How do I open the console directly?

[nubknacker]

Hi,

I am trying to setup Xbian on my pi but for some reason my router will not give it an IP address. I don't know what is wrong with my router so I decided the next best thing would be to go into the Xbian install and just give it a static IP address.

To do this however I need to get into /etc/network/interfaces which means I need a console. I tried pressing Ctrl+C when the system is starting up but it still boots into XBMC. Exiting from XBMC just makes the system hang. Any other ideas on how I can get to the console?

Thanks.