QTPOC-Owned Music, Design and Fashion House Launches in Oakland, CA

When you create together, you cope together. You heal together. You find joy together.

It’s the very concept on which Tender Bois Club, a music and creative production house formed by trans multi-media artists Wazi Maret (he/him, they/them) and Eli Chi (he/him, they/them) was formed.

Wazi and Eli met in Oakland in early 2017 when the pair was brought together by a mutual love of creating. Vocal riffs. Beats. Bass lines.

“We’d meet every Sunday to make music and create,” say Eli. “It was restorative.” But what started off as weekly jam sessions was destined to grow into something much bigger.

“Creating music turned to art production,” says Maret, “which quickly turned into something we wanted to do full time.”

With a mission of celebrating softness, cultivating joy, and creating culture, Tender Bois Club was born.  

Listen to the Tender Bois Club’s Soundcloud, and you’ll find a small taste of what they do. “We both bring individual talents to the table,” says Chi. “I DJ, produce music and style on the side, and Wazi produces, sings, writes songs and dabbles in a lot of creative things.”

But Tender Bois Club wants its roots to run more deeply than music and creativity. The brand is also about the intentional evocation of a different side of masculinity.

“Before Tender Bois was even a thing, both Eli and I as individuals had been doing work in some way around masculinity,” says Maret. “Both trying to be better individuals ourselves in the world and not perpetuate the kinds of things that happen with masculinity culture. We want more people to feel safer in the world.”

“The services we provide are music and creative services, yes, but the core – why we do what we do – is to try to transform the culture of masculinity in a way that we’re modeling for ourselves.”   

It’s an important message woven through every project Tender Bois Club touches.

Their website opens with arresting photographs of Maret and Chi, two trans masculine folx of color, chest-deep in an endless field of sunflowers. The sight is soft and unexpected, filling viewers with a warming sense of safety.

“We want to explore what it looks like to be creative and expressive, but also to have hard conversations, especially with folx who identify with masculinity, and talk about what it means to have better models around that.”

It’s a concept Tender Bois Club explores even in their logo. Their brand name is flanked by a sunflower and a yellow heart – two symbols that are at odds with traditional ideas around masculinity.

“As a trans masc person who gets read as a man ninety nine percent of the time,” says Chi, “I have an obligation to do work in a way that is emotionally and physically safe for me – and that is creative work. I feel a real purpose around this.”

“There’s so much about masculinity, and patriarchy in particular, that needs to be shifted,” agrees Maret. “So many people are hurting because of the way masculinity culture is set up. That’s work that we can see each other doing for the rest of our lives.”

What’s next for Oakland and Brooklyn based Tender Bois Club?

“Wazi and I would love to have a storefront and music studio that would double as a space for community to come through,” says Chi. “We have planted the seed.”

Keep up with Tender Bois Club on their Instagram and blog.