'Music is more important than ever'
"This song is dedicated to Romain and Thomas… To every life lost."
Australian musician Emilie Gassin lost two of her close friends in the Paris attack on November 13.
Like German pianist Davide Martello, who drove his grand piano to the Bataclan theatre, Emilie has played her music to help people cope with the atrocities of the past week.
"I imagine it's going to take a little while for the dark cloud to be lifted but at the same time there's a real lust for life in Paris," she told Seven's Sunday Night.
"Everyone is making an effort to live."
Formerly of Melbourne, Emilie had lived in Paris for seven years and calls the city home.
But her home was changed forever on November 13 when terrorists attacked Paris and claimed the lives of Romain and Tomas in separate shootings.
"I was in the south of France and I was watching the football match at the Stade de France and my sister called me from Australia."
"I didn't understand really what was going on I guess I thought it was anything but what it was - it's hard to explain and then obviously we turned the news on and watched the news for a few hours. All night really. "
Her friend Tomas was at the Bataclan to see the band Eagles of Death Metal.
"One of my friends had checked-in to the concert at the Bataclan so we knew he was there … and my other friend I assumed was at the concert because I knew he loved that group."
But Romain wasn’t at the Bataclan, he was at a local bar getting a drink with his girlfriend and, incredibly, was also caught in gunfire.
"Even though he wasn't at the concert he was at another place which is just completely crazy, with his girlfriend having drinks."
She tried contacting both men, but there was no answer.
"We called, and so you have got two people that don't answer their phones, you kinda worry about it"
"Tomas was a kind soul, a kind soul who was also a huge fan of music."
"Romain also lived in Melbourne for a year and worked in Melbourne. He was a great lover of Australia and who used to always greet me by saying g'day in his French accent."
Emily dedicated her song, Back to Life, to her two friends at a free café gig she performed in Paris following the attacks.
She says music will be crucial to helping people overcome the tragedy.
It is something Davide also believes strongly, which is what drove him to tow his Piano to the Bataclan early Saturday morning.
"I mean you can pray, you can think about it. Music, it goes with you so it can be a companion and sometimes a healer too"
He was also watching the football game, in a pub in Germany, when the news of the attacks broke.
He then drove the 10 hours to Paris with his piano.
"It was impulse, it was like I just need to go there with my piano and play for people that song. It was just yeah an impulse."
"I just played one song and…I couldn’t stay there, it was too much, too intense for me to stay there and play another song so I leave."
The song he chose to play, John Lennon's Imagine, has poignant lyrics: 'Imagine there is no countries, it isn't hard to do, nothing to kill or die for and no religion too."
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
"I didn't sing it - so this is the difference. I played a song that is just a melody and people can pick it up every single word they want so I am not saying to people what they have to think but I just played a song that indicated …a positive way to see all the things."
Davide says this attack hit home because of the venue the attackers chose.
"I think this is a direct attack to music and the free world and the free spirit because music is free."
"I mean they came just right into the concert hall and tried to shoot everybody"
