Bernard Fanning (born Bernard Joseph Fanning on 15 August 1969 in Brisbane, Australia) is an Australian musician and singer-songwriter. He is best known as the former lead singer and frontman of Australian alternative rock band Powderfinger from its formation in 1989 to its dissolution in 2010. In 2005 he released the solo album " Tea & Sympathy". Fanning was taught the piano by his mother at an early age. At the age of 12, while attending St. Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace, Fanning began writing music, and upon graduating from St.