David Hernandez Bares All In New EP And Book

By Alex Gonzalez

Don’t @ Me - EP Cover Image David Hernandez

David Hernandez is baring it all. And not just on his new EP Don’t @ Me. To accompany Don’t @ Me, Hernandez is releasing a coffee-table book full of his nudes in tandem with the musical project this Friday (March 11).

Hernandez is no stranger to public nudity. Before conceptualizing Don’t @ Me, or his book #NSFW, he starred in a Las Vegas production of Naked Boys Singing. On his Instagram page, he often dons a jockstrap, showing off his backside, while posing seductively in nature or against a solid backdrop.

“My friends, when I go to their houses, especially in New York, they have these coffee table books, like the dick book, or like the ass book,” Hernandez tells Unleashed LGBTQ. “You open it up, and it's just all of these beautiful nude photos. They’re just so well done and tasteful that I wanted to join the likes of those coffee table books.”

The former American Idol top 12 contestant began working on music before signing onto Naked Boys Singing, however, the feelings of sexual liberation he felt while naked on stage kickstarted his musical process.

“I was inspired just to be myself,” Hernandez tells Unleashed LGBTQ, “to feel free to, honor the sexual side of myself and the nudist side of myself. The content on the EP is very adult, it's honest, and it’s gay as well. And I thought my image also fits that same exact thing, and I feel free and liberated through this experience. So why not release it to the world and show all sides of me, literally?”

Hernandez learned how to record and produce his own music during the pandemic, using programs like Splice, Ableton, Pro Tools and Garageband. He was mostly going into the studio for cathartic, therapeutic purposes, and didn’t have any initial plans to release a project.

“I was just dropping lyrics and vocals in my microphone,” Hernandez says. “And then. when I got to Vegas, I was just inspired by my sexual nature and being naked on stage. I was finally, finally thinking ‘Wow, you look really good after this fitness journey, you should be proud of yourself.’ The content [of the EP] changed a little bit. I started writing about how it feels being an adult gay male, how it feels during sex and how it feels with my anxiety.”

David Hernandez #NSFW

Although the recurring theme of Hernandez’s new projects is sexual liberation, the singer does take time to address the haters.

On Don’t @ Me’s title track, Hernandez claps back at people who have tried to hinder his success. For the first time, he addresses the naysayers who dragged his name through the mud during his 2008 stint on American Idol.

The song opens with a Fox News sound clip of an anchor revealing news of a pre-Idol Hernandez working at a male strip club. “Don’t @ Me” then continues with Hernandez “speak-singing” the lyrics “see my ass on Instagram, see my dick on OnlyFans.”

“I'm just going to place now like where not only have I like forgiven the people that dragged me, like Perez Hilton, and all the news outlets, and stuff like that,” Hernandez says, “but I've moved on from that, and I wanted to the EP to be the bookend for all of that. And I think you'll hear that. The EP, just like the book, is about liberation, self-expression and freedom.”