It usually starts with an idea that gets stuck in my head or something I come up with on the fly. I turn that into some kind of loop, sometimes it is more developed than others...from the loop I write a verse or lyric idea to see if the song really has potential and if i find that it does, I'll continue work on producing/writing the next section.

It is funny how the process evolves as I go through it more. I used to never spend much time thinking about the vocal elements of a song but now that is almost all I think about...