Turning riffs into songs

rico

For ages my band have been writing songs without a singer and as such they are a collection of pretty decent riffs without much thought where vocals would go. We (fingers crossed) have found a singer after MONTHS of looking and we are having him back for a second audition next weekend.

My question is: how do you guys go about turning a riff or motif or hook into a full song? 

AlexC

There's no definitive on this - a riff will often suggest a melody, or a decent singer can work 'against' the riff but usually keep the tempo. Basically, trial and error until it falls into place in my experience.

DulcetJones

One approach is to use the riff to introduce the song and then switch to a rhythm for the vocal sections.   Lots of songs do this, alternating  between riff with no vocals, rhythm with vocals. but this is just one of many ways to approach it, there are no rules.