Combining music with lyrics?

[Azuteor]

I'm in a rock band made up of friends who I have known for years. These guys are still in high school. I know the lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist and second rhythm guitarist for more than eight years. The lead guitarist and the drummer(s) I have known for about a year. All of us know music theory at varying levels. I only recently got into the bass guitar last April and took lessons throughout the entire summer until college started.

We are basically a cover band, but we would like to start creating our own material as well.

We don't usually have problems coming up with music. Most of them are created just by jamming and if we find something we like, we organize it and give it a name based on how we feel at the time. The part that we have the most trouble with is combining lyrics with it. We also tried doing the lyrics first and then create the melody after that. No dice. What would you suggest that we do to make the song creating process easier?

[Pete]

I think it really depends on the style you're going for, or if the song has a certain emotion to it. I would record some of the new material, replay it and figure out what emotions it evokes, and then try to come up with words and eventually lines that fit together. I've seen how some bands do it, and it's a ton of effort.

You should also figure out what kind of range the vocalist has, and what his overall style is. Some things should just not be screamed lol.