Born in Leith, Dode worked in the airport industry for a number of years in the UK, Middle East and Spain. He speaks fluent Spanish and Arabic. He is also a performing musician and plays 12 string guitar as well as singing his own songs. Dode won the Brian Eno prize for original songwriting in 2005 and regularly performs around Leith and Edinburgh.

His stage name is The Last Tree, and you can catch his show every Thursday evening 20:30-22:00. He is also a technical manager with Leith FM 98.8