During the winter of 1998-1999, Peter Marchese (guitars/vocals) and Jeramy Koepping (guitar) laid down their first two-song demo. Pleased with their work, the overworked duo actively sought to round out Voyager One's lineup. They soon signed on bassist Dayna Loeffler and the first in a series of six temporary drummers, Michael Shilling (Western State Hurricanes, Heather Duby). Shilling was later replaced by an "official" member, Sneaky Pete, who stayed with the band for nine months until John Hollis beamed aboard permanently. Voyager One recorded a full-length demo, Zeroes and Ones, Parts One and Two, which received quite a bit of airplay on local indie station KCMU. They began playing live shortly thereafter.

In their meteoric rise, Voyager One signed to Loveless Records in autumn of 1999 and stepped into the studio to record their debut LP, From the New Nation of Long Shadows. The album was recorded and mixed in under three weeks on the top floor of a refurbished barn in rural Washington. At the same time, their live set expanded into new sonic territory, traditionally assisted by the kaleidoscopic visual stimuli of a B-movie pastiche, run by Projectorhead.

Koepping and Marchese played with Bill Bernard (Sky Cries Mary) in Sirhan Duran, an ambient trip-hop trio; Hollis moonlighted in the Squirrels and Joey Kline; and Loeffler was active in an unnamed side project.