Starset was formed in 2013 by Downplay vocalist Dustin Bates, who is the band's lead singer, songwriter, and keyboardist.

[11] Bates's interest in astronomy was first fueled when acquiring his master's in electrical engineering as he studied at Ohio University.

[18] The band later released an accompanying novel, The Prox Transmissions, further detailing Bates's fictional back-history of the Starset Society story.

[16] Rob Graves, who produced Transmissions, announced on January 26, 2016, that the making of Starset's second record has "officially commenced".

On October 4, 2016, Starset posted to their social media an image from a graphic novel produced by Marvel Comics as a tie-in to The Prox Transmissions.

[21] The 88-page graphic novel was co-written by Dustin Bates and Peter David, illustrated by Mirko Colak, and released in September 2017.

[26] In July 2017, the band performed at Seether frontman Shaun Morgan's "Rise Above Fest", alongside Shinedown and Halestorm.

[27] A second single from the album, "Satellite", was released in August 2017, peaking at number 12 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart.

[29] In April 2018, the band announced that they had signed to Fearless Records and released a music video for the Vessels track "Ricochet".

[32][33] MNQN's self-titled debut album released on April 4, 2019, and a live date at the Wonderbus Music and Arts Festival in Columbus, Ohio, on August 18, 2019, was announced.

In April 2021, Starset released a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" exclusively for Amazon Music[44] and a new song, "Infected", to celebrate the second anniversary of the video game Arknights.

[45] In May 2021, the band made their first demonstration announcement since the pandemic, saying that they would give a performance on LouderThanLife (September 2021)[46] and Rockville (November 2021).

[66] Influences of Starset include Hans Zimmer, Nine Inch Nails, Sigur Ros, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Deftones, Linkin Park and Breaking Benjamin.