MUMBAI: 'Indian Idol 3' contestant Parleen Gill, who is now a part of Hard Kaur's band 'The Stagz,' would have been an army officer had it not been for his supportive father.

The dapper singer had all but planned to join the Indian army post his ‘Indian Idol 3’ stint. Speaking to Radioandmusic.com, Gill said that even before he got on to the singing reality show as a contestant, he had appeared for an army exam and cleared it too. However, since his army interview date and ‘Idol’ audition dates clashed, he had to choose between the two. And we all know what he chose. When things didn’t go as planner, Gill decided to go back to the army.

“Post ‘Indian Idol’ in 2007, Meiyang Chang, Suhit Gosain, Abhishek Kumar and I formed a band called F4. We did decent shows under Sony Music (erstwhile Sony BMG). However, our contract ended in 2010 and everyone went their separate ways. During this phase, not much was happening in my life and I did feel like getting back to the army. But, my dad supported me in spite of being in the army himself,” said the musician. Thus, Gill went on to become an RJ with Red FM.

After being an RJ for almost two years, he got back to singing full time. “Not much was happening on the singing front so I called up Malishka one day and told her that I wanted to be an RJ. Malishka, who is a friend asked me to come down to Red FM’s office where I was asked to prepare my script and talk in front of the mike. Luckily, they liked what I did and they hired me for Red FM - Pune,” stated Gill.

He further added, “While I was an RJ, I started getting singing offers. They started with one or two shows initially and by the time I left Red FM, I was being offered five shows a year. Now, I get 10 shows, which is really good.”

The next good thing that happened to Gill was Hard Kaur. “In 2014, Hard Kaur and I became real good friends and that lead to The Stagz. However, before I talk about the band, let me tell you a bit about her. She is an amazing person and she can go out of her way to help someone. I remember once we were coming back from a party and she happened to see these people sleeping on the footpath. That very moment she asked us to stop the car. As the car stopped she ran towards those people and put 500 rupees in each of their pockets,” beamed the singer.

Speaking of his association with Kaur, he said, “I wanted to do something so I told her about how good Abhishek and I were on stage. Next she asked us to perform together and after the performance she said how we were good individually but were unbeatable together.”

The work on their first album has already begun and will be a mix of R&B, party, romantic and English songs. In totality, the album will have seven songs; four of which have already been recorded.

The Stagz’ first video will be shot in September 2015, however, they haven’t zeroed on a location yet.

“We haven’t decided on the release yet. We might release the singles first or the entire album,” stated Gill.