“start//end” was leaked on EDEN’s Soundcloud page at 1:00 in the morning UST on January 7th 2017. It was quickly removed by him and all the YouTube uploads started to be taken down.

During his live performance at Electric Picnic on 02 September 2017, EDEN premiered the song; this differed from the leak with a new arangement and an added verse that was not on the leak. The song was teased on social media on 21 September 2017, when EDEN tweeted:

On 25 September 2017, EDEN’s site updated with a preview of the song and a reveal of the cover art. The preview was only the first minute of the instrumental. Users on reddit downloaded the mp3 file from the site and found out that the metadata included the title of the album (vertigo) and its tracklength (13 songs).

The song officially released three days later on 28 September 2017, with an announcement of his debut album vertigo.

The lyrics resemble what he said in his 21st birthday video, 365x: 21.