BEIJING, China - Yang Haisong, founder and lead-singer of Beijing indie band P.K.14 couldn't care less about the five-ring circus that's come to his city. Any why should he? The Olympics, it's not very punk is it?

Xu Bo, left, and Yang Haisong of P.K.14: Charting Beijing's teenage wasteland.

"They're about politics and commercial opportunities, everything but sport," he tells me as we sit outside some gleaming new towers in the city's charmingly named Central Business District.

The bespectacled 34-year-old songwriter and poet is a long-time resident of the city and someone who taps into the rhythm of the city more than most.

"Things are a bit crazy now in China, it's a bit of madhouse. The rhythm of the city has got faster. Every six months things are changed, and the last year with the build up to the Olympics it has been even more," he said, lighting up a contemplative cigarette. 

Just three years ago the skyscrapers looming above us were an architect's blueprint, and the transformation of the Beijing music scene, with new bands springing up all over the place, has been just as startling.

Yang and guitarist Xu Bo aren't sure if the changes are for good or bad. But things are certainly different both in the city and with the new bands that are emerging.

P.K.14 stands for Public Kingdom of Teens, but even though they're part of an older generation - the band has been playing since 1997 - Yang's devotion to the ethos of freedom of expression and music is as strong as ever.

"Really you can do whatever you want, there's more freedom now than 10 years ago," he said. The only threat of censorship from the authorities would come if there was swearing in the lyrics or singing about sex. 

"For a musician you just have to sing about what you want and pretend that the boundaries don't exist."

Some of his contemporaries have had the metaphorical clamps put on them because of the political content of their songs, but Yang hasn't experienced that. For him, everything is political and criticizing the government isn't the way in which he expresses his views about society.

But the anti-commercial attitude that P.K.14 and many of their contemporaries had is missing from today's bands

"It's just normal for bands today, consumerism and a commercial world is what they're used to," he said.  

Yang and P.K.14 have just finished a tour with one of the latest Chinese bands that are getting increasing international recognition, Queen Sea Big Shark. The tour was sponsored by Converse.

"It was a chance to tour and connect with other bands - that's the kind of DIY ethos we like," Yang said. Far from selling out, he and the three other members of the band all have other jobs as designers and writers.

Friendly and chatty Yang speaks excellent English but sings in Chinese simply because he can express himself better.

Many of the new bands sing in English, Xu Bo said. It's more a trend thing, says Yang, they can choose to be more international. But he doesn't judge if that's necessarily a bad thing, as long as they have something new to say. Whether they do or not is another matter.

After another cigarette and the feeling of being squeezed on a tour bus for two weeks still in his bones, Yang's choice was to call it an early night and look forward to a new tour in September.