Well, I can only speak for myself, but I almost always write the music first. Sometimes I have a general feel or concept that I am aiming for when I start. I begin by noodling around on the piano or a guitar until a melody and chord pattern start to take form. As I work on the melody, I may just make up words off the top of my head so I have something to sing to the melody. They usually don’t make much sense at that point, but often this process ends up giving me a few good lines to build on later for the lyrics. On occasion, I will write the lyrics as I’m working on the music. I almost never start with the words first.
Music is much easier for me to write than lyrics. I usually write some music almost every day, but I end up forgetting most of it. It’s only when I finish the lyrics for a song that it becomes something permanent. I used to write with a friend who was a great lyricist. That was great for me because I would just write the music and pass it to him and I was done and could move on to the next idea. I never decide whether I am going to write a slow or fast song. I just write what comes to me. As I accumulate a lot of both fast and slow songs, I can pick and choose where and when to use them, or to never use them at all. My guess is that LB had a lot of musical ideas that he would run by Mylene and they would go from there.
I don’t have much experience writing songs for others, but when I have, there are a few things one must keep in mind. The style, the vocal range and the content of the lyrics must fit the person you are writing for. These things may seem obvious, but it’s not easy confining your creative process to stay within the boundaries of someone else’s parameters. I have written music for outdoor videos and a few documentaries, which also requires you to stay within the boundaries of the video, but at least you don’t have to worry about lyrics.
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