D.J. Peter "Razor" Ozzbak: I Want What Guido Did For The Music Industry To Live Forever"

D.J. Peter "Razor" Ozzbak: I Want What Guido Did For The Music Industry To Live Forever"
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Musically, duos have been a staple in music; from Barry Harris and Chris Cox's Thunderpuss 2000 productions, to Tony Moran and Warren Rigg's massive productions, to Hex Hector & Mac Quayle's signature soaring anthems, the combination of two different creatively wonderful artists seems becomes a virtual melding of the superpowers, almost always making dance floor magic. That is simply what Razor & Guido were.

The best thing about a Razor & Guido production was that they could take almost any artist and morph them into a dance floor stomper. From a classic dance floor artist like Kim English ("Unspeakable Joy") to an off the beaten path artist like Billy Idol ("Heroin") to a good old fashioned dance floor killer like Hannah Jones ("Was That All It Was"), there was no artist or track these two could not weave to eventually pack a dance floor.

Guido Osorio's passing leaves a hole in the musical fabric that is dance music. It also leaves the other half of Razor & Guido, Peter Ozback (Razor) to determine his next move. Before he does that, I was lucky enough that Peter sat down to chat with us about his first memories of meeting his eventual partner, his best memories of Razor & Guido, and where he goes from here musically. As a longtime fan of both of these amazingly creative people, I personally am thrilled to have been able to have had this wonderful chat with an artist who truly helped define an era for dance music.

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So first off-tell me about the first time you met Guido..
We met in a nightclub in Island Park New York called Industry. I remember those days, it was the early 90's...

The club booked a techno act and he was part of that group. He came into the D.J. booth right before the peak part of the night with his Sample Keyboard "insoniq eps16" and his records. I was thinking "why does he have records"? He said that he was going to spin for an hour or something and I told him "NOBODY is spinning here. You can spin for your show but that's it". He hooked up his sampler and small mixing board for the show. He did small sound check during the night with some cool sound effects. At this point I was curious. Then, he somehow changed my attitude and I said "ok you can play for a little bit". He played some cool techno music I have never heard that he had gotten from a place he worked at the time called WATTS music distributor. We didn't exchange numbers or anything and he left; that was the first day we met.

How long did it take for you to decide that the two of you could make some magic working together? What was the process like to finally decide to collaborate?
A year or two had gone by since we had met. At this time, I was in a rap group and needed a place to record and I remember going to his studio for a small project before; BIG MOUTH studio in NYC . We recorded the group and then I stayed in the studio after they left and was getting schooled on production work, samplers and sounds. Every time I would record the group, I would stay after and show him some good songs I thought would be good ideas. In return, he would show me more about production. At the time, I didn't know how to do any of that I just knew good music from the clubs. We then made a song with a bunch of samples and cool sounds from some household items I brought in. For example-a milk can! And we made the song called Goodtime. Because we would work for hours until daylight, we named the group "Sleepless". Later, we got the song sold on 8ball records.

We did a few things after that, but time just went by. I had a radio show with DJ Skribble on Hot 97 (when it was dance) and was doing three turntables at once live on the radio with a song "Funk Phenomenon" and the next week, got a call from the label and asked what remix I was playing on the show. I said that was just something we had done live. They said "we want to put that version out"! I knew I had to call Guido to help make this happen, and he said he would help record this. That was a big moment when things changed in my life. Skribble and I, at the time were doing lots of dj'ing and trying to get more things going and got a project from Hosh Gureli at Arista Records called "Fable". At the time, Skribble was so busy with MTV spring break shows and he couldn't be there. So Gudio and I did the song, we brought it to Hosh and of course, he put us in the direction with his recalls. Hosh was always on point and knew what the record needed to be a hit. Boom-our first remix release together Robert Miles - "Fable" (RAZOR AND GO)

"Razor N Go" is another story; he used GO(his initials) for a while until we read an article that had a typo and called him 60. After that, he was upset and changed it to his name GUIDO (pronounced Gee-doe)That song "Fable" went #1 on Billboard. That's when we knew.

How would you describe the "Razor and Guido" sound?
The best way to describe our sound is energy build ups and breakdowns and keyboard lines with hooks. We always wanted good dancing songs with fun keyboard lines and energy build ups to the parts to make people lose it. In today's clubs, they call them "drops". We always believed the correct term was "Buildups" because that's what they are. Drops to us was the break down. I'm not saying we were the original people to do build ups, but we sure did pave the way for others to get there.

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What are some of your best memories as one half of "Razor & Guido"?
There really are so many. I will say, a few were doing a Thanksgiving Eve party at place called Vanderbilt that was so successful, the cops closed down the exit to the Long Island Expressway! Another is in Tokyo, Japan. We love the culture of people and places and they would all face the DJ when we played as if it was a concert. They knew all the words and sang the songs and most of them didn't even know the English language, but they knew the songs! We learned a lot of respect from that trip. I remember going to the movies with Guido and it was all in English with Japanese subtitles and when the movie was over we stand up and nobody else we see is standing. We were like huh? Then, after every single word of credits were finished, everybody stood up and left the theater. We joke about it a lot, but that was the time we had the most respect for Japan. Miami was another great memory; Club Liquid. The best experience in Miami. After hours at Pump also was always a great time. To this day we still have a great time in Florida and Boston; those are our favorite places in the United States.

What was it like working with Guido in the studio and melding both of your styles together?
In the studio, it was school I guess you can call it. He would know all the tricks in the studio and showed me. I knew all the records and sounds people reacted to and would show him. So we would just flow so fast. Soon, he knew the pulse of the club and I knew the studio tech stuff. Not many people know, but there was a time there would just be one of us making the song because we were so connected;we knew what we both would do or say in a part. "Do It Again" was a great example of this. He would get one version going and I would get another version going and at the end we would finish it together. He has great engineering skills for mix downs everybody knows that.

What has the reaction to both your musical legacy together and Guido as a person been since he has passed been like for you?
I think people always knew how great he was, but didn't realize how truly good he was until now. It has been unbelievable and the amount of respect from the music community and friends is an awesome feeling. I think alot of people don't understand how close we were; he is as close to me to be called my Brother. We lived together, worked together and played together. He knew what I was thinking just by the way I shrugged my shoulders. He is still helping people in a strange way and will always be on my mind.

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Are there any unreleased "Razor & Guido" classics or material that you would like to release as a tribute to Guido? Musically, where do you think you go from here?
We have more then two albums I can release, but not sure what is going on that. After getting the blessings from Mom, I will continue this musical journey and the goal is to finally get a Grammy for him and his family.

What legacy do you want Guido to leave for the music industry?
You know, it's really not what I want; it's what he did for the music industry and let that love live forever.

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