Stephen has lived in Sydney Australia all his life. From a very young age he was a surfer and got into The Beach Boys, Jan And Dean and the California culture and life style.
In the late 70s and going forward he did magazines, California Music, Beach Boys Australia and Gonna Hustle You (Jan & Dean) over a period 20 years. Most of this pre Internet Those were the days.
During this period he interviewed many, many associated with the California Music scene of the 60s. Many of those interviewed are no longer with us. I believe he has more knowledge of the surf music scene and culture than the researchers that actually live in the US and had easier access to interview the people.
He became friends with Gary Usher during this period and became Gary's official biographer writing "The California Sound, An Insiders Story, The Musical Biographer of Gary Lee Usher". He also has written over 30 books on the West Coast scene with books on P F Sloan, The Walker Brothers, Bobby Fuller Four, Beach Party movies, Gidget, Beach Street And Strip (a discography of surf and hot rod music), The Wilson Project (Brian's time with Gary Usher 1986-1987) and his biggest effort Waltzing The Plank (a history of Australian surf music from 1963 to 2013) as well as Heads You Win - Tails I Lose (The joint musical collaborations of Brian Wilson (& the Beach Boys) and Gary Usher 1962-1970) and Inception and Conception The Beach Boys 1961-1963 “from Hite Morgan to Nick Venet”. This book was first published in 2011 and now is currently available in it's 4th edition. That book's genesis was the earlier Heads You Win book from several years earlier.
Stephen fills his book with more information than maybe is necessary and sometimes it comes off like an encyclopaedia.
I must mention as I feel he doesn't get the credit he deserves. He does actually interview the people and if he uses others people's interviews he fully credits them as his source. Much of his Inception book was used in James Murphy's book with virtually no credit as to how much of Stephen's work was actually in that book. I must stress that both books are must haves as there is plenty of information in James' book as well. There have been more recent books on PF Sloan, Bobby Fuller and Beach Party Movies. Stephen published his books on these subjects years before and again very little credit or none given to the work of Stephen used in those books.
I guess another issue for him is that he no longer publishes hard copy books and makes all of his books available via the internet and PDF files at very reasonable prices. Shipping books from Australia to overseas makes it impossible as that cost added to the cost of the book makes it prohibitive.
To find out more about Stephen just google Stephen J McParland. There is a lot out there.
Chris