You could call Smittix the jam band of ska-punk.

The Albany-based four-piece has always been based in freestyle jamming since its formation in late 2006. It’s not unusual to find the group improvising during its live sets, despite their genre’s fairly rigid song structures and taught rhythms. In fact, the group’s members have taken this jamming ethic to the extreme in their live shows, improvising entire sets at times.

“We’re the freestylers; that’s what it is,” lead vocalist Rob O’Donnell said recently at a coffee shop in Albany. “We actually have been onstage a couple of times and actually just wrote songs while we were onstage, just winged it, and it came out OK.”

“We’re all in tune with each other,” added drummer Jay O’Donnell, Rob’s younger brother. “We know when we’re going to change up; we know if we’re going to stop [or] come back.”

This tight interplay among the band members — including bassist Will Seyfferth and guitarist James Tougher — has helped establish Smittix as a force to be reckoned with on the Capital Region punk scene. The band is a frequent performer at punk rock nights throughout the region, and at its home base The Dublin Underground, formerly Savannahs, where they’ll head a bill featuring fellow local groups Skadee and The Ameros for a Fourth of July celebration.

Variety of influences

But while the group’s basic sound may be rooted in such acts as NOFX, Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Albany ska legends Conehead Buddha, the band’s members came from wildly different backgrounds. Rob, the oldest member at 31, worked on a number of hip-hop projects, at one point almost signing with Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy label. Jay, 27, comes from a metal background, while Tougher, 24, is a fan of classic rockers such as The Who, Led Zeppelin and The Beatles.

These influences are readily apparent in the group’s songs, featuring Rob’s rapid-fire vocal delivery and a propulsive rhythm section driven by Jay and Seyfferth, 27, the group’s resident ska-punk aficionado. Tougher’s guitar weaves through the mix, moving between upstroke ska rhythms and chunky, chorded riffs.

“We actually blend with everything,” Jay said. “We’ve played with metal bands, we’ve played with rap groups; it’s been crazy. We’ve had rap people on stage coming up and playing with us.”

Smittix began when Seyfferth and Tougher, who were already playing together, decided to try something new. Jay, who knew Seyfferth from as far back as middle school, soon began jamming with the duo, with Rob joining a few weeks later.

Although it’s tempting to think the group’s name comes from the pronunciation of the beer Smithwicks, the band actually took its monicker from a childhood dog of Rob and Jay’s, which ran away and never came back.

“We’re gonna get a cat named Guinness in his honor,” Seyfferth joked. “I was gonna get an all-white cat and dye him green, actually.”

No drama

The group naturally hit upon their sound through jams, although initially Rob had a specific goal for the group’s sound.

“I know me and Jay were thinking about, we wanted to kind of steal away the Sublime crowd that doesn’t have Sublime anymore,” Rob said. “And then we just kind of, after that, got into the ska stuff.”

“See, that might have been part of your agenda, but not mine,” Seyfferth shot back.

Much of the group members’ conversation is peppered with such good-natured ribbing and jokes. According to Seyfferth, this tight friendship has kept the band strong.

“One thing I’d like to add about an experience with Smittix that I’ve never experienced with any other band I’ve ever been in, is that we don’t have drama,” he said. “There’s no band drama; there’s never been any band drama . . . except for when I drink too much whiskey and start flipping out.”

At one point, the group had a trumpet player (Kate Sgroi, who now plays with Mirk and the New Familiars). The band’s members have talked about adding horns to the mix again, or possibly recruiting a keyboard player.

“It’s got to be somebody else that becomes one of us,” Rob said.

The group is planning to finally record its debut album sometime toward the end of summer, after heading out on its first tour of the Northeast. Although they’ve been in talks with a handful of independent record labels, the band may just record it themselves at this point.

“We’ve got enough [songs] to do, like, two albums,” Rob said. “We’ve actually talked about doing the longest album ever [for a] debut album, or just cut it into a couple albums. . . . But I’m almost glad that we waited, because we’ve written so many other cool songs in the meantime.”