On his return to the Malay music scene after the 1986 smash hit, ‘Mulanya Di Sini’, that served up the ultra-catchy hook, ‘Sama Sama’, Royston prods his fans to always like what they do with ‘Suka Suka’.

His duet partner, singer-actress Fauziah Latiff, cheerfully helps to get the lyrically simple ‘Suka Suka’ stuck in the head.

The first duet between the artistes, who have riveting backstories, also includes a love track, ‘Tanpa Noktah’ written by Habsah Hassan.

The musical direction of both songs is decidedly 80s, the era when Royston, then with Francissca Peter as Roy & Fran, and Fauziah were one of the most instantly recognised artistes.

They shone at a ripe time for emotional melodies that stood in direct contrast to the louder, wilder rock dominating the charts at the time.

In 1987, Roy produced Fauziah’s first album, Di Gamit Memori, and wrote her a song, Segala Berakhir Di Sini, when she was 17 years old.

That was one year after his most popular song ‘Mulanya Di Sini’ became a big hit and three years after the breakup of chartbusting Roy & Fran in 1984.

Royston, who migrated to Australia in 1988, told FMT: “The new songs are based on nostalgia as most people will remember me with such tunes.

“Many seem to relate better with 80s music and that’s why I kept it in that time frame.”

How similar are the songs ‘Sama Sama’ and ‘Suka Suka’?

Perth-based Royston, 68, said he asked lyricist Slen Fadzil to follow the style of Syed Haron Syed Ahmad’s lyrics for ‘Mulanya Di Sini’ and to “keep it happy and inspiring.”

He said: “Suka Suka is about being happy, about facing challenges with a smile and always liking what we do.”

“I left the lyrics of Tanpa Noktah to Habsah as having written most of my hit songs in the past, she seems to know my personality well and gets it right every time.”

Roy said his chemistry with Fauziah came instantly in the studio despite both of them not having met since she was 17.

“Fauziah was thrilled to do the duet and was wonderful to work with,” he said.

Roy said he decided to collaborate with Fauziah as she has grown into an accomplished singer with 17 albums and a litany of hits songs.

The recordings were done when Roy was here in March for the Musicians for Musicians Benefit Concert that was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Roy said he talked about his comeback songs for many years with the producer Jason Shahul of Gingerbread band fame and got everything going in the last few months.

Jason, who has been a close pal of Roy for the past 40 years, and his friends did the session work at Gingerbread Studio in Singapore.

The songs, released on the Sept 18, and distributed by Universal Music can be downloaded from digital platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and Google play.

Roy intends to write more songs for the Malaysian market and hopes a newer generation of listeners will take a liking to his brand of easy listening music.

Over the years Roy has written numerous compositions, some of which have done Malaysia proud internationally.

‘Mulanya Di Sini’, performed by the band Freedom, was placed second at the 1986 Asean Song Festival and was subsequently tabbed by Malaysia Airlines as their jingle and promotional theme.

The song has also been part of Merdeka and Malaysia Day celebrations and featured in about 10 commercials.