For the past decade, the hit-making duo Hall & Oates have been largely out of sight -- but not out of mind: John Oates, for one, has become accustomed to being approached by fans in airports. "Hey, you still around? You still playing music?" he says they ask. "We were off the radar screen." Though they may have been off the pop monitor for some time, Hall & Oates have continued to perform, mostly in corporate shows and on overseas tours. "We stepped away for a while out of the studio together" (their last studio release was 1997's "Marigold Sky"), "but we never stopped playing live," partner Daryl Hall explains about much of the 1990s. "The truth is, if you're not on pop radio, a lot of people don't know you exist." That has changed with the release of their new album, "Do It for Love." Several months ago, their single by the same name became a No. 1 adult-contemporary hit, and their recently released second single, "Forever for You," has enjoyed similar play.

Although their latest success has proved the pair still has what it takes musically, their dealings with the mainstream record business have changed throughout the years. "Our strength is when we can make our own decisions and be in charge of our own musical lives," says Hall. After a deal with Columbia went sour, the duo decided to take matters into their own hands, forming the label U-Watch, re-recording the songs they had completed for the label and compiling them on "Do It for Love," released on February 11. The title is an appropriate one for the duo, who have been making music passionately all their lives. Oates, a New York City native who moved to Philadelphia when he was 4, has been singing since he could talk. "I know that sounds crazy, but it's true," he explains. "I've never had another job other than music." While studying at Temple University in the late 1960s, Oates met Daryl Hall (born Daryl Hohl), a native of the farming community Pottstown, Pa., who moved to Philadelphia in his teens. "I grew up with one foot in the farm, one foot in the inner-city," Hall says. "I think that's where I got this sort of schizophrenic music style."

In 1968, Oates, then in a band called The Masters, joined Hall's group, The Temptones, as a guitarist. Two years later, the then-roommates became a duo and by 1972, they signed their first recording contract with Atlantic Records and released their debut album, Whole Oats. The group began earning raves for its soulful sound (often dubbed "blue-eyed soul") and live show, and by 1974, its album Abandoned Luncheonette spawned the hit single "She's Gone." And that was just the beginning for Hall & Oates, who spent much of the 1980s racking up platinum albums such as 1980's Voices (with the hit "Kiss on My List") and 1982's H2O ("Maneater" and "One on One"). But after their pop-star days in the 1980s, Hall & Oates slowed things down. "It was my time to kind of reinvent life for myself," Oates says. In 1990, he moved to Aspen, Colo., and in 1993, married wife Aimee, a llama and alpaca farmer. They now have a son, Tanner, 6. "It's the greatest thing that's ever happened to me," Oates says of fatherhood. Hall, meanwhile, moved to London in 1989. "That was my way of changing my life," he says. Two years ago, Hall, who also has homes in upstate New York and the Bahamas, underwent another major life change: the breakup of his nearly 30-year relationship to songwriter Sara Allen, the muse for the 1976 ballad "Sara Smile." "There were a lot of factors involved," Hall says quietly. "We're still very good friends."

Yet despite their geographical separation and solo projects (Hall has released three albums on his own; Oates recently released his first), Hall & Oates have never disbanded. "We have a very brotherly relationship," Hall says. "Time and space don't really mean a whole lot to us." Adds Oates: "We've always seen our relationship as open enough to do other things." As for their new album, which they'll begin touring behind in the United States in the end of February, Oates explains: "The album's called Do It for Love 'cause that's why we do what we do. We're out there making music and people are liking it, and, hey, what more do you need?"