Gary played for several local bands in Casper and Cheyenne during the early 1980’s.  In 1984 he started playing in a heavy rock band that would eventually become Raging Mane.  They recorded an original album called “Action by Force” which was available in Colorado and Wyoming.

By 1988, Gary was married to his wife Nicole and had moved to Fort Collins.   After settling down, his bass stayed in the closet for almost 20 years, as he and Nicole turned their focus to raising a family.  He spent these years playing acoustic guitar, writing songs, and performing the occasional love song at a wedding or two.

In 2007, Gary decided he wanted to start performing bass aga