Chilling on the bed and listening to ZZ Top, Josh Garza, drummer for Secret Machines, is perfectly content.

“I’m maxing ‘n’ relaxing,” he says.

It’s all right to take a break now — Garza says Secret Machines had a struggle at their start, but now it is finally beginning to reap the benefits of success.

In 2000, Garza, along with bassist/keyboardist Brandon Curtis and guitarist Ben Curtis, formed Secret Machines, and the three inched their way to New York City. Once there, however, they quickly realized each big experience begins with an extremely humbling beginning.

“When we moved to New York, we sold half of our stuff, and we all lived in a small room together,” he says. “It was very difficult, but it inspired us.”

Despite the hardships — three men living in one room and a lack of hot water, jobs and money — the psychedelic rock band continued to practice every night.

“It’s almost like we had a goal in mind, which was to make an attempt to make this band happen and see if we can hold up against the greats of New York City,” Garza says.

Giving up or letting the growls of the city scare them away was not something the members of Secret Machines were going to even think about, Garza says.

“There’s no light at the end of the tunnel,” he says. “For us, it was always satisfying this desire within us to yearn, to stretch, to grow, to fuckin’ live, you know.”

After living and playing in New York for two years, the band was tired of seeing no results.

“We happened to move to New York just as The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Rapture were all kind of exploding,” Garza says. “We picked the absolute inopportune moment to go to New York for the type of music we were playing, but we didn’t care.”

It was at a show in Los Angeles, however, where Secret Machines got its big break when a representative from Warner Bros. Entertainment arrived and liked what was happening onstage.

Now, with the start of the new year, Secret Machines has taken off on a headlining tour with Autolux and Moving Units and is gaining praise for its Reprise label debut, “Now Here is Nowhere.”

The increase in curiosity for the band may be because Secret Machines allows anyone to stream the entire album from its Web site. Garza says he doesn’t think the band is risking the loss of album sales, but instead getting Secret Machines the kind of exposure they need.

Who: Secret Machines

Where: M-Shop

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday

Cost: $13 student, $15 public