Oliver was born in Edinburgh in 1977 and grew up in North Berwick. He became a classroom music teacher in Aberdeen and in 2000, he moved to Glasgow, where he studied at the RSAMD with John Maxwell Geddes, gaining a Distinction for his Masters degree in 2002.

He is currently in the third year of his PhD with Gordon McPherson and has recently written works for the Paragon Ensemble, the Hebrides Ensemble, the John Currie singers, Cambridgeshire Youth Wind Orchestra, the New Music Players, the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. In 2002, he received a silver medal from the Worshipful Company of Musicians and won the Dinah Wolfe Memorial Prize at the RSAMD. He was also a finalist in the Martin Musical Scholarship Prize at the Royal Festival Hall in May 2003 and in 2004 he won the Mendelssohn Scholarship. Over the last few years, he has had works performed in the Glasgow Proms and at festivals in Oxford, Manchester, Cluj (Romania), Aldeburgh and Berlin. Future endeavours include an orchestral commission for NYOS, to be performed during the summer of 2006, as well as several smaller chamber commissions over the coming months. He is also frequently involved in the creation of music for theatre, and has written music previously for Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Troilus and Cressida, Measure for Measure and One Flea Spare, as well as the forthcoming Matryoshka at the Arches - Glasgow - and Rosalind:A Question of Life at Birmingham Rep; he is also permanent Musical Director for Nomad theatre company.